For cookbook collectors, Corey Lee’s Benu is one of the most anticipated of the year. Since Lee opened Benu after steering the French Laundry kitchen for a decade, his San Francisco restaurant has been hailed as one of the best in the country, and three Michelin stars can speak for themselves. The linen-swathed, coffee-table-worthy cover is minimalist and striking—a firework seems to explode in the center. The recipes within are not for the novice home chef, shouting questions at Siri as he rushes to turn off the smoke detector. But the photography is stunning: quiet and clean, lighting that food Instagrammers can never replicate with filters, focusing only on the dish at hand, no quirky napkins and props get in the way. The best section of the cookbook, however, is one of the final chapters, about the haenyeo, Korean “sea women” who spend their lives diving for shellfish and other edible creatures. This cake recipe, though, takes a close second. Feel free to make its portrait your iPhone background; we’re not here to judge.

Sesame White Cake with Salted Plum Sauce

Adapted from Benu by Corey Lee (Phaidon)

“Perhaps because I seldom ate desserts growing up, I never developed a strong connection to them, and I’ve never been able to completely identify with diners’ need to have something sweet at the end of a meal. Actually, I rarely crave sweets at all. My family ate fruit after dinner, and only on special occasions, such as birthdays, did we have cake. As a result, it’s always been a challenge to develop desserts for our menu that really resonate with me. All too often, classical desserts seem like a departure from the previous courses served, and modern ones are often unsatisfying or just sweetened renditions of what would be better as a savory preparation.

. . .

Many talented chefs have passed through Benu’s kitchen. But despite their abilities, most of them have gone through a period during which they found it challenging to participate in the development of the menu. Though our cooking is full of references to Asian preparations, traditions, and ingredients, Benu is clearly not a Korean or Chinese restaurant. Benu’s style is tied to more intangible things than the materials we work with, and people sense a personal connection between me and the food that transcends technique. In many ways, this has led to our chefs disengaging themselves from the creative process, thinking of the food we serve as something highly personal and for me to determine alone. In other cases, this has led to misguided attempts based around clichéd East-West preparations or lacking depth and understanding of a product’s cultural significance.

But there have also been many chefs who, over time, have come to understand that Benu has developed its own identity, separate from me, and that they can have their own relationship with the food we serve. They immerse themselves in discovering new ingredients, eating traditions, and approaches to cooking—exploring how those intersect and meld with their own experiences. Preparations born of that genuine and personal process, I think, reflect our region and are what make cooking in America so exciting.

While it remained on the menu, this cake was served at every table, individually made and decorated for each group of diners. We made a light sponge using sesame milk and served it with a sauce made from Japanese salted plums (umeboshi). Its flavor flirted with the idea of saltiness and sourness in a dessert. It showed the craftsmanship of a classically trained pastry chef, but tasted entirely new. We let the guests cut it themselves at the table so that they could partake in the festive gesture. It wasn’t about being modern or traditional, or concerned with differences in Eastern and Western menu formats. It was about bringing to the table a sense of camaraderie and celebration, things every meal should aspire to include.” —Corey Lee