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.com Review ----------- The Nantucket Restaurants Cookbook is exactly that, a collection of menus from a whole host of restaurants on Nantucket Island. And for such a small island, Nantucket has a lot to offer the hungry gourmet. Samara Farber Mormar, a former chef, is a Nantucket resident and loves everything about the island. Her coauthor, Melissa Clark, is a cookbook writer and columnist for The New York Times. Together they interviewed the chefs and owners of 18 Nantucket restaurants and wrote a chapter on each which includes a little history, a little personality, some local color, and a showstopping menu. Black-Eyed Susan's doesn't advertise, take reservations, or publish a phone number, but there's always a line out the door. With beautiful, summery dishes such as their Tuna Tartare with Cucumbers and Sriracha Aioli and Lemon Tart with Spring Strawberry Sorbet, it's no wonder. You'd expect The Boarding House to serve simple food, but you'd be wrong. Angela and Seth Raynor met as culinary students, and while he was cooking French on Nantucket at the Chanticleer, she was cooking in France. Today, their love for all things French flavors their "new American" cuisine in dishes such as the refreshing Cold Tomato Infusion with Lobster. The Club Car is revered for its food and service far beyond the island's shores. Their Grilled Veal Medallions with Fresh Horseradish Cream and Poached Oysters is more than worth the time it takes to prepare. While you can't enjoy the setting of The Galley on Cliffside Beach--"smack dab on the beach"--without going there, Goat-Cheese-Stuffed Squash Blossoms with Grilled Onion and Tomato Vinaigrette and Rosewater Angel Food Cake with Blackberries and Lemon Verbena help to explain the entrancing serenity of the island described by every one of these chefs. Only a handful of the chefs are Nantucket natives; most of them migrated to the island, or happened upon it. But once there, they fell in love with it and stayed. The result is a plethora of fine dining establishments, and although many are only open during the summer season, much of their business is repeat. So if you always imagined Nantucket cuisine as fried clams on the beach, think again. "Sophisticated food and warm hospitality" is the order of the day. Come and meet the generous food community from Nantucket, and follow their lead--maybe all that island serenity comes just as much from painted plates of Banana Bread French Toast with Bananas Foster and Crème Fraîche as it does from the windswept dunes and the sapphire sea. --Leora Y. Bloom Read more ( javascript:void(0) ) From Publishers Weekly ---------------------- Lovingly assembled by New York Times columnist Clark and Nantucket food publicist Mormar, this true foodie's cookbook features dishes from 18 restaurants representing the highest of high-end dining at the popular summer retreat. Nantucket, as the authors explain, has come a long way from its whaling-village, hardtack-and-salt-pork culinary roots. Today the island's menus rival their urban counterparts in diversity and cosmopolitanism, reflecting centuries of influence from immigrant seafarers and well-heeled visitors, Portuguese fishermen and classically trained chefs. The authors include a wide representation of culinary styles, from classic Escoffier at the Chanticleer to uninhibited Asian fusion at Black-Eyed Susan's. The selections, though eclectic, like Hot-Smoked Salmon Beignets with Rose Pepper Beurre Blanc and Grilled Red Endive Garnished with Caviar and Beet Ravioli with Truffle Butter Sauce, are bound by a certain thematic unity: they tend to showcase seasonal ingredients and fresh seafood. Although bursting with ambitious ingredients and no shortcuts, to Clark and Mormar's credit, even daunting techniques (e.g., scented pastry creams, oil infusions) are presented accessibly. Eminently readable and elegant, the book captures the best of the leisurely oceanside season with which to tempt both sophisticated entertainers and armchair epicures. (Apr. 24) Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. Read more ( javascript:void(0) ) See all Editorial Reviews ( /dp/product-description/0375504249/ref=dp_proddesc_0?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books&isInIframe=0 )