If you are looking for last-minute gifts, consider books on food or wine. This season offers a wealth of titles to choose from, so here`s a guide to the best of the recent releases, compiled by The Tribune`s food staff.
Most of these books can be found in major bookstores such as Kroch`s & Brentano`s, Waldenbooks, B. Dalton, Crown Books, Stuart Brent Books, Rizzoli, as well as Season to Taste, 911 W. School St., a shop specializing in cookbooks.
The American Cancer Society Cookbook
By Anne Lindsay
Hearst Books, $17.95
This cookbook written in consultation with Diane Fink, M.D., is a highly informative, well-laid-out book that presents important nutritional information in an easy, lucid style. The introduction points out that cancer research is now at the same stage linking cancer and nutrition as it was with smoking and cancer 30 years ago. There are no scare tactics, however, in the research cited, just a low-keyed informational, this-is-what-we-know approach. The use of many charts makes the information even more digestable.
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There are more than 200 recipes, from appetizers to desserts, each containing fat and caloric content. Those who like plain yogurt will have a wonderful time with these recipes, which rely heavily on that ingredient rather than sour cream. This book is a good value for the relatively low price. The Artist`s Palate
By Nadine Haim
Harry N. Abrams, $35
This could go on the coffeetable-or in the kitchen. The idea behind this book is unique: 42 contemporary artists talk about their childhood memories of food and then draw pictures of those foods and/or memories. The result is a combination of wide-ranging personal memories, 140 recipes and a collection of eye-catching illustrations ranging from a cat sitting in front of an old-fashioned oven (by Fernando Botero of Columbia) to the whimsical pink and white strawberry shortcake (David Hockney of England) that is the cover illustration. Biscuits and Scones
By Elizabeth Alston
Clarkson N. Potter, $8.95
Sixty-two recipes are packed into this small and rather unusual cookbook written by the food editor of Woman`s Day. Recipes range from simple baking powder biscuits and cheese scones to lamb potpie, cobblers, shortcakes, appetizers, snacks and pretzels. There are short introductions to most recipes, concise instructions and variations. A great stocking stuffer. Bugialli on Pasta
By Giuliano Bugialli
Simon & Schuster, $24.95
Even the most devoted pasta lover will find new facts, techniques and tastes the pages of this exceptional book. The strengths that have made Bugialli one of this country`s most popular and respected cooking instructors are used to great advantage. He is a serious scholar, a teacher concerned with his students and his subject, a showman who understands the value of artistic flair and a cook who knows that beautiful food without flavor is a betrayal of the Italian culinary heritage.
The packaging is first-rate: bold and beautiful color photographs, helpful line drawings and an easy-to-follow recipe format that places ingredient lists in the margin in boldface. Considering the wealth of pasta books available, indispensable may be too strong a word for ”Bugialli on Pasta.” But invaluable is not. A Celebration
of the Seasons,
A Cook`s Almanac
By Steven Raichlen
Poseidon Press, $18.95
The premise of a seasonal cookbook is hardly novel, as the author acknowledges. Yet Raichlen, a Boston-based cooking teacher and writer, has made his book fresh, invigorating and eminently usable. His choices of the five or six seasonal ingredients he celebrates each month are appealing and occasionally unexpected. (In June, for instance, he writes of hard and soft-shell crabs, salmon, peas, berries-and sweet onions.)
So sure-handed, concise and tasty are the recipes he provides for each of these ingredients that even the most insecure cooks should be propelled to the market and stove. The recipes are ”quick to prepare,” and are accompanied by highly informative, intelligently-written commentary. These bonuses help make this a candidate for the year`s best cookbook. Chez Panisse Cooking
By Paul Bertolli with Alice Waters
Random House, $24.95
This may well become a classic-just as Alice Waters` restaurant of the same name in California has become a benchmark of extraodinary cooking-but it`s definitely a book for the erudite cook. These are recipes to be prepared with much time and love, and an abundance of often-esoteric ingredients.
The illustrations are to be savored, not for the beautiful food they portray, but for their uniqueness. They usually bear no connection with any nearby recipe-for example, tall stacks of white dishes are shown facing the recipe for salmon carpaccio and a hand squirting milk from an animal udder is on the puff pastry page. It`s not a book for everyone, but there are many who will love every page. Easy Entertaining
with Marlene Sorosky
By Marlene Sorosky
Harper & Row, $22.50
Sorosky, a cooking teacher and cookbook author, has put together what appears to be an old-fashioned cookbook for home entertaining beginning with breakfasts and winding up with spectaculars. But Sorosky`s recipes are very much up-to-date, quick and easy to make and virtually foolproof. They run the gamut: a Mexican brunch, an Italian dinner, Cajun and Oriental grilled fish, an Olympian feast and even a picnic luncheon-all using modern ingredients and all constructed in full meal menu format.
Aptly illustrated and cross referenced, the strength of the book lies in the simplicity, elegance and workability of the recipes which will be helpful to experienced and learning cooks. Festive Baking
By Sarah Kelly Iaia
Doubleday, $19.95
Baking and holidays are synonymous and in ”Festive Baking” readers are introduced to more than 150 holiday classics from the Old World-such as Viennese Sachertorte-and American favorites such as gingerbread houses. Iaia, a graduate of the London Cordon Bleu School of Cooking, spent seven years in Switzerland, Germany and Austria where she worked with home and professional bakers.
There are recipes for cookies, cakes, pastries, breads and unusual desserts, including Oktoberfest lebkuchen hearts, strudel and stollen, chocolate pretzels and Berlin jelly doughnuts. There also are tips on equipment and ingredients, gifts and entertaining, preparation times, the recipe`s degree of difficulty and a baking calendar. The French Family Feast By Mireille Johnston
Simon & Schuster, $21.95
The latest book from the author of ”The Cuisine of the Sun” shows us the way to entertain French family-style. The idea is to base any festive meal around a ”great” dish, usually a classic, one-pot entree such as cassoulet or couscous, and then serve an appetizer and dessert to round out the meal. Each recipe for the great dish comes with menu suggestions from the appetizer and dessert chapters. The recipes are sometimes time consuming, but they become a focal point to any festive occasion. This is for serious cooks who like to entertain. The Gourmet Jewish Cook
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By Judy Zeidler
Morrow, $22.95
This cookbook fights the boredom of traditional dishes by pouring on the hoisin sauce or shiitake mushrooms. It packs in nearly 600 recipes, from traditional potato latkes to marinated quail eggs with cucumbers, included in one of the eight international chapters. The Grains Cookbook
By Bert Greene
Workman Publishing, $14.95
The forward, written by 20 of the country`s top food experts, sing praise to the late Bert Greene and this, his last book. Best known for his writing on vegetables and new American cooking, Greene shifts to 15 seldom used grains, such as amaranth, quinoa and triticale. There are no photographs, but the animated writings make it easy to see and taste dishes such as smoky green-peppered grits and perfectly peachy corn bread French toast.
Each recipe is introduced with a colorful description of its origin. Each chapter gives a history of the particular grain and information on how to purchase, store and use the grain in inventive recipes. A must for exploring healthful and not-so-boring grains. The Great Scandinavian
Baking Book
By Beatrice Ojakangas
Little, Brown, $19.95
Beatrice Ojakangas, author of a dozen cookbooks, draws on her Scandinavian heritage to produce this definitive baking book. Scandinavians love their breads, pastries, sweet rolls, pies and cookies. The book features about 200 recipes from Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway and Iceland. Very helpful is the list and description of ingredients used in Scandinavian baking as well as mail-order sources and baking tips. Helen Nash`s Kosher Kitchen
By Helen Nash
Random House, $18.95
This cookbook features imaginative and easy-to-make recipes including steamed salmon steak with black beans and pureed romaine and watercress soup. Useful serving suggestions add more ideas for appetizers or side dishes. The International
Cookie Cookbook
By Nancy Baggett; photographs by Dennis M. Gottlieb
Stewart, Tabori & Chang, $24.95
If you weren`t a cookie monster before you glanced at this cookbook, the 50 color photographs will convince you otherwise. A collection of 150 recipes of the world`s best cookies have been compiled along with basic instructions on cookie making for beginners and special techniques for advanced bakers.
Among the recipes are American peanut butter-kiss cookies and Pennsylvania Dutch pumpkin whoopie pies, Brazilian coconut chews, English brandy snaps, Scandinavian sugar pretzels, French and Spanish almond tile wafers, Italian sweet ravioli, Hungarian rum butter cookies, Middle Eastern shortbread rings and Australian ginger nuts. Fortunately, calorie contents are not listed.