One of Cooper's menu solutions that has "sold like crazy" is a composition of entree elements in a "small plate" presentation - grilled skirt steak slices with "sides" of grilled onion and portobello mushroom, and spinach topped with shaved gorgonzola (recipe follows). Also popular: grilled marinated shrimp, grilled corn, jicama julienne, and spicy mango dressing.
These are essentially mini meals - a small plate with an ounce or two of protein, a side veggie, and a few bites of salad or pasta.
Warm-weather menus for home cooks can be just as challenging, which explains why small portions are making the move from trendy restaurant menus to home kitchens.
Indeed, appetizers and small plates are the new entrees and the subject of a slew of new cookbooks.
In Small Bites, Big Nights: Seductive Little Plates for Intimate Occasions and Lavish Parties (Clarkson Potter, $30), celebrity chef and new author Govind Armstrong offers bite-size morsels and small-plate portions for home cooks with the same blend of contemporary California cuisine and classic comfort food that has made his Table 8 restaurants in West Hollywood and Miami's South Beach so successful.
Whether it's a mini onion soup cup or a bite-size Yorkshire pudding topped with a slice of Kobe beef, a cluster of tender-crisp blanched beans and frisee salad wrapped sushi-style in prosciutto, or a single jumbo shrimp perched in a nest of roasted cauliflower, his small plates have the substance of entrees.
A more traditional approach to small bites is found in Hors d'Oeuvre at Home with the Culinary Institute of America: Essential Techniques and Recipes for Creating Great Small Bites (John Wiley & Sons, $29.95).
