Delicious reasons to spend more time in the kitchen

REVIEWS BY SYBIL PRATT

Jody Adams, the rising culinary star and chef/owner of Rialto, a revered Boston restaurant, is up-front about the goal of her cookbook, In the Hands of a Chef, written with Ken Rivard. She wants to "seduce" you into spending more time in the kitchen. Whoa! Cooking is not only her profession; it's her passion -- the primary ingredient in everything she prepares. Other books may promise memorable meals in minutes, or overwhelm you with a riot of rich restaurant fare. What Jody celebrates is "handmade" or "artisanal home food." In other words, food made from scratch, true hands-on cooking.

Jody includes recipes for dishes she makes at home -- along with some of her super, signature Rialto preparations, like Roasted Long Island Duck with Green Olive and Balsamic Vinegar Sauce, in case you want to push your cooking up a notch. They're all a creative blend of her solid grounding in classic, regional European cooking, her natural instinct for using and choosing the wonderful ingredients indigenous to New England and the inspirations she's picked up while traveling. Fresh Tomato Soup with Seared Eggplant Sandwiches doesn't come from any one place, but it's a marvelous reworking of old standbys -- plain tomato soup and eggplant Parmesan -- jazzed up to please both the eye and the palate. For a festive tribute to spring, Jody mixes favas, so popular around the Mediterranean, with New Hampshire fiddleheads. Spaghetti topped with toasted bread crumbs and garlic, a Southern Italian stalwart, is glorious with the addition of Maine crabmeat and cherry tomatoes.

And so it goes, dish after delicious dish, from predinner nibbles through main courses, soups, salads and sides, pasta, pizza, polenta and more to desserts fit for fancy dinner parties and family picnics. The hands of this chef are capable indeed and capable of making you a better, more appreciative -- and appreciated -- cook.


Coffee and cake

Well, not just coffee and not just cake. The coffee in Rick Rodgers' latest cookbook, Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafes of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague comes in china cups, often heaped with fresh whipped cream, and the cakes are the stuff of legend. These cakes are the superb creations that have graced the marble-topped tables in the coffee houses of the old Austro-Hungarian empire for decades of decades. You're bound to hear strains of Strauss when you open Rick Rodgers' paean to Central European pastry and desserts -- you might even get a whiff of Sigmund Freud's cigar.

This beautifully illustrated book doesn't cover the complete dessert repertoire of Austria, Hungary and Czechoslovakia; it concentrates on the wonders you'll find in the coffeehouses and bakeries of these romantic capital cities, wonders you can now reproduce in your own kitchens. Don't be daunted by the prospect of turning out sumptuous Sachertortes and Linzertortes, light, jam-filled Palatschinken (melt-in-your-mouth Hungarian crepes), or flaky Sour Cherry Strudel (yes, you can use filo sheets!). Rodgers, an experienced teacher and cookbook author, gives explicit, detailed instructions and takes you through each preparation as if he were standing at your side. In addition to the cakes, sweet yeast breads, cookies and doughnuts you'll find fabulous pancakes, sweet omelettes, dumplings, noodles and puddings, cold and hot. It's the next best thing to being there.


Sybil Pratt has been cooking up this column for more than five years.

© 2002 ProMotion, inc.
www@bookpage.com