Eating Well

With this companion volume to his TV series of the same title, Wolf ( What's Cookingsic ) contributes a collection of recipes, amusing anecdotes and irreverent (and sometimes irrelevant) food facts and folklore. However, this is a confusing and confounding volume--one that might have made a very up-to-date cooking primer if only Wolf had included more instructions in it. A recipe for pizza with artichokes, mushrooms, eggplant and leeks, for example, while promising, is accompanied by a vignette on the history of artichokes--yet no directions for preparing fresh ones. Instead, Wolf bounds from coast to coast, from chic restaurant to chic spa to chic celebrity haunt: geographically, from New York City to L.A. and San Francisco to Paris and Rome via British Columbia and Cincinnati. While some fare is certainly appealing (grilled fish, tomato garlic tartlets, Flora Danica blue cheese dressing), the book will frustrate readers who wish for a straightforward definition of what the author means by ``eating well.'' (Aug.)