D'Artagnan's Glorious Game Cookbook

The owners of D'Artagnan--the country's main distributors of domestic foie gras and wild game, whose customers include Le Cirque and the White House--along with food writer Pruess, present a dense, picturesque volume that is in parts shameless promotion, learned discourse on food exotica and intriguing recipes. Advertorials abound as the authors promote not only their own shop, but also bring in their suppliers to do riffs on what they raise and why it's good. An owner of South Carolina's Manchester Farms, for instance, explains more than readers need to know about her semiboneless quail. The authors' prose style switches from sturdy and useful explorations of wild meats (grouse and woodcock, deer and elk), to hyperbolic menu-speak like this description of a chicken dish: ""Plump poussin, lacquered with sweet raspberry glaze, play against earthy wild mushrooms and toothy, hearty wild rice pancakes."" Nonetheless, the dishes themselves make up for the excess verbiage. Ground cumin and a tomato-avocado pico de gallo enlivens a batch of Ostrich Fajitas. And wild boar, orange juice, beer, yucca and poblano chilies poured into a spicy pie shell becomes Yucatecan Boar Pot Pie with Jalape o-Corn Crust. Adventuresome cooking comes rarely without sacrifice. Readers may have to fend off the boasting nature of the text in order to discover new dinner ideas. (Oct.)