From the start, it’s clear that “Sparks in the Kitchen” (Knopf, $30), by chef Katy Sparks with Andrea Strong, isn’t your typical restaurant cookbook. First of all, the chef in question does not currently helm a restaurant. Second (and most important), the innovative recipes are actually doable.

Ms. Sparks earned plenty of accolades as the chef of Quilty’s – Food & Wine declared her one of the country’s 10 best chefs in 1998, and she was named a “Rising Star Chef” by Wine Spectator – but the restaurant closed its doors soon after the economic downturn that followed the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. While looking for her next restaurant venture, Ms. Sparks adjusted to cooking fulltime in a home kitchen: no army of line cooks and dishwashers to rely on, no vendors bringing top-notch ingredients to her door. The result is a lovely balancing act. She created recipes that are simpler than most chef recipes, yet more creative than most everyday home cooking.

These are recipes for when you are hungry for inspiration but leery of getting too many pots and pans dirty. You may be mixing up some exotic cardamom browned butter or nectarine salsa, but she won’t ask you to pull together a million subrecipes or debone a quail (a duck, maybe). Many of the recipes are straightforward with a little twist, like chili-basted shrimp that have down-home heat yet elegance with a cider sauce. Pork medallions get nuance and spice from a breading of crushed gingersnaps. A chapter on simple relishes and sauces is useful, as she rightly points out, becasue “simply grilled, roasted, or fried foods often just need a quick, flavorful sauce and a seasonal side dish to make a great meal.”

But though most of the recipes in “Sparks in the Kitchen” are straightforward and easy to understand, there’s still a bit of the mad scientist in Ms. Sparks. She clearly relishes thinking up unusual ingredient combinations on the yin-yang principle. She’ll pair barely seared scallops with a cool cucumber sauce, soft-shell crabs with blackberry and horseradish, and rich beef short ribs with tart dried cherries and tangy black olives.

Ms. Sparks’s creativity is matched by her pleasure in food and cooking. She celebrates the simple hedonism of an ice-cold martini, Smithfield ham, olives, and chocolate.That down-to-earth approach makes her an especially good teacher of basic skills. Her explanation of the basics of soup making is clear as a bell, and she also encourages home cooks to trust their own instincts: “Imagine all the flavors dancing around in your mouth, and think of what might make the dish really sing. Does it need texture or brightness or herbaceousness?”

One of the most generous aspects of the book is the “Weighing Your Options” section that appears after every recipe. Ideas for recipe variations encourage confidence in the kitchen, but her suggestions for leftovers are especially brilliant. Once you read about how leftover gravlax can be layered on buttered brown bread with thinly sliced onions and radishes, tossed with steamed new potatoes, or draped over pieces of avocado and grapefruit, you might be tempted to make a double batch.

Ms. Sparks also understands how easily home cooks, even intrepid ones, can be intimidated by new ideas. After all, her halibut is baked in parchment (very restaurant-style) and topped with truffle butter, so she addresses any hesitation right off the bat, as a friend in the kitchen might. “This recipe is just several very easy steps strung together,” she writes, “so don’t be intimidated by the unfamiliarity of it.”