Restaurateur’s cookbook launches with favorite dishes

Printing and shipping delays meant a six-month wait for Laurel Lather’s autobiographical cookbook, but it finally has arrived.

“Nostalgic Feast,” the first in what the noted Sioux Falls chef and restaurateur promises will be a series, will be available at a book launch Tuesday in the Harvester Building, where Lather once presided over The Market restaurant.

Part of the delay came because Lather wanted to make sure cooks that spill and splatter had a book that would last. She asked her publisher for a sturdier paper stock.

“I wasn’t happy with the paper it was printed on,” Lather said. “I wanted to be able to wipe the pages. I know I’m a messy cook.”

“Nostalgic Feast” is part cookbook, part memoir. It draws on Lather’s growing-up years in Wisconsin to the days she grew and sold herbs and through her years running popular restaurants in Sioux Falls.

Last week, she offered a taste of the recipes found in the book when she led a cooking class at Plum’s Cooking Co. There, she introduced students to three of her Market favorites: white-bean hummus, lemon chicken and a bacon bourbon caramel sundae. She will return for a second class with new recipes in April.

Lather also is working on her next book, “Community Feast.” That will involve traveling to smaller towns to talk about their communities and the food that sustains them.

“Food builds community,” Lather said. “I want to interview the people in these towns and go to church basements and talk about history. It will be a Midwest tour and what makes the Midwest so tasty.”

“Nostalgic Feast” is available at Plum’s Cooking Co., JuLiana’s Boutique La Femme and online.

Upcoming events

• Book launch: Sip, Sign and Celebrate, 4 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, JuLiana’s Boutique La Femme, Harvester Building, 196 E. Sixth St. Refreshments will be served, and the Sioux Falls Chamber Music Collective will perform.
• Book signing: 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday, Plum’s Cooking Co., 401 E. Eighth St.
• Book signing: 1 to 4 p.m. March 12, WilLiquors, 3625 W. Avera Drive.