■ Gourmet Today, edited by Ruth Reichl. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $40.
It was just a couple of weeks ago that Conde Nast, which owns Gourmet magazine, said that it is shutting the magazine down. Now, that's some timing, just as Gourmet's editor-in-chief was going on tour to promote the new Gourmet Today -- and just as PBS stations were getting ready to premier the new Gourmet TV series Adventures With Ruth.
The good news is that even if we won't have new magazine issues after November, we will have a book of more than 1,000 recipes, most of which can be made in an hour or less.
The editors said that test cooks spent five years on this book. A good chunk of that time was checking out all the new ingredients available in the supermarkets --such things as frozen pizza dough, Thai chili pastes and eggroll wrappers -- and finding the ways to use them.
In other words Today tries to be up-to-date with recipes that reflect the global marketplace and consumers' savvy, global palates.
The book includes lots of small, helpful illustrations and sidebars on ingredients. These recipes are new; cocktails have been added; there are lots of seasonal menu suggestions. Check out the cauliflower mousse, which is Reichl's favorite family-friendly recipe.
Other recipes include weiner schnitzel cornmeal sugar cookies, grilled cumin chicken breasts with avocado salsa, raspberry lime rickey, grilled ceasar salad, and chocolate chunk oatmeal coconut cookies.
So we won't have Gourmet tomorrow, but we at least have Gourmet Today -- and we are thankful for that.
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