THE TRELLIS COOKBOOK: Contemporary American Cooking in Williamsburg, Virginia

As chef and partner at the popular Trellis restaurant in Colonial Williamsburg, Desaulniers makes no attempt here to simulate Colonial Willamsburg fare. Instead, he ranges freely in today's global pantry and comes up with such upscale creations as ""grilled medallions of veal with apple, mushrooms, and cream on buckwheat fettuccine"" and ""sautÉed pheasant with shiitake mushrooms, seasoned squash and cashew butter."" The collection abounds in various mixtures of fruits and nuts with meat, fish, or greens (the last in what might be described as on-beyond-Waldorf salads); and there are several elaborate assembled desserts--among them ""chocolate temptation,"" ""death by chocolate,"" and ""chocolate damnation""--that take all day to prepare and are guaranteed to bowl over your guests. For those who consider this sort of nouvelle-elegant cooking worth the candle, Desaulniers provides carefully detailed instructions and ends each recipe with a feature called ""the chef's touch,"" conveying background notes along with expert and practical tips on purchase and procedure.