cover image An American Place

An American Place

Larry Forgione. Morrow Cookbooks, $30 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-688-08716-6

Glorifying the diversity of American cuisine from coast to coast and from soup to dessert, some 200 recipes by the owner/chef of An American Place restaurant in New York City update old favorites and create scores of new ones. A James Beard disciple (and Farberware Millennium Chef of the Year winner at the 1993 James Beard/Perrier-Jouet Restaurant Awards), Forgione recasts such staples as Pigs in a Blanket (using buffalo or beef sausage and pretzel dough) and Philly Cheesesteak (with sirloin, aged cheddar or Crowley cheese and jalapeno while devising the likes of Baked Goat Cheese in Country Ham with Ramps and Morels. Forgione's refinements of such American classics as carpetbagger steak, a dish of Gold Rush San Francisco (an oyster-stuffed fillet) and his advice on using leftover turkey and cranberries for a new version of Native American Pemmican are a novel delight. His enthusiastic focus on American fare excuses those instances when invention runs to overload, as in Grilled Marinated Quail with Chestnuts and Wild Huckleberries served over a wild rice and hickory nut cake. Author tour. (Mar.)