Risotto

Most people who find themselves with a taste for risotto probably go out to eat. Fine, but not necessary; risotto is not a dish that can be stirred to perfection only by a native Milanese chef. That's the first part of the good news here. The second part is that, although risotto needs constant supervision in order not to misbehave, a plate of it that is every bit as creamy and tasty as one cooked in some trendy trattoria can be stirred up at home in about 40 minutes, even counting the time it takes to get all the stuff out of the cupboards and chop the shallots.

If you've never swooned over rice, you've never had risotto. This is a rice dish that's as basic to the cuisine of the Po Valley in Northern Italy as spaghetti is to Calabria and the regions of the south. Its creamy consistency will erase forever the notion that dry, fluffy rice is the only way to go. Risotto is an Italian rice dish that's cooked in butter with stock and often includes various savory foods. It's part technique and part ingredients; always slightly chewy, a bit silken and somewhat soupy.

"You!" chef Fernand Chambrette growled, pointing in my direction. "Go stand by that risotto and stir!" I had eaten risotto once before, at a friend's home in Turin, Italy, and it was unlike anything I had ever tasted. The rice had been stirred into a wondrous porridge, the grains gradually releasing their starch into slowly ladled stock, creating a creamy sauce scented with white wine and tangy fontina cheese. Each grain remained distinct and plump, yet suspended in satiny richness.

Risotto is an Old World food quickly gaining favor in these high-tech times. A specialty of northern Italy, risotto is a process of repeatedly boiling rice to produce a chewy texture and a delicious flavor. It is then mixed with vegetables and meats to produce a classy one-dish meal. While the risotto rage might not equal the pasta passion, this rice dish is increasingly showing up in restaurants, cookbooks and homes. It is as versatile as pasta, although preparation takes a little longer.

It's one thing to relax at a restaurant table and savor a famous chef's signature recipes. It's quite another to pull up a chair while Lidia Bastianich makes spicy shrimp risotto - chatting all the while about ingredients and techniques during a leisurely 90-minute session - and to be on the receiving end when the restaurateur, PBS cooking show host, and author of Lidia's Italian Table (Morrow, $30) dishes up each serving herself. While restaurant dinners remain the foundation of the annual 10-day Book and the Cook Festival, which ended Sunday, the number of chances to observe visiting chef-authors in action multiplied this year.

Will success spoil Gary's Little Rock Cafe, the best little restaurant downtheshore? Oh, the food is still terrific, creative, reasonably priced and attractively served. It's just that complacency seems to be gnawing at the edges of this year-old Ventnor restaurant. Telephone manners seem frayed, the greeting at the door aloof. Spending 12 minutes in the narrow entrance waiting for an 8 o'clock reservation, clutching a rapidly warming bottle of chardonnay - that's not my idea of a prelude to a fine dining experience.

The ambition of every "fancy food" is to grow up to be salsa: a taste sensation that rose from obscurity and went on to outsell ketchup. Thousands of hopefuls are assembled at the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade's Fancy Food Show, now playing at the Pennsylvania Convention Center - everything from gourmet peanut butter-and-jelly spreads to jalapeno chocolates. "Fancy" foods are the sort of edibles one usually finds only at gourmet or gift shops. They appeal to a narrow segment of the population - say, a particular ethnic group or a particular kind of adventurous eater.

Grains are making a comeback in American cooking. These ancient foods of sustenance have been around since the first cooking pot, but modern cooks are rediscovering grains as a healthy, hearty addition to fall and winter menus. Grains are complex carbohydrates, the best kind for getting fiber, B and E vitamins, protein, and essential minerals. They also fill you up, but add little fat to your diet. With the new food pyramid, the government has upped its recommendation from four daily grain servings to six to 11. If you're a busy cook, though, you will want to choose your grains carefully.

For those who like to start off the new year on a good gastronomical note, Upstares at Varalli should do the trick. This may be one of Center City's best-kept restaurant secrets. Varalli's has a lot of things going for it. Most important is its food preparation. Dishes are put together with imagination and an eye to detail. Ingredients generally are top-quality and prices modest. And while the menu features a minimum of dishes - most of which reflect stylized versions of things Italian - the selections offer enough variety to draw you back for subsequent visits.

"Big Night" should be seen in the early evening, with dinner reservations to follow at your favorite Italian restaurant. This movie is quite literally mouth-watering, with glamorously photographed stars that include quatroformaggio risotto, focaccia, crostini with goat cheese, and something called timpano - an enormous, artery-hardening mound of Italian food, sliced like a cake. "Big Night" is the story of two Italian immigrants trying to start a gourmet restaurant in a small and not terribly sophisticated community somewhere at the Jersey shore in the late 1950s.

32 ounces mushroom stock or chicken broth 3 tablespoons olive oil 1 clove fresh garlic, minced 6 ounces fresh shiitake mushrooms, chopped 4 ounces fresh oyster mushrooms, chopped 4 ounces fresh portobello mushrooms, chopped 2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves, chopped 4 tablespoons unsalted butter 12 ounces arborio rice 6 ounces white wine (preferably dry, such as a Chablis) 2 scallions, chopped 1 sprig Italian parsley, chopped 2 ounces Parmesan cheese, grated Salt and pepper to taste   1. In a saucepan, heat broth or stock to simmer and hold.

For the beets: 4 medium yellow beets 1 to 2 teaspoons olive oil A few pinches sea salt 2 tablespoons agave nectar For the risotto: 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 teaspoon diced ginger 1 teaspoon diced garlic 1 cup sliced shiitake mushroom caps 2 cups arborio rice Approximately 1 to 2 teaspoons sea salt, to taste 5 cups water 1 cup soy or almond milk 1/4 cup...

Even if it weren't as good as it is, Tom Boswell's How Life Imitates the World Series (1982) would deserve to be a classic just for the title. While many fans love to follow the roots of baseball back to the 19th century, we know it's no more immune to change than other aspects of American life. Which changes constitute progress is a matter of endless debate in sports, politics, music, and almost every other arena. Both life and baseball have their no-brainers, of course.

THERE ARE some superstars in Philly's BYOB lineup that get national as well as local attention. Recently I was reminded of a quiet South Philly steady hitter - August, on 13th Street at Wharton. Owners Maria Vanni and MaryAnn Brancaccio celebrated the restaurant's fifth anniversary recently, so it seemed like a good time to re-evaluate what is obviously a favorite of many, despite its relative obscurity. Or as Chef Brancaccio wryly notes, "No one comes to August because of me, so the food has to shine.

Saturday, Nov. 10 Women in Wine, tastings, auction and a cook-off. Lorraine Bracco ( The Sopranos ) and Peggy Fleming (Olympic gold medalist) are among 24 guest winemakers. Chefs Michael Schulson (Style Network's "Pantry Raid") and Geoffrey Zakarian (New York's Town & Country restaurants) will compete Iron Chef-style, with Ricki Lake and Robin Leach hosting, and foods by chefs Michael Mina, Thaddeus DuBois and more. For Living Beyond Breast Cancer and the Atlantic County Women's Center.

Here in Philadelphia we have our own "Breakfast at Tiffany's. " But you don't have to be two drifters off to see the world to enjoy lunch at Boyds. At this outpost of Brasserie Perrier you'll find designer shopping, Audrey Hepburn chic, and food good enough to chase away whatever the color of your bad mood. The best part is that you can write your own script. Or so advises Jesse Sarnoff, the GM who came from D.C. about four months ago and doesn't mind if customers dash in and out or stay the afternoon.

"You!" chef Fernand Chambrette growled, pointing in my direction. "Go stand by that risotto and stir!" I had eaten risotto once before, at a friend's home in Turin, Italy, and it was unlike anything I had ever tasted. The rice had been stirred into a wondrous porridge, the grains gradually releasing their starch into slowly ladled stock, creating a creamy sauce scented with white wine and tangy fontina cheese. Each grain remained distinct and plump, yet suspended in satiny richness.

Keith Famie, the rice-challenged chef from CBS's Survivor: The Australian Outback, slides a steaming plate of mushroom risotto across a stainless-steel kitchen counter at Philadelphia's Sofitel Hotel and dares a reporter to dig in. This is Famie's answer to the question that has dogged him ever since he flubbed his tribe's first meal in Episode 2 of the so-called reality show: How could a guy who had cooked in restaurants for 20 years botch something...

It's one thing to relax at a restaurant table and savor a famous chef's signature recipes. It's quite another to pull up a chair while Lidia Bastianich makes spicy shrimp risotto - chatting all the while about ingredients and techniques during a leisurely 90-minute session - and to be on the receiving end when the restaurateur, PBS cooking show host, and author of Lidia's Italian Table (Morrow, $30) dishes up each serving herself. While restaurant dinners remain the foundation of the annual 10-day Book and the Cook Festival, which ended Sunday, the number of chances to observe visiting chef-authors in action multiplied this year.