FARALLON: THE VERY BEST OF SAN FRANCISCO CUISINE

Franz, executive chef and co-owner of famed San Francisco restaurant Farallon, begins his eponymous cookbook with a series of confessions. He eschews recipes. His servers have nervous fits when he's cooking because he rarely sends a dish out of the kitchen looking the same way twice. His single most formative culinary experience occurred in Alaska, where as a wilderness guide in the 1970s he was required to catch his supper. So what kind of cookbook is this? An utterly thrilling one, as original, open-ended and carefully considered as Franz's cooking. With a nod to mentors Richard Olney and Elizabeth David, the book teaches readers how to work with ingredients, demonstrating how a great chef thinks, tastes and creates, and expressing the wild spontaneity that can result from being at the mercy of limited raw materials, free of shopping lists and preconceptions. To this end, each recipe, written and tested by coauthor Weiss, is presented as originally conceived, followed by detailed notes for home cooks on preparation, improvisation and simplification. If readers can't find a wild boar for "Roasted Rack of Wild Boar with Chestnut Spaetzle and Sage Jus," they can turn to the "Improvisation" section at the bottom of the page, which recommends loin of pork as a substitute. Paul Moore's fantastically stylish color photographs provide clear images of nearly every dish. Even if readers never attempted any of Franz's recipes, it would be worth owning for Franz's mini-disquisition on how to precook and reheat risotto. The secret ingredient? Ice. (Nov.)

Forecast:This may be a hard sell on the East Coast, to readers unfamiliar with the restaurant or to those unaware of Franz's long association with Richard Olney, Jeremiah Towers and the Chez Panisse crowd, but if it's skillfully marketed, it will do quite well.