Cooking with David Burke

Burke, who has soared to the top of the New York restaurant scene with a style and imagination that has enraptured the critics, offers a soup-to-nuts cookbook filled with individuality and unique variations on classic recipes from both French country and American regional cuisine. 50 line drawings. 8 pages of color photos.

David Burke is a new culinary star. And in this, his first cookbook, he presents the innovative and inventive cooking that has made him, in the words of one rival, "the most copied chef in New York." The first non-Frenchman to win France's highest cooking honor, and voted Chef of the Year by his peers in America, David Burke is a true original. Born in America, trained here and in France by such luminaries as Pierre Troisgros and Gaston Lenotre, he has developed a style all his own, emphasizing the twin goals of taste and beauty. The Burke style blends the principles of haute cuisine with French country cooking, American regional specialties, and ethnic touches. He has taken to new heights the originally European technique of building a dish, rather than displaying food flat upon a plate. He uses ingredients the way a child uses blocks, building, creating layers of food, achieving a remarkable melange of tastes, colors, and textures. In presenting this concept here for the home chef, he breaks down seemingly complex dishes into their component parts. He demonstrates that what looks intricate (and fabulous) can be easy to make. His classical training, combined with an artist's eye and a rich imagination, provides the reader with a genuinely new way of looking at and preparing food. This is a soup-to-nuts cookbook, from stunning hors d'oeuvres such as Pastrami Salmon, and Parfait of Artichoke, Goat Cheese, and Marinated Vegetables, to dazzling desserts like Three-Layered Mousse Parfait, Red-Berry Sorbet, and Ginger Ice Cream. The heart of the book, though, lies in Burke's signature main courses, which he builds into delicious dishes wonderful to look at and easily transformable into more ornate delights or simplified into convenient and lighter one-dish meals. Among them: Pan Roasted Monkfish with Green-Onion Sauce and Ziti and Eggplant Bouquet; Roast Cornish Hens with Saffron Potatoes and Chorizo Sausages; Sirloin Steak with Shiitake-Mushroom Hash and Pickled Ve

Publishers Weekly

Burke's attention to the details of culinary preparation and his instinctive eye for food as art are well-known and reflected in this accomplished book. In his chapter ``Small Things/Large Flavors,'' for instance, Burke discusses pantry basics and batterie de cuisine. Tools and garnishes are detailed first, followed by chapters on ``building a dish'' with fish, shellfish, fowl and meat. Flavored oils, vinaigrettes and sauces merit their own chapter, as do appetizers and small meals. Burke demonstrates his flair for presentation not only in the food itself, but in table setting and ambiance suggestions for the dining room. ``Chili looks best in pottery, fish looks best on porcelain,'' he says. The final chapter on presentation reveals Burke's whimsical approach to trompe l'oeil in serving food: consomm can be served in a brandy snifter, and breadsticks in a vase. Though such notions might suggest an overly refined palate, Burke serves food that is hearty and unpretentious, such as a black bean soup with shrimp and jalapeo jack cheese quesadillas topped with salsa. More ambitious dishes, such as barbecued squab with cheddar corn cakes, onion and pistachio marmalade, and pistachio wafers still appear surprisingly accessible. Directions are clear and succinct, with substituitions offered for exotic or seasonal ingredients. Home cooks who entertain frequently will find this book a trove of ideas, while aspiring professional chefs will get realistic insights into the long hours and hard work required to succeed in food service. Photos not seen by PW. (Jan.)