This modern German-Californian cookbook from longtime Los Angeles chef and restaurateur Hans Rockenwagner features sections on bread-making (yes, pretzel bread ), holiday treats, and bar snacks, along with the most popular recipes from his several Los Angeles restaurants, including 3 Square Cafe on famed Abbot Kinney Boulevard and Cafe Rockenwagner in Brentwood.

Hans Rockenwagner's background spans thirty years of cooking in Germany, Switzerland, Chicago, and Los Angeles. In the 1980s, he won international fame for his fine-dining restaurant in Santa Monica, Rockenwagner;...