Simple Cuisine: The cookbook that redefined healthful four-star cooking

Groundbreaking when it was first published in 1990, Jean-Georges Vongerichten's Simple Cuisine has since become a classic. Its author, chef-owner of Manhattan's Vong and the four-star Jean-Georges, pioneered the use of vinaigrettes, juices, flavored oils, and broths to produce light but deeply flavorful dishes with a minimum of fuss. The 1998 paperback version presents 200 recipes for these simple but sophisticated treats. They are based on the building blocks listed above, plus phyllo dough, cunningly employed as a puff-pastry alternative. Vongerichten fans and those seeking easy dishes with an haute cuisine pedigree will be delighted.

Beginning with recipes for Vongerichten's stockless basics, the book then explores simple sautés and steamed dishes, Asian specialties, cheese and potato dishes, sweets, and American fare such as burgers, all of which are given the Vongerichten touch (meaning that we end up with interesting combinations like lamb burgers with cilantro and goat cheese). Recipes such as Sea Scallops with Garlic and Saffron Oil, Salmon in Rice Paper with Citrus Vinaigrette, and Cheese Galette with Pecans are easier to prepare than their names might suggest. Desserts like Almond Milk Ice Cream, Hot Cherries with Honey Kirsch, and Bitter Cocoa Sorbet are followed by a chapter of 30-minute menus and a handy cross-reference of the building blocks to the dishes that contain them. As useful as it proclaims itself to be, the book works for all who want to cook the Vongerichten way--but at home and with minimum of effort. --Arthur Boehm