class Recipe {
  name: string;
  author: User;

  // class properties instantiated from contructor parameters
  constructor(name: string, author: User) {
    this.name = name;
    this.author = User;
  }
}

class User {
  name: string;

  constructor(name: string) {
    this.name = name;
  }
}

var json = {
  name: 'Pizza Italia'
  author: {
    name: 'John Doe'
  }
};

var serializedJson = JSON.parse(json);
// this can get ugly very quickly...
var user = new User(serializedJson.name);
var recipe = new Recipe(serializedJson.name, user);