CHECK IT OUT
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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