Mixing Memoirs with Lore of Cooking

THE NEW YORK TIMES, 'WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1983 Mixing Memoirs With Lore of Cooking By FLORENCE FABRICANT — where Mrs. Rubinstein, who was bom in Lithuania, lived as a child_ £ £ BHM ELL me what you eat and I to Paris, Marbella, Spain, and New ■ ■ ■ will tell you what you are.” York. Brillat-Savarin’s aphorism The recipes are homey and savory. UB recognizes the menu as an Soups called barszcz (borscht), thropology, cultural history and biog mushroom-filled uszka pastries, raphy. Some new cookbooks also take kasha, the traditional Polish stew this approach. How certain foods, bigos and a fine dark chocolate cake styles of cooking and habits of dining are typical. Sweet and sour or just evolve is a subject for scholars in two plain sour are the flavors that fre of the books, and in two others, on a quently whet the Eastern .European highly personal level, it is the stuff of palate. Sour cream thickens, memoirs. These books are enjoyable smooths, garnishes and enriches. Un to read and interesting, if not always fortunately, in this book Maggi brand easy to use in the kitchen. extract is suggested to color many of the recipes too. This is essentially “Irish Traditional Food” by home cooking, but with a helping of. Theodora Fitzgibbon (St. Martin’s international sophistication. Press, $14.95) is a well-researched It is hard to tell whether “Alfredo volume that examines the origins and Viazzi’s Cucina e Nostalgia” (Ran traditions of Irish cooking with dom House, $17.95) began as a mem oir or a cookbook. It is certainly both, with a series of events in the New KITCHEW UBRABY York restaurateur’s life anchored to charm and wit. Recipes are intro menus and groups of recipes. The duced with lively explanations of focus is Mr. Viazzi’s experiences as a their sources, the origin of their child and young man in Italy. Exactly names (given in English and Gaelic) how he came to open restaurants in and how they might relate to contem Greenwich Village (among them porary Ireland. Sometimes the au Trattoria da Alfredo and Cafe thor describes archeological findings Domel) is not disclosed. to document certain customs, or she The menus and recipes are for a will quote from journals of visitors mixture of provincial Italian cooking and travelers, from old manuscripts (stuffed sardines, crostini, chickpea and from folklore and literature. soup) and a more elegant interna As might be expected, the Irish cui tional style (figs stuffed with goat sine is homespun and humble, relying cheese, steak tartare with caviar and heavily on vegetables (cabbage, pota green peppercoms, pasta in cream toes, mushrooms, leeks and onions), with smoked salmon). oatmeal, poultry and fish. Many of Like the recipes, some of which are the recipes are enriched with butter more interesting or unusual than and cream, the quality of which is others, the recollections vary in their supposed to be excellent. All the well- appeal. Mr. Viazzi’s tale of trying to known specialties have been includ establish a fancy resort at Porto Er- ed, even Irish coffee, which is not a cole on the Tyrrhenian coast and his traditional libation (unlike cider and memories of an idiosyncratic chef mead). the United Nations who has visited named Gino Ratti are particularly Though the recipes have been clari The recipes are not detailed, in engaging. the Soviet Union on many occasions gredients are frequently not given in fied, if not updated, so they are rela and even wrote a guide to Moscow A list of his favorite restaurants is a tively straightforward, a certain de order of use and a great deal is left to good addition, but comments about restaurants, Mrs. Visson was bom in the cook. For example, a fine, yeasty ingredients seem superfluous. Most gree of skill is necessary for thé best New York of émigré parents. raisin cake calls for approximately results. An Irish omelet, a delicious The book vividly recalls evenings in of them are reproduced from Mr. souffléd potato cake that dates from three and three-quarters cups of flour Viazzi’s earlier book, “Alfred Viaz the West End Avenue apartment without disclosing the texture the the 18th century, is a case in point: It where Russians would gather to dis zi’s Italian Cooking,” and some of requires careful seasoning and dough should have. them are incorrect: Granny Smith cuss art, music, politics and food. However, if you know your way watchful cooking, the guidelines for Many shared their memories with apples are not from the East Coast which are merely suggested. around the kitchen and have an un and no one can buy fish “off the boat” her, opened yellowed scrapbooks and limited supply of sour cream, by all It is doubtful that anyone could boxes of clippings and showed her the in the Fulton Market. reproduce the recipe calling for a lob Íleans try the recipes, especially The lists of Italian wines are too recipe notes in Cyrillic script col lose for soups, dumplings and general to be truly useful and the ster three feet long, but there are lected from mothers and grandmoth weets. some timely traditional Irish Hallow ers. comments about California wines are een dishes such as colcannon, barm The introductions to each chapter often inaccurate: For example, the brack (a type of raisin cake), and of recipes cover the history of cooking Quantities of sour cream are also Sebastian! Vineyard is not in Napa potato and apple cake. Evidently bob in Czarist Russia and the conflict be required for many of the recipes in County nor does that county produce bing for apples originated in Ireland. tween rustic Slavic peasant cooking “Nela’s Cookbook” (Knopf, $18.95), twice as much red as white, accord In her book Miss Fitzgibbon in and the more aristocratic French by Nela Rubinstein, wife of the late ing to 1981 statistics. tended to preserve a heritage, which style. Russian salad, Charlotte Russe pianist Arthur Rubinstein. This is a Mr. Viazzi invites the reader to im was also Lynn Visson’s motive for and veal Orloff were dishes created personal cookbook, a collection of provise on the recipes and change the writing “The Complete Russian by French chefs employed by the recipes that have long been treasured seasonings if desired, a good idea be Cookbook” (Ardis, $15.95). A profes czars. There are interesting observa by family and friends, which are in cause he has a love affair with sor of Russian and an interpreter at terspersed with chatty recollections pinches of nutmeg that others may tions about Soviet cooking as well. providing a glimpse of several cul not share. tural worlds from Poland and Russia.

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