Cooking lessons from a master

REVIEWS BY SYBIL PRATT

John Ash, cooking teacher par excellence, award-winning cookbook author, cooking columnist and more, makes some basic assumptions about his audience—you like to eat and feed others, you have high standards and sophisticated tastes, but you're overcommitted to work and family so it often seems daunting or pointless to cook at home. Ash offers a cure for that sinking oh-I'll-just-order-take-out feeling that will "bring pleasure to your table" and save you money and calories on the way. His new book, John Ash: Cooking One on One, written with Amy Mintzer, is neither a kitchen primer nor the "only cookbook you'll ever need," it's his highly personal take on contemporary food approached in a series of unintimidating, self-contained lessons. The lessons are set out in three courses: "flavor-makers," including sensational salsas, vinaigrettes, pestos, marinades and simple, savory sauces; "techniques" from soups to soufflés, with stops for oven-drying (really fabulous), pot-roasting, grilling and pastas from both Italian and Asian points of view; and "ingredients" featuring chicken, salmon and shrimp, mushrooms and dried beans, tofu and its soy relatives, and some very special sweets. The recipes range from the fairly simple to the more elaborate, such as Fresh Cranberry and Tangerine Relish, Oven-Dried Cauliflower, Corn and Red Pepper Risotto, Grilled Tequila-Lime Marinated Salmon, Black Bean Gazpacho Salad and Lemon Zabaglione. Throughout, Ash is there with you, one-on-one, which adds up to a lot more than two.


At home in Rome

You might not catch a glimpse of St. Peter's splendor from your kitchen window or pick out your produce from the stalls in the bustling morning market in the Campo dei Fiori, but with the help of a dedicated aficionado of all things Roman, especially the food, you can cook and eat as though you lived just above the Spanish Steps, or down the street from the glistening Fontana di Trevi. That dedicated aficionado is Suzanne Dunaway, who has lived in the Italian capital off and on for 30 years, and is still "as smitten with Rome as any Italian teenager with his first amore." Her culinary love letter to the Eternal City takes the form of the charmingly illustrated (she's a talented artist, too) Rome, at Home: The Spirit of La Cucina Romana in Your Own Kitchen. The essence of this special spirit is simplicity, ease, the freshest ingredients and more time spent at the table than in the kitchen—all achievable and all desirable. As in a classic Roman meal, we start with an assortment of antipasti and work our way through the primi piatti—soups, pastas, (check out the authentic Fettucine all'Alfredo, couldn't be easier and couldn't be better), risottos and frittate, then on to the secondi—fish, poultry, meat and game. Veggies get their rightful recognition, as do bread, focaccia, pizza and the sweets that finish off a Roman repast. A Roman holiday without leaving home.


Desserts to die for

What would you rather have—60-something great dessert recipes or 200 slightly-better-than-average recipes? The answer comes easily to Jeremy Jackson, the author of Desserts That Have Killed Better Men Than Me. He wants every recipe to be a knockout, and the 69 included here will have you and your fellow indulgees down for the count every time. As he says, "If we wanted mediocrity, we'd settle for store-bought cookies." And he doesn't fudge the fact that most divine desserts are somewhat, if not totally, decadent, so, despite his title's dramatic declaration, Jeremy does advise moderation and small portions. You won't serve intense, molten-centered Chocolate Sinkholes, Sticky Toffee Pudding swaddled in creamy caramel sauce or rich, vibrant Three-Lemon Cheesecake every day, but when you do, you'll wow your gleeful guests. If your killer instinct is quiescent, try the less lethal (but still sublime) Slow-Roasted Pineapple Sauce, Berry Brūlée or Ginger Sherbet. Some may be familiar, others brand new, but there's not a deadbeat dessert among them.


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