Thursday evening the Capitola Book Cafe will steep in some delicious food for thought, in a talk by Robin Donovan and Juliana Gallin, authors of the "The Lazy Gourmet," a cookbook that gives the talentless epicurean a tool for combating inexperience, doubt and intimidation in the culinary realm.

Donovan and Gallin first collided in the kitchen of an old drafty Victorian in Santa Cruz back in 1987, and the two Bay Area-based professionals have been meal-sharing friends ever since. 

The Lazy Gourmet is rooted in the low-budget kitchen adventures of the authors’ college years, but refined by years of experimentation with the local fresh ingredients of fertile Northern California. The recipes are infused with the Asian, European and Moroccan-inspired North African tastes of the Bay Area. 

Beginners, culinary-illiterate entertainers and otherwise “lazy” chefs can proceed confidently with the knowledge that all of the recipes were tested by over 50 volunteer tasters, most of whom were regular people with no culinary training.

“About 10 years ago I started noticing that people were referring to me as 'a good cook,"' said Gallin, who spent most of her early life resigned to the fact that she did not have that special "cooking gene."

"I just figured out— in addition to some basic cooking techniques— that cooking exciting and interesting dishes can be very easy. It doesn't have to take hours, or great knowledge or special tools. You can keep it really simple and still wow your guests with unexpected flavor combinations, beautiful presentation and fresh ingredients," said Gallin. 

Ingredient lists, steps and dish dirtying (and washing) are kept to a minimum in "The Lazy Gourmet." It’s an inspiringly simplistic, labor-minimized approach to cooking good food.

“We wanted to stay away from hard-to-find ingredients. We didn’t want people to feel like they had to spend three days going to different market places to find all of the ingredients,” Donovan said. 

The collection of recipes begins with basil leaf and goat cheese wraps and continues on a delectable ride through starters, soups, salads, small dishes, sides, sauces and desserts. Seared sea scallops with mint and pea puree, Moroccan-spiced cornish hame hens with lemon and mint, and savory pumpkin and sage flan are a few of the mouth-watering recipes inside "The Lazy Gourmet."

"We wanted [the recipes] the kind of food you’d serve to guests but easy enough to come home from work and make them just for a regular meal," Donovan said. "And we wanted to stay away from the ‘feed your family in 30 minutes’ cookbooks there are so many of," said Donovan.

Early on, the book lets the reader in on the epiphany that a dash of infused oil or special vinegar, a combination of unlikely ingredients, or the use of fresh herbs is often the thing that can "elevate a meal from decent to stunning.” The book also features a guide to those key ingredients that the lazy cook should probably always have in his pantry.

For instance, Donovan's top three go-to ingredients to add that spark of flavor are: citrus zest, (which adds a lot of flavor without adding juice), nuts (which add flavor and visual appeal), and of course, fresh herbs.

The best part about this inspiring compilation may be that the recipes all happen to be pretty healthy, based on fresh, seasonal ingredients that can be found locally.

“It’s not that we set out to do healthy recipes," Donovan said. "That’s just kind of the way we grew up cooking and eating, so that’s just more natural to us than cooking with fats and processed foods."

Hear Donovan and Gallin speak and taste their Fig and Onion Jam on Thursday, Oct. 20 at 7:30 p.m. at The Capitola Book Cafe. 1475 41st Ave., Capitola. 831-462-4415.

Can't make it? Check out their blog Two Lazy Gourmets!