Reddit reviews Bluestem: The Cookbook

This is my favorite restaurant in Kansas City. Their cookbook is great too!

On a side note, the Garrelts (chef-owners of Bluestem) are opening a new restaurant soon called Rye. An employee at Trezo Vino, a restaurant that the Garrelts took over in May 2011 but closed in March this year, said that Rye would focus on being a slow food restaurant. This may have something to do with the rumors that Trezo Vino closed due to soaring food costs.

As far as food pairings look into a copy of the Flavor Bible. There’s also a similar book by them called What To Drink With What You Eat if you want to get into pairing basics as well.
As for plating, just look at nice cookbooks from restaurants and chefs, like The French Laundry,
Sean Brock,
Bluestem,
or basically any other example of food you want to produce. Follow the restaurants, go eat there if you can.

Also examine your platings from the perspective of the diner. Where is your eye drawn first? Is it the focal point or is your plating distracting from that?