Sheila Lukins All Around the World Cookbook

Turn the more than 500 pages of this latest cookbook by Lukins ( The Silver Palate Cookbook ), and one grows almost giddy. From Argentinian barbecue to Mexican zarzuela, she includes nearly every incarnation of the international and edible. True, many cookbook writers are well-traveled, but few set out, as Lukins did, to create a cookbook with the feel of a travel album: illustrations and sidebars along make the volume a fascinating jaunt. Through conversations with home cooks and professional chefs in 33 countries, Lukins researched the ways that people cook and eat abroad, adapting cross-cultural recipes to American kitchens with flair. The table of contents clues us in to the breezy, chatty style of its author: breakfast foods are clustered under ``Room Service,'' while appetizers and aperitifs fall under ``Wish You Were Here.'' No attempt is made to cluster all the recipes from a region together, which helps to give the text its considerable charms. Chicken soup, for example, is presented in a chart, tabulating 22 countries' versions of this classic. 350,000 first printing ; BOMC Home Style main selection, QPB alternate.