◆ SpookStack

Pe apis aaa " v9 We knew you were coming so we baked, — “broiled, stewed, fried, steamed and simmered ' Feeding avidly upon themselves, many magazines routinely publish cookbooks patched together from their recipe columns. Not for Time and Life this deriva- tive and dilatory process. Instead they have entered the field with a series of original regional cookbooks, under the general editorship of the scrupulous Michael Field. They may end up mining their cookbooks for magazine pieces, but at present the editors’ only ambition is to put out a new book every couple of months for as long as there is a public to buy them. Two volumes have already been issued: The Cooking of Provincial France by M. F. K. Fisher and The Cooking of Ktaly by Waverley Root (both Time-Life Books, ilus- trated, 208 pp., $4.95 each). If others in the series come up to the standard these two have set, the enter- prise will be a distinguished one. M. F. K. Fisher’s survey of French cooking habits, for which Julia Child and Michael Field have both acted as consultants, has only a single flaw: it fails to reflect the variety and ingenuity of French Provincial cooking. One can argue with the editors’ selection but few will argue with the verdict of their senses upon the excellence of the recipes, Each dish I sampled was dis- tinctively delicious: an authentic bouillabaisse, delicate sweetbreads, aromatic légumes 6 la grecque and sump- tuous strawberry tarts. Illustrated with evocative photo- graphs by Mark Kauffman, the book is so beautiful that most cooks will be reluctant to use it in the kitchen. The editors have taken care of that problem too. A busi- nesslike spiral-bound notebook containing only the recipes accompanies the handsome hardcover. In his brief introduction te Time-Life’s The Cooking of Jtaly Luigi Barzini tells us that the word “Tecipe” is Latin for “procure.” I suggest that you procure this volume immediately, the sooner to savor Fred Lynch’s photographs, which capture the brooding sense of his- tory that permeates the Italian landscape; Waverley Root’s incisive text that gives an intelligent perspective - on Italian food as it has developed in the various re- gions and an account of its Roman ancestry; and of course the splendid recipes developed by Michael Field and his Ttalian cansutant Laiei Carnacina. These heein By Gloria Levitas Beating egg whiies for a s0uGfld with « balloon whisk, French cooks prefer this method for airiest and fastest rerults (from The Cooking of Provincial France). . sian and Scandinavian cuisines. ; Books derived from magazines are only as good as the magazines themselves——and California’s Sunset magazine is very gnad indeed. The recines shuttle com. is, 8 is usual in farm cookbooks, first-rate. One of favorites — and a hard recipe to come by — produc a sweet, cool, aromatic pear pie. The season brings two tributes to the lowly bea Victor Bennett's The Complete Bean Cookbou. (Prentice-Hall, illustrated, 298 pp., $5.95) and Margar and Ancel Keys’ The Benevolent Bean (Doe 192 pp., $3.95). Each has merit. Bennett's bod:. tractive and imaginative. The Keys concentrate mo: on imparting information: a fascinating history of the bean, cautionary calorie counts, recipes from Imperia Rome round out the collection. A variety of cold bea salads from either book— spiced, garlicked an dressed —— make a succulent accompaniment for cock tails. Or you might try your beans pureed with sour cream and onions as Victor Bennett suggests. You don't have to assume the lotus position to use Yogi Vithaldas and Susan Roberts’ The Yogi Cook Book (Crown, 137 pp. $3.50). But there are problems: perhaps bad vibrations ruined some of the appealing sounding vegetarian dishes 1 tried. My yoghurt cur- ries were watery and the lentil dumplings —- some- thing of a staple for the Yogi — were leaden and faintly bitter. The chuteys, on the other hand, rivaled any I've eaten anywhere, I’m inclined to be cheri 9. wards both the Yogi and his translator, Susan Re. simply because the book, with its highly personal tone and its proud petulance, was 30 much fun to read. Far Eastern cocking has an excellent ambassador in Jill Nhu Huong Miller. Her Vietnamese Cookery (Charles E. Tuttle, 118 pp., $3.95) -offers an unfa- miliar cuisine backed up by foolprobf inatroctions. Most Americans are put off by two staplea of the Viet- - namese kitchen: salty fermented fish sauce and citro- Bells root, with its medicinal associations. But by and and most fanciers of Oriental cuisine should find the recipes for shrimp paste, tasty steamed dumplings and the various breada and stuffed buna slightly offbeat but completely to their taste. Miss Miller has thoughtfully included a list of substitutes far each exotica as look fin (noadiee) pa mat (alotin---- -