In-Store: Hillary Sterling: AMMAZZA! w/ Kim Severson

Event guidelines:

• Each ticket will include either a copy of the featured book or a $10 Books Are Magic gift card.
• Additional copies of the book will be available for purchase at the event.
• A signing will follow the talk.
• Home address is collected for contact tracing purposes; it will not be used otherwise.
• The event will also be livestreamed for free here: https://youtube.com/live/meIcNmHpIVo
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If you have any questions regarding these guidelines or to request accessibility accommodations, please contact [email protected].

The long-awaited cookbook from four-time James Beard Award nominee Chef Hillary Sterling, featuring over 100 seasonal recipes showcasing the delicious dishes that have earned her acclaim at the helm of Ci Siamo, Danny Meyer’s “flat-out fantastic” (The New York Times) restaurant.

A celebration of a life devoted to food, Ammazza! blends story, substance, and soul. Raised in a tight-knit Jewish household in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn—where her grandmother kept kosher downstairs and her family broke the rules upstairs—Sterling shares over 100 recipes that trace her path from her early days as a young cook, to her later love affair with Italian cooking, and her career spent in the kitchens of New York’s most beloved restaurants.

Following the rhythm of the seasons, these recipes showcase Sterling’s brilliance with flavor. Interspersed are menus rooted in family and tradition, with inspired twists—she brings an Italian spin to the Passover table, and shares a Mexican Thanksgiving feast influenced by her time at Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill.

A standout cookbook for home cooks, Ammazza! offers smart, encouraging tips throughout—from how to clean artichokes to frying at home without fear.

Whether you’re searching for the best pasta cookbook, a gift for foodies, or a coffee table cookbook as beautiful as it is practical, Ammazza! is packed with bold recipes, culinary storytelling, and the know-how of a chef who cooks with both precision and heart.

Hillary Sterling is the four-time James Beard–nominated Executive Chef of Ci Siamo, a Danny Meyer restaurant with a focus on seasonal, live-fire Italian fare. After graduating from Chicago’s Le Cordon Bleu, Sterling began her formal training in the kitchen of Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill, and continued with Flay at the acclaimed Spanish restaurant, Bolo. Turning her attention to Italy, she joined the team at Lupa Osteria Romana, where she developed a lasting respect for the unifying power of food and the importance of intentionality in cooking. In 2010, she assumed the role of chef de cuisine at Michelin-starred A Voce. Working under Chef Missy Robbins, Sterling fell in love with the regionality and traditions of Italian cuisine. She would later return to her domestic roots as the executive chef and partner of Vic’s, where her menu of thoughtfully prepared dishes gained a loyal following. Sterling was born and raised in Brooklyn, where she continues to live with her wife and their son.

Kim Severson is a Southern-based correspondent for The New York Times who reports on the nation’s food and culture. She is also a contributor to NYT Cooking, a website and app based on the extensive New York Times collection of recipes and cooking videos. Previously, Kim was the Times’ Southern bureau chief, covering a mix of breaking and political news. She has written about food for the San Francisco Chronicle, had a seven-year run as an editor and reporter at The Anchorage Daily News in Alaska. Kim has won several regional and national awards for news and feature writing, including four James Beard awards for food writing and the Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism for her work on childhood obesity in 2002, and has written four books, including her memoir  “Spoon Fed: How Eight Cooks Saved My Life,” (Riverhead).” She lives in Atlanta with her partner and teenager.

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