Mother and daughter bring their unique talents to cookbook collaboration

Take a mother and daughter, both of whom are pretty sensational cooks, and what do you have?

A new cookbook called "Two Dishes: Mother and Daughter, Two Cooks, Two Lifestyles, Two Takes" by Linda Haynes and her daughter Devin Connell (McClelland & Stewart, $29.99).

Haynes, 62, is best known as the co-founder with her husband Martin Connell of the Toronto-based ACE Bakery, specializing in artisan breads. The pair sold the company last year.

During their ownership, she wrote the two ACE Bakery Cookbooks, which, unlike this latest, "were a lot of recipes using bread," she says.

However, "Two Dishes" is "more about the way Devin and I cook," Haynes says.

"For instance my style is to have all the ingredients I am using in a dish all lined up before I start up, which probably comes from the bread-baking business because you had to lay all the ingredients out or you messed up."

On the other hand, Connell, 28, is a "spontaneous" cook.

"I'll get home at the end of the day and have nothing in my fridge and have to run out to the grocery store and think on the spot," she explains.

"As a result I don't have the time to go to the more specialty food stores to get an amazing piece of meat or an incredible cheese. I also live in a tiny apartment and I haven't any special equipment so my approach to cooking for myself is quick," Connell says.

But that doesn't mean Connell isn't a serious cook. She spent a summer as a pastry student at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. She is opening her own take-out breakfast and lunch cafe in the busy Yonge and St. Clair area of Toronto this fall.

Delica Kitchen, she says, "will focus on really high-quality and great ingredients as we try to do local and organic going back to the European traditions of less is more."

"The food will taste better and will be healthier for our customers instead of a sandwich the size of your hand covered with cheese and mayonnaise."

The pair really enjoy food shopping and cooking together, especially on family occasions.

"The kitchen is the centre of our house," says Haynes and the recipes in the book "is really stuff we've been cooking together for years."

The book has many contemporary recipes for hearty breakfasts, such as Summer Fruit Muffins With Pistachio Crunch by Connell and Heirloom Tomato Soup With Baby Meatballs by Haynes.

It's dedicated to Hayne's late mother Paulette Haynes - "Beloved mom and nana who inspired and taught both of us in and out of the kitchen."

And dotted throughout the book are Paulette Haynes' beauty tips. Here is one to try, says Connell.

"My grandmother had the world's most beautiful peaches-and-cream skin. She lived into her late 80s, looking at least 20 years younger than her age. "

"Twice a week she put a spoonful of salt into the palm of her hand and moistened it with water. She then gently rubbed it in a circular motion over her face, rinsed it off with cool water and patted on an inexpensive face cream. She recommended this simple scrub to all her friends with oily and normal skin."

Stunning food photographs by Douglas Bradshaw, as well as those by family and friends complement the recipes.

"I think the important thing with this book as mother and daughter, we are saying these are recipes that you can make easily," says Haynes. "We are not professional chefs. We are passionate home cooks."