The Gourmet Garage Cookbook: 200 Everyday Recipes Using Fresh and Exotic Ingredients from Around the World

This excellent cookbook makes use of today's most timely ingredients in interesting ways. What it doesn't do is draw any more than a tenuous connection between itself and Gourmet Garage, the upscale grocer currently expanding in New York City. Admittedly, readers are likely to find most of the ingredients there, but you can find the makings for Avocado, Fennel, and Anchovy Salad with a Tomato Olive Vinaigrette or Garnet Yams with Pears, Dried Figs, and Crystallized Ginger in almost any gourmet store. The Londons, who are documentary filmmakers as well as the authors of A Seafood Celebration, organize dishes by main ingredients--following a grocery-store scheme--so that Double Citrus Squid and Monkfish Salad with Celery and Parsley appears in a chapter on seafood, while Wild Rice and Mushroom Soup with Madeira is featured in one on grains. Good use is made of ethnic flavors, whether in traditional form (Beef with Burdock and Shiitake Mushrooms, Japanese Style) or in more fused creations (Kohlrabi with Pancetta, Carrot and Onion). General information at the start of each chapter is solid and voluminous; a chapter on salads lists types of oils, tips for buying fresh lettuce, varieties of lettuce and more. (Apr.)