Opening up the pages of Coastal: 130 Recipes from a California Road Trip is a one-way ticket to sun-drenched afternoons on the Central Coast of California. From rolling vineyards to salty ocean breezes, every page is an escape into the world of the fishermen, crabbers, farmers, winemakers, and foragers who stretch along the Pacific Coast Highway between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Beyond its gorgeous imagery and thoughtfully-curated recipes, this cookbook stands out for its deep reverence of fresh, seasonal ingredients—each one lovingly spotlighted in simple yet elevated dishes.
I was captivated by Chef Scott Clark’s journey from San Francisco’s most celebrated restaurants to owning his beloved sandwich-and-pie shop, Dad’s Luncheonette, in Half Moon Bay. And lucky for us, Clark isn’t just sharing stunning dishes in the book; he’s revealing secrets that effortlessly elevate our cooking at home. Below, I’m sharing his brilliant yet practical tips that any home cook can use to instantly transform meals from good to unforgettable. Get ready to uncover the insider tricks chefs swear by—and start cooking with more confidence, ease, and joy.
Get the recipe: Scott Clark’s Charred Broccolini with Melted Anchovy and Garlic
The Chef-Owner of Dad’s Luncheonette Shares His “Rules of the Road”
1. Prep for your landing.
If you’re going to take a leap and do something you haven’t done before, jump with mindfulness. Where am I going to put this hot pot? Do I have a bowl for my kitchen scraps? Answer those questions before you start. Prepping for your landing ensures that when you’re doing something outside your comfort zone, you have everything in place to know that you’re safe.
In restaurant kitchens, the term for this is “mise en place.” But it’s not just measuring out ingredients beforehand. You mise en place yourself, your station, your kitchen. Come with an apron on and a kitchen towel folded over your apron strings. Set up a clean water bath, or what chefs call a bain-marie, full of spoons and a whisk. Get your kitchen timer in place. Put all those things in order, so you can get out of your comfort zone but still feel secure that you know where everything’s going to go. Then you can crush it. You have to be organized to cook well. Not only will you do it better, but you’ll also make less of a mess, wash fewer dishes, be all-around more comfortable, and have more fun.
2. Read the recipe before you start cooking.
This is mise en placing your mind. Put another way, your recipe (yes, including the headnote) is your guidebook and road map to where you’re going; it details everything you need to cook the dish successfully. I like to hit the road fully aware, especially when the journey takes a few hours, like a lot of the recipes in this book do. You don’t want to discover you can’t make it to your destination on time, no matter how recklessly you speed, just like you don’t want to try to make Chicken Liver Mousse (page 270) last minute, only to find out you were supposed to brine the livers overnight. You don’t want to find yourself stranded on the side of the road without a spare tire, just like you don’t want to attempt to replicate Dad’s Hamburger Sandwich without Pickled Onions in your fridge. We’re after a chill ride, and hopefully, reading the recipes will be a pleasure in and of itself.
You have to be organized to cook well. Not only will you do it better, but you’ll also make less of a mess, wash fewer dishes, be all-around more comfortable, and have more fun.
3. If you’re cooking, you’re tasting.
The reason things taste so good at Michelin-starred restaurants is that someone put a spoon in the food and put that spoon in their mouth and kept doing that with more spoons about fifteen times before the dish got to the table. If you’re cooking in one of these restaurants, you probably shouldn’t need family meal because you taste food so many times during the day. At 4 p.m. every day at Saison, we’d call for tasting trays. Ice cream, caviar, diced grapefruit, lobster gelée, micro herbs—the sous chefs and I would taste every component of every dish we prepped. The thing that always got me is when people didn’t clean their cutting boards between jobs. I would put that grapefruit in my mouth and taste shallots. You have to be able to catch those things. And with long-cooked dishes like soups and stews, you want to see how your flavors are developing and whether you need more seasoning. Taste as you go, always.
4. Lavish attention on everything.
Cooking is like being in a long-term relationship. You have to keep dating your ingredients. You can’t just expect them to be there every day if you don’t keep the spark alive. Be a lover; open the door for your ripe tomatoes. Show them your passion. Wash them, appreciate their seasonality, and put them to bed lovingly.
5. Store everything properly.
If you don’t pack and stow foods correctly, then all of your good work turns sour. Throughout these recipes, I mention how long you can keep foods and how you should store them. Take my advice. Then give yourself the time to wrap and stack things right. Use airtight containers in your fridge and freezer. Label the containers so you know what’s in them and how long it’s been there. You’re making all this fun stuff, and you want to keep it at the right temperature and in the correct condition to ensure its deliciousness.
6. Your hands are tools.
It’s a frowned-upon scenario for some people, but I’m telling you: Cooking is high touch. Wash your hands first, then touch everything. I’m a tactile human, anyway, because of my ADHD. I want to touch. But it’s sensible too. It’s as simple as knowing how soft a lemon is, or if a radish is woody. It’s kneading dough, it’s tossing salad, it’s pulling the meat from the pig’s skull for head cheese (page 271). If you just get in there and get after it, you learn a lot in the process. You can use the insight you gain to become a more capable cook. I also promote eating anything you can with your hands. Feel it, love it, grab it, get involved.
7. Focus.
Hands on the wheel, eyes on the road. Slow down, think intentionally, and you’ll learn a ton. Things that feel foreign at first will become your signposts, and small, even seemingly annoying techniques will reveal themselves to be wildly useful because you strove to understand what it is you’re doing. Why do we peel fat asparagus and then cook it in a broth made with its peels? Do it carefully, taste it, and you’ll know why. The first time you prepare a recipe, you’re clunky, but if you pay close attention, by the third or fourth time, you’re moving gracefully. So be present while creating a meal for yourself and your loved ones. You’ll enjoy the process more.
Excerpted from Coastal: 130 Recipes from a California Road Trip by Scott Clark with Betsy Andrews, © 2025. Published by Chronicle Books. Photographs © Cheyenne Ellis.
