Ken Hom's East Meets West Cuisine: An American Chef Redefines the Foodstyles of Two Cultures

Hom (Ken Hom's Chinese Cookery, etc.a celebrated chef of the New American Cooking school and a Californian of Chinese ancestryoffers a hybrid cuisine, a natural, unforced blending of ingredients and techniques borrowed mainly from China, France and America, with a sprinkling of Japanese, Italian and Mexican influences. Out of the successful East-West union emerges an enticing, if trendy, repertoire: salmon fillets with ginger, basil, tomatoes and salt sauce; braised sweetbreads in spicy bean sauce; ginger-orange roast chicken; cannelloni stuffed with Chinese sausages; and litchi sorbet with raspberry sauce. Thanksgiving turkey is deboned, marinated in sesame oil and lemon juice, steamed, and roasted only for color. But Hom overuses creme fraiche, and two connoisseurs make wine suggestions that sometimes are contradictory and, therefore, confusing. Photos not seen by PW. Better Homes and Gardens Book Clubs and BOMC alternates. (September 3)