Every once in a while, a chef pours her soul into a cookbook. You can see it in the bold, beautifully-shot food, approachable recipes and super-personal anecdotes. Cala chef-owner Gabriela Cámara‘s “My Mexico City Kitchen: Recipes and Convictions” (Lorena Jones Books; $35) is that kind of collection.

Gabriela Camara’s debut cookbook features 150 simple, authentic recipesfrom her native Mexico. (Marcus Nilsson) 

It’s a 368-page peek into her childhood in the “amazing hippie house” built by her Italian mother and Mexican father in Tepoztlán, just south of Mexico City, with solar ovens and rabbits to feed. Those experiences led to her love of micro-seasonal ingredients and the refreshing audacity to open a seafood restaurant, Contramar, in Mexico City 20 years ago, when virtually none existed.

But most of all, it’s Cámara’s trend-setting recipes that we can’t get enough of, from those signature tuna tostados, re-created at restaurants around the Bay Area and beyond, to her radically simple and crave-able grilled whole red snapper dressed with red and green salsas. You’ll learn how to make adorable, golden pescadillas, a twist on quesadillas commonly served at beachside palapas. And just in time for summer, refreshing bebidas — drinks — like horchata de melón and pepino mezcal, a smoky salute to cucumber-lime spa water.

“My Mexico City Kitchen” has been out a little over a month and already feels like a classic — from the woman who has come to define sophisticated contemporary Mexican cooking.