The Healthy Table: Simple, Delicious Home Cooking

In this exceedingly straightforward cookbook, personal chef and Brazil native Ratto asks, ""What if I told you that if you slightly change your eating habits you could add many-and healthier-years to your life?"" The proposition is so familiar one wonders if Ratto's debut was written for an audience of dietary simpletons, who also need to be instructed to ""examine fruits, vegetables, and herbs for freshness"" and ""check the meats and fish for smell and appearance"" (though what sort of smells or appearances should raise red flags is left unsaid). Despite the dumbing-down, however, Ratto's cookbook offers many basic, heart-healthy and appealing dishes, ranging from the down-home (a mildly spicy Black Bean Soup; a hearty Vegetable Stew) to the almost exotic (the simple but flavorful Pistachio-Crusted Sea Bass; the Herbed Oven-Dried Tomatoes, an alternative to sun-dried). Easy enough for the most timid beginner, these recipes rarely require more than three steps, and yield fresh-tasting basics, sometimes, as in the Pudim de Coco (coconut pudding), flavored with Brazilian flair. In short, while this volume offers little in the way of culinary innovation or news for the health-conscious, it does offer some simple ways to cook healthfully and deliciously.