Love and Kisses and a Halo of Truffles: Letters to Helen Evans Brown

This spirited selection of letters written between 1952 and 1964 by one of America's most celebrated chefs and cookbook authors to a fellow chef and occasional collaborator shows Beard at his wittiest and least pretentious. Ferrone, Beard's editor on six of his books, includes an occasional response from Brown, but the spotlight is on Beard, whose focus is ever food-what he has eaten and where, and the dishes he has prepared himself. Beard describes the enthusiastic dilettantes in his cooking classes and bemoans the banality of American restaurants; throughout he remains true to his credo, ``Good food is so sexy in its way.'' A champion of American cooking, he took as much pleasure in his mother's baked beans as in haute cuisine. An appendix of almost 50 recipes, including scallop quiche and onion sandwiches, presents the dishes discussed in the correspondence. Photos. (Oct.)