The celebrity chef genre is a relatively new thing in America.
If you'd asked people 10 years ago to name five famous chefs on the national scene, once "Julia Child" and "James Beard" rolled off their tongues, it wouldn't have been surprising to hear "Chef Boy-ar-dee" and then a lot of mumbling.Now, we not only have celebrity chefs in the kitchen, we have them in multimedia in newspaper and magazine columns, on television, on radio talk shows, on videotape, on CD-ROM.
And, not at all surprising, a trio of them - the aforementioned Julia, New Orleans' bombastic Emeril Lagasse, and meat maven Merle Ellis - have just released new food books in time for the holiday gift-giving season.
One is "In Julia's Kitchen With Master Chefs," by Julia Child with Nancy Verde Barr. Julia is the woman who, in 1961, almost single-handedly upgraded America's culinary tastes and gastronomic adventurousness with her landmark book, "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," and her seminal public television series, "The French Chef."
An octogenarian with a grating voice, she became such a cultural icon she was lovingly satirized in a "Saturday Night Live" TV skit that became a humor classic. She now has reached an age at which she maintains her output by taking on partners as another cultural icon named Sinatra did a few years back with his "Duets" album.
Here, with the assistance of cooking school guru Nancy Verde Barr, Julia offers an excellent book put together as a companion piece to her TV series of the same name. (She also has a baking-with-guest-chefs series playing locally on public TV.)
There may be less Julia than we're accustomed to, but her selection of 26 chefs representing a wide array of styles and specialties is masterful, as are the artwork, information boxes, pointers and techniques included with the recipes and biographical sketches.
"Louisiana Real & Rustic," by Emeril Lagasse and Marcelle Bienvenu. I can't decide if I watchLagasse's "Essence of Emeril" show on the TV Food Network for entertainment, for education or with an odd fascination similar to rubbernecking at a car accident. He's unquestionably successful, with two hit New Orleans restaurants, his TV show and his personal appearances.
He's also often verbally incoherent, technically confusing, and just plain erratic and sloppy. But that's a review of his TV show. In print, he's calmer no doubt thanks to his co-author and his editors, also more controlled, concise in language and, thereby, much more accessible. This is not the sputtering Lagasse who assaults TV cameras with promises to "Kick it up a notch!" and shouting "Bang!" and "Bam!" like an old Batman comic as he flings dustings of herbs and spices around.
The print Lagasse knows a lot about Cajun and Creole food and other cuisines from which they sprang or with which they fuse well.
In a collection of about 175 recipes, he offers everything from basic rubs, rouxs, sauces and boils to intricate dishes and prep techniques of all sorts.
Straightforward directions and tips, plus some good folk anecdotes and lore spice up the collection from front to back.
"The Great American Meat Book," by Merle Ellis. Ellis is perhaps best known to American home cooks as author of "The Butcher," a longtime syndicated newspaper column, and for his television appearances over the decades, mostly on the Nashville Network.
He's an unapologetic meat-eater in a tofu world that's just starting to come around again. Understandable, since he began his apprenticeship in his father's Iowa butcher shop at age 13 and hasn't left the field since.
You may not be interested in the proper technique for creating brain fritters or stuffed beef heart (both in the "Odds 'n' Ends and Innards" chapter), but a lot of people probably would like having at their fingertips the rest of this must-have collection of 300 recipes, plus a wealth of information for anyone who wants to know the proper selection, handling, cooking and serving of virtually any type of meat.
William M. Dowd is associated editor of the Times Union. His "Dinner Date" restaurant reviews and "Notes on Napkins" food news column appear in the Times Union each Sunday. Those features and previous cookbook reviews also are available on the Electric Times Union's World Wide Web site at (http://www.timesunion.com)