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THE GOURMET JEWISH COOK by Judy Zeidler

THE GOURMET JEWISH COOK

By

Pub Date: Sept. 26th, 1988
Publisher: Morrow

A far cry from the nostalgic catalogs of mothers' kitchens, this sampling from the 1980's global kitchen mixes chicken soup, matzo omelet, and stuffed cabbage with Italian bruschetta, mozzarella marinara, and tiramisu (a layered dessert); French baguettes, soufflÉs, and duck with turnip; Brazillian feijoada, rice, and batida (a rum drink); and other signature dishes from China, Scandinavia, and almost everywhere--demonstrating to the likely delight of dietary-law-abiding sophisticates that you don't have to be Jewish to give the world a kosher dish. Nor has Zeidler merely reworked or recycled whatever worldwide ethnic standbys suit her purpose: though familiar classics abound here, she has also come up with an impressive variety of authentic dishes that are not already over-collected. For example, there are pages of latkes, only a few of them for potatoes--and one potato latke is a zinger; the Italian bean dish, a specialty of Florence, mixes the beans with caviar; and her Italian rolled eggplant, ""a wonderful [dairy] dish for shabuoth,"" has three sauces, each in one of the three colors of the Italian flag. Of course not every kosher family is looking for a ""Nouvelle Hanukkah dinner""; but Zeidler's L.A. Times column has already won a following in California, where eclectic successes have a way of spreading east.