LA COPINE'S CULINARY DESERT 'OASIS'

A COOKBOOK FROM ONE OF THE HIGH DESERT'S MOST BELOVED DESTINATIONS SHARES RECIPES AND COMMUNITY

- STEPHANIE BREIJO

STEPHANIE BREIJO Los Angeles Times

IN THE NORTH OF YUCCA VALLEY, along a parched desert road, a white shoebox of a building appears on the horizon, mirage-like. Most days you'll spot it by its full parking lot, because La Copine isn't just a destination for desert dwellers. Tourists and celebrities travel from other cities, states and even countries for a taste of California through the lens of two culinary tastemakers who left it all behind in L.A. for a life in the desert. A new cookbook “La Copine: New California Cooking From an Oasis in the Desert,” out April 28 — will allow fans to bring the high desert home with dishes such as vibrant salads, French toast, fried chicken and gooey cheesesteaks that incorporate regional crops such as olives, apricots, sunchokes, pomegranates, pistachios, stinging nettles, citrus and dates, and plenty of vegetables for cooling off in the heat.

"We've given you all the tools that we know, and we haven't left anything out," said chef-owner Nikki Hill. Claire Wadsworth, her partner in both the restaurant and love, runs front-of-house operations.

Together with former L.A. Times cooking columnist Ben Mims, they've compiled the recipes for some of their seasonal restaurant’s most popular items: English muffins with date jam, fried chicken with pickled green tomatoes and spicy honey, coconut rice pudding with citrus and fennel-spiced pepitas, and lemon polenta cake.

They'd long considered writing a cookbook but didn’t know where to start. Then, one New Year's Eve, their future literary agent visited the restaurant and said it was worth his two-hour wait, then doubled back and asked if they'd consider writing one.

They dove in, but wanted to expand beyond the concepts of brunch or desert-inspired dining. They wanted to tell their full story, a journey from L.A. to sweeping desert vistas.