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CHECK IT OUT

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Hungry for a taste of the best books about the gastronomic world?

Check out winners of the 2002 James Beard Foundation Awards, honoring

publications on food and beverage topics published in 2001.

If you’re trying to slim down for summer, your best bet may be Sally

Schneider’s “A New Way to Cook.” Based on the premise that deprivation

need not be part of a healthful diet, this guide to sensible eating

includes 600 good-for-you recipes, plus dozens of tips, techniques and

ingredient improvisations. Information charts at the back of the book

include tables comparing cuts of meat, poultry, cooking fats and dairy

products, plus a nutritional analysis of each recipe.

Chances are, you won’t lose weight by indulging in many of the dishes

in “Jacques Pepin Celebrates,” a James Beard Award-winner in the

“Entertaining and Special Occasions” category. Designed for cooks

interested in building their repertoire of skills for turning out

show-stopping fare, this venture by a leading teacher of classic French

cooking features 200 recipes with photo-illustrated techniques.

If photos were fattening, the pounds might pile on after browsing

through Art Smith’s “Back to the Table: The Reunion of Food and Family.”

With text that explores the meaning of the dining ritual and 150 recipes

that aim to “strengthen bonds between loved ones,” Oprah Winfrey’s

personal chef promotes the pleasures of the shared table.

You need not travel far from home to replicate the pleasures of Asian

cuisine with “Madhur Jaffrey’s Step-by-Step Cooking.” More than 150

dishes from India, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia are included

in this offering from an authority on Far East and vegetarian cooking.

Color photos illustrate foreign cooking techniques, while sidebars

provide commentary on the cuisines, ingredients, cooking methods and

culinary histories.

In the long-awaited follow-up to the James Beard Award-winning “La

Cucina Siciliana di Gangivecchio,” mother-daughter team Wanda and

Giovanna Tornabene have another winner in the “Italian’ category with

“Sicilian Home Cooking.” Enticingly simple dishes, served at their

restaurant in a 13th-century abbey in the Sicilian mountains, combine

with personal stories to provide a virtual trip to Southern Italy.

When you’re ready to get out of the kitchen, indulge your appetite for

culinary lore with Patric Kuh’s “The Last Days of Haute Cuisine.” With

spicy anecdotes and delicious details, the former chef serves up an

overview of the evolution of American high-style restaurants, from the

1941 opening of Le Pavillon to the rise of such swank venues as Le Cirque

and Spago. If you’ve ever wondered about the ingredients in today’s

Populist stew of New Californian, ethnic and domesticated French and

Italian cooking, this literary dish will not disappoint.

* CHECK IT OUT is written by the staff of the Newport Beach Public

Library. This week’s column is by Melissa Adams, in collaboration with

June Pilsitz. All titles may be reserved from home or office computers by

accessing the catalog at www.newportbeachlibrary.org.

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