In "New Orleans Classic Desserts", culinary enthusiast Kit Wohl has compiled a series of recipes drawn from Big Easy restaurants for memorable desserts that are gorgeously illustrated in full color and guarantee to please any palate and satisfying any craving for something sweet and delicious at the end of a meal or any other time a bit of dessert is called for. Organized into sections devoted to Cakes & Pies, Custards & Puddings, Candies & Cookies, Flambe, Ices & Ice Creams, Accompaniments, Sauces & Garnishes, the recipes range from Chef Emeril Lagasse's Banana Cream Pie; to the Palace Cafe's White Chocolate Bread Pudding; to Chef April Bellow's Pecan lace Cookies; to Angelo Brocato's Cantaloupe Ice. Enhanced with an informative little section on 'Baking Essentials', the "New Orleans Classic Desserts" will prove a very popular and 'kitchen cook friendly' addition to any cookbook shelf.

"Memorable desserts that are gorgeously illustrated in full color and guaranteed to please any palate and satisfying any craving for something sweet and delicious at the end of a meal..."

"Wohl's informative background notes offer intriguing morsels on each dessert's uniqueness . . . The author's own vividly appetizing full-color photographs rendered in extreme close-up may seduce readers into virtually licking the book's pages."

"The lushly photographed Desserts features 46 recipes of quintessential Crescent City creations from many of New Orleans' most beloved restaurants. Each recipe offers insider anecdotes on the dessert's origin, history, and connection to the city."

"Even if you never intend to make any of these desserts in your own kitchen, the artful photographs and captivating culinary and cultural information are filling enough."

"Each recipe is accompanied by a vivid photograph, not only adding to the compilation's beauty but also providing a reference for home-cooking simplicity . . . Whether it takes you on a nostalgic journey to vacations past, or inspires delightful daydreams of excursions to come, New Orleans Classic Desserts supplies just what you need for pastry perfection."

"Any time you need reassurance about the state of New Orleans, you can renew your faith at the city's world-famous restaurants with Emeril's Banana Cream Pie, Broussard's Cherries Jubilee, or Galatoire's Crème Caramel; or, equally as reviving, simply look through and cook from Kit Wohl's mouth-watering book, which is a treasure trove of her city's sweet legacy."

"This book is irresistible . . . It's hugely appealing to anyone who likes to laugh while learning, is a feast for the eyes, the recipes are easy to understand, and they work! My kind of book."

"Odd, really, why there hasn't been a book devoted to the wide range of New Orleans desserts. Now there is, and it's as fine a book as one could ask for, beautiful in its illustrations, sound in its judgments, and tantalizing in its recipes."

"The book reads like a series of short stories, the photographs are so wonderful you want to lick them, and the desserts themselves will bring you to your knees in joy. It just doesn't get any better than this!"

"Another compilation of treasured New Orleans recipes."

"The scrumptious, alluring pages of Kit Wohl's quintessential New Orleans dessert cookbook . . . are guaranteed to send your senses into sugar shock, and it's one that you won't want to escape."

"It is a solid follow-up to her first culinary tome, Arnaud's Restaurant Cookbook, which received national acclaim."

"It's a wonderful book . . . It does our food justice."

It's a sweet treat for those who celebrate New Orleans' rich culinary heritage.

From bread pudding to bananas Foster, New Orleans' desserts, like its people, are diverse and unique. And Kit Wohl, author of "New Orleans Classic Desserts," is sharing the city's stories and recipes.

Wohl's latest cookbook, her second, is a slim volume that starts the mouth watering with the cover photograph of the famous Brennan's Restaurant dessert - bananas Foster. It presents how-tos from New Orleans' most famous restaurants and chefs, and ordinary people who have developed signature dishes.

"Our desserts don't tend to be like other cities'," said Wohl, an artist who also photographed the sweets for the book. She attributes the variety to the city's history.

"We had the thrifty Creoles who made the most of what was available, including turning stale French bread into bread pudding," she said. "You had the nuns from France who substituted pecans when they couldn't get almonds and came up with pralines."

"There are probably a lot of dessert cookbooks, but this is the only one for New Orleans desserts," said Dr. Milburn Calhoun, publisher at Pelican Publishing Company. "And they are the classic desserts we're known for, by many of the people who are known for making them."

Pelican projected the sale of 60,000 of the books in the first year, Calhoun said.

"It's a wonderful book," said Leah Chase, a chef who contributed the sweet potato pie recipe that has delighted diners at Dooky Chase's for 50 years. "It does our food justice."

The book includes the bread pudding souffle that Commander's Palace serves so elegantly and turns out to be, as Wohl puts it, a "culinary sleight of hand," rather than a true souffle.

Chef Susan Spicer transforms Peach Melba into an ice cream sandwich at her restaurant, Bayona. Chef Emeril Lagasse - who owns three New Orleans restaurants - offers banana cream pie topped with caramel or chocolate sauce, chocolate shavings and confectioner's sugar. Chef Donald Link of Herbsaint offers up the secrets of brown butter banana tartlet, a rich dessert calling for butter, egg yokes, and a cup and a half of sugar.

Marcelle Bienvenu's "Oreilles de Cochon," French for "pig's ears," are Cajun fried dough specialties.

Although the recipes come from some of the city's best cooks, Wohl insists they are much simpler to make than one would guess.

"I'm not a dessert cook," Wohl said. "When I tried to do some Christmas baking a few years ago, even the dog wouldn't eat it. But I can make these recipes."

Of utmost importance in dessert-making is accurate measurement, Wohl said.

"Dessert cooks are very precise, persnickety people," she said. "There's none of the handful-of-this and shake-of-that you can use in other recipes."

Along with the recipes, Wohl also dishes up some tasty stories about the restaurants, the recipes and the cooks that make them.

Beignets, the fried, sugar-powdered pastries touted by some French Quarter residents as a hangover cure, may have been brought to Louisiana by the Ursuline Nuns of France in 1727.

Pralines, a sugary nut candy, supposedly originated in pre-Napoleonic France when a cook coated his almonds with sugar to prevent indigestion.

There is also a recipe for king cake, the traditional treat for Carnival (nyse: CCL - news - people ) that is decorated with Mardi Gras colors and contains a tiny doll representing the Christ child.

Ron Kotteman, the Roman Candy Man who travels the streets of New Orleans in an almost century-old wagon pulled by Patsy the mule, contributed his recipe for taffy. It's the same one his family has made for four generations.

Nothing is flashier, either in the book or at the table, than the flambe recipes. In these, a high-alcohol content liqueur is ignited, providing a dramatic finish to a meal.

"They are surprisingly easy - dirt simple," Wohl said. "The only thing you have to worry about is your guests' hair or a slow cat."