New cookbook fit to be ‘Stewed’

Needham-based Sweet Basil’s Owner/Chef Dave Becker and photographer extraordinaire Nina Gallant’s launch party for their second cookbook, “Stewed,” received a hearty welcome from a crowd gathered in the kitchen demo space of Poggenpohl Kitchen Design Studio on Newbury Street in Boston on Jan. 21.

Even with the threat of an oncoming snowstorm (that never amounted to more than a dusting as it turns out), crowds folded inside like a batch of ingredients in a small pot. In other words, it was a tight fit to finagle a cup of duck stew, but I managed to grab a spoonful of the heavenly taste concoction before browsing through the colorful pages of a high-end cookbook that could also be considered a coffee table book that includes interesting recipes I wouldn’t mind making at home.

Growing up in Newburyport, curly-topped Becker got his “chops” in Napa, California, working at the famous Cindy Pawlcyn’s Mustards Grill and then to the Italian Riviera at the Hotel Imperiale, where his first book idea was born, “Thrown Out of an Italian Kitchen.”

Order "Stewed" online or buy at Sweet Basil in Needham.