The Printed Feast

Recently, I’ve come across two cookbooks and a wine book that are as entertaining as they are useful. Arthur Schwartz, the talented food editor of the New York Daily News, has solved the predicament many of us suffer from: how to cook in a small space. Cooking in a Small Kitchen (Little, Brown, $8.95) goes through the whole bit— “Equipment and Logistics,” “Soups,” “Pasta,” “Salads and Raw Foods,” “One-Pot Dinners,” “Skillet Cooking,” “Broiling and Roasting,” “Dinners for Two,” “Dinners for Four,” “Brunches and Breakfasts,” “Feeding a Crowd: Party Food,” and “Desserts.”

Chapters and recipes are properly introduced, and you are told what you will need to know if you are not (and even if you are) a practiced cook. For example, in the case of a sauteed chicken that has been put on a large platter while the cook is making the sauce, the author says: “To reserve your counter space for more necessary functions (remember, we are in a small kitchen) like chopping a vegetable or putting down a spoon, place this platter right on top of the stove near the pan you’re working in or keep it in the off or very low oven.” This may seem obvious, but I have tested the problem in my own small kitchen, and people invariably put the platter on the limited counter space.

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Nika Hazelton

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Recently, I’ve come across two cookbooks and a wine book that are as entertaining as they are useful. Arthur Schwartz, the talented food editor of the New York Daily News, has solved the predicament many of us suffer from: how to cook in a small space. Cooking in a Small Kitchen (Little, Brown, $8.95) goes through the whole bit— “Equipment and Logistics,” “Soups,” “Pasta,” “Salads and Raw Foods,” “One-Pot Dinners,” “Skillet Cooking,” “Broiling and Roasting,” “Dinners for Two,” “Dinners for Four,” “Brunches and Breakfasts,” “Feeding a Crowd: Party Food,” and “Desserts.”

Chapters and recipes are properly introduced, and you are told what you will need to know if you are not (and even if you are) a practiced cook. For example, in the case of a sauteed chicken that has been put on a large platter while the cook is making the sauce, the author says: “To reserve your counter space for more necessary functions (remember, we are in a small kitchen) like chopping a vegetable or putting down a spoon, place this platter right on top of the stove near the pan you’re working in or keep it in the off or very low oven.” This may seem obvious, but I have tested the problem in my own small kitchen, and people invariably put the platter on the limited counter space.