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Good books, old friends

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By Kara Kvasnicka

Tuesday, November 29, -0001

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Unfortunately, my hectic schedule has never permitted me to spend near the time I would desire getting acquainted with it.

Its only dog-eared, sticky pages are ones with cookie recipes. I consult even those just a few times annually when I do my holiday baking.

Sadly neglected is every other chapter of my copy of the supremely sensible Pillsbury Cookbook: The All-Purpose Companion for Today's Cook (Doubleday, 1989).

Still, I probably peruse as many cookbooks in a given year as I read novels. When new ones arrive at my library — bright, shiny and ready to be borrowed by someone who actually knows how to mince garlic — I have about as much will power to resist them as a squirrel does bird seed.

I could justify my insatiable appetite for all literature relating to the culinary arts by barraging you with all the useful and intriguing information I have amassed from it about various cultural traditions.

But, truth be told, the recipes themselves are what lead me into temptation. I lose all track of time studying the ingredients for each one in a dangerously trance-like state. I am snapped back to reality only when it finally dawns on me that my relatively rudimentary skills are probably not equal to the task of transforming them into anything edible.

I am hopelessly smitten with the innovative physical attributes and irresistible illustrations that are part and parcel of most entries in this genre which seeks to stimulate all the senses. So enticing are the production values of the cookbook with which I am currently infatuated, I am more inclined to shelve it with my remaindered art book collection than use it in my kitchen.

Its visual component is by far the top-selling feature of Once Upon a Tart: Soups, Salads, Muffins, and More from New York City's Favorite Bakeshop and Cafe (Alfred A. Knopf, 2003, $27.50).

With the help of freelance writer Carolynn Carreno, the book is co-authored by Frank Mentesana and Jerome Audureau. They are joint owners and operators of the bakery in Manhattan's chic SoHo District after which the book is named.

Mentesana also contributes the stunning color photographs which grace the majority of pages.

The book's main purpose is to introduce us to the shop's tantalizing menu. It is also an inspiring rags to riches account of how Mentesana and Audureau realized their dream of selling tarts and other rustic comfort fare for a living.

Mentesana's camera work alone is so mesmerizing that any of the accompanying words are almost irrelevant.

Granted, you are more likely to fixate on his mouth watering reproductions of sweet and savory tarts, muffins, gift-wrapped tea loaves and adorably iced sugar cookies. Yet, you will find his still lifes of ingredients in their raw form every bit as entrancing.

Nonetheless, do not allow yourself to be entirely sidetracked by Mentesana's seductive close-ups of pastries and main course dishes that look so fresh out of the oven you can almost smell their ambrosial aromas. There is as much substance to the book's text as there is style in the smart and sassy design that frames it.

Both Audureau and Mentesana provide engaging introductions which reveal how their partnership evolved.

They reminisce fondly over the "trial and error" days in the early nineties when they "started by selling only wholesale . . . to different gourmet stores and small restaurants in the neighborhood."

Mentesana recalls, "We were crammed into Jerome's loft in Long Island City with this one regular oven and an apartment-size refrigerator."

When they established enough of a regular clientele to merit a full-scale commercial operation, they rented an unprepossessing storefront at 135 Sullivan St. Its interior was, Audureau remembers, "painted a horrible gray with matching industrial carpeting on the floor."

Likewise, "SoHo was not like it is now. It was just a few art galleries and advertising agencies — and a lot of giant, empty warehouses."

But the place, coincidentally a bakery 90 years prior, had "charm" and "potential."

They remade it into a quaint but unassuming eatery with pretty French provincial decor. Then, gradually, as SoHo's popularity grew, so did Once Upon a Tart's.

More than happy to have in this book a format by which to share their frequently requested recipes, Mentesana insists there is no secret to his and Audureau's success.

"We didn't reinvent the chocolate-chip cookie. We don't even have mysterious or complicated recipes … We have a different goal in mind when we're coming up with recipes. We want to take those things we love to eat — some things from our childhoods, and some things we've discovered along the way — and, with fresher ingredients, better bread, more vibrant condiments, make them better."

Indeed, there is nothing coy or deceptive about the names of the specialties which have made local legends of these adventurous cooks without any formal training. You may not be able to decide between a slice of sauteed spinach-and-mushroom tart with ricotta cheese or three-onion soup, but you are guaranteed they will consist chiefly of the substances used to identify them.

Charmingly beginning each with "Once Upon a …," the authors divide their fairy tale for food lovers into separate chapters for savory tarts, sweet tarts, soups, sandwiches, salads, condiments, scones, quick breads and cookies.

All begin with an entertaining prologue on the origins of many of the recipes and customers' responses to them. Practical tips are also sprinkled liberally throughout each section.

The latter span every topic imaginable, from what kind of liquid measuring cup the authors advocate using to how to remove the bitterness from eggplant.

As is only fitting, the most invaluable advice they impart concerns crust. Their minutely-detailed, step-by-step instructions do not leave a single question unanswered.

The authors repeatedly stress their fervent belief that only the highest quality ingredients should be used in cooking or baking.

Dieters beware! Apparently having had many heated discussions on the subject with more health-conscious cooks, they steadfastly maintain that indescribably delicious taste and texture cannot be obtained by substituting fats.

In other words, if you do not want to go up a clothing size, you will want to hold off on that pumpkin tart with sugared pastry leaves until Thanksgiving.

Given my own determination not to be bested by my sweet tooth, the mere act of contemplating all this book's heavenly possibilities will have to suffice. Well, okay, I might make one exception. Those carrot cake muffins with lemon-cream icing sound oh, so divine.

Otherwise, when looking for ways to expand my everyday cooking repertoire, I will gladly stick with the old Pillsbury standby my mother picked for me.

Inarguably, moms know best!

Kvasnicka, a former East Village Magazine news editor, has been the magazine's contributing editor and researce consultant since 1989. She is the librarian at the Genesee District Library's Goodrich Branch.

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