Compiled by Polly Campbell

Required Reading

At one time, a fine restaurant chef needed to know only one cuisine: classic French. Today, among those considered the best chefs in America are men and women cooking in Italian, Japanese, Thai or Mexican traditions. Or, more likely, they have found ways to blend and fuse techniques and ingredients from those cuisines and others.

In The New American Chef (Wiley; $29.95), Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page explore 10 popular cuisines from around the world with prominent American chefs who know and use each one. Each chapter is full of information about the customs and ingredients of each culinary culture, as well as recipes from several chefs.

The chapter on Mexico, for instance, discusses American misconceptions about Mexican food, describes the culinary regions of Mexico, introduces the various kinds of chiles, suggests the Top 10 ingredients you need, suggests drinks and recommends cookbooks. There's a short section of 12 characteristic recipes. Every chapter puts the cuisine in the context of social life: how people eat throughout the day and the year.

The 10 cuisines explored are Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, Moroccan, Mexican, Italian, Indian, Spanish and French. Chefs who were interviewed and contribute recipes include Mario Batali, Rick Bayless, Daniel Boulud, Alain Ducasse, Julie Sahni, Nina Simonds, Paula Wolfert, Penelope Casas and Barbara Tropp.

Recipe

From the Vietnamese chapter of The New American Chef, contributed by Corinne Trang:

Che Chuoi - Sweet Coconut Soup with Banana

11/2 cups canned unsweetened coconut milk

11/2 cups water

1/4 cup pearl tapioca

1/4 to 1/3 cup sugar

Pinch of freshly ground sea salt

2 ripe bananas, peeled and diced

1 tablespoon sesame seeds, toasted

Bring the coconut milk and water to a boil in a pot over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium-low, stir in the tapioca, sugar and salt, and cook until the tapioca pearls are translucent, about 30 minutes. The consistency should be that of a slightly thickened soup (but definitely not thick like a pudding). Remove the tapioca from the heat, stir in the bananas, cover with a lid, and let stand for 20 minutes to steam the bananas. Divide the soup among four bowls, sprinkle with the toasted sesame seeds, and serve. This soup can be served hot, warm, at room temperature, or chilled. Makes 4-6 servings.

We Tried It

You love LaRosa's or you don't. People who grew up on LaRosa's pizza think it's exactly how pizza should taste. Others think the sauce is too sweet.

La Rosa's has a new pizza, the Little It'ly. You've probably seen the ads. It's square, deep-dish and cheesier, but, most importantly, it's made with a new sauce recipe, different from their other pizzas.

I recently had a veggie Little It'ly delivered to my dinner table, along with a veggie-topped regular thin crust for comparison's sake. The Little It'ly crust is quite thick, though it seems to be the same crust recipe. There's more cheese, which is good. And I could tell the new sauce is more savory, has more oregano, and is slathered on a little more thickly.

So if you like LaRosa's crust, and you like deep-dish pizza, you might want to go to Little It'ly.

P.S.: Nice touch on the veggie pizzas: spinach.