Asian Cooking

Willan (French Regional Cooking) is well-known for founding La Varenne, the noted French cooking school, and for writing numerous culinary books. Here she makes the most of DK's open-format, highly photographic Look & Cook series style with an exploration of amply documented, step-by-step Asian preparation and cooking techniques. The pictures are easily as important as the words in this series, making complex maneuvers seem more possible than could a paragraph (or even several). Even sushi seems doable here, as demonstrated. Fare includes Vietnamese lemon grass chicken; fried rice noodles from Malaysia; banana fritters (Thai); and whole fish steamed in black bean sauce, from China. The cuisines of Japan, Korea and Indonesia are also represented. Those who already know Asian cookery may not require this book, as the number of recipes is small and the emphasis is introductory. Still, the strong visual presentation may help to clarify, even for veterans, certain points-confirm good habits and discourage bad ones. (Aug.)