By Wolfgang Puck
(Warner Home Video; $29.98)
(STAR)(STAR)(STAR)
”All I ever wanted to do was open a simple little restaurant,” Wolfgang Puck says in a voice that is one part Arnold Schwarzenegger and one part Barbara Walters.
”I was formally trained in Europe,” he gushes as the video opens,
”but after I moved to California, I threw most of the traditional rule books out the window. I thought most of my customers were ready, too. For once in my life I was right. And my little restaurant became successful beyond my wildest dreams.”
Absolutely, Wolfgang, baby. Wolfgang Puck is star. His Los Angeles restaurant, Spago, is still one of the hottest restaurants in the Big Orange. And his other restaurant, Chinois on Main, continues to keep them enthralled in oh-so-quiet Santa Monica, Calif.
And the reason, as this tape demonstrates, is that the puckish Mr. Puck is a very good cook. Maybe not a genius. But certainly an artist. In a little more than an hour he offers us 15 of his specialties including mandarin steak salad, his signature pastas and pizzas, as well as veal medallions with onion marmalade and port wine sauce and grilled salmon with ginger and black pepper in cabernet butter. He gets a little help from his celebrity friends-Kate Capshaw, Cristina Ferrare, Vincent Price, Joel Grey and Robert Townsend. And surprisingly, the interaction between star chef and the celebrity student works.
Most of the recipes are not designed to feed a large group. But they are perfect for a romantic evening for two. Watch how expertly Puck sautes, salts and seasons his creations. Just be sure to jot down the recipes as they appear on the screen (a recipe booklet would have helped).
JULIA CHILD: THE WAY TO COOK
By Julia Child
(Random House Home Video; $19.95)
(STAR)(STAR)(STAR)(STAR)
Has it really been more than 25 years since Julia Child (with co-authors Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle) first got our collective whisks whirring with the first volume of the now classic ”Mastering the Art of French Cooking?” Has it really been more than two decades since Julia`s ”The French Chef” series premiered nationally on public television?
Mais oui. Well, if you laughed at and loved Julia all these years, then her series of home videotapes entitled, ”The Way to Cook” will have you cracking out the pots and pans faster than you can say, ”Bon Appetit!”
The team that produced these tapes was composed of Child`s own production company, WGBH-TV in Boston (the producer of her television series) and Alfred A. Knopf (her longtime publisher). The expertise shows. There are six one-hour tapes in all-meat, vegetables, soups, salads and bread, fish and eggs, first courses and desserts, and poultry-and each one is a lusty, little gem.
The tapes are far closer in spirit to the ”Mastering the Art” cookbooks than they are to Julia`s television programs for the public broadcasting system. For these are not a mere collection of recipes but rather a series of beautifully crafted lessons that underscore the principles of fine cooking, obviously from an unabashedly French perspective.
Each recipe builds on lessons gleaned from its predecessor: If you learn to saute chicken properly, you can then conquer chicken in a mushroom-cream sauce. In addition, each tape boasts a wealth of information on techniques-from deboning a chicken breast to seeding and peeling a tomato (a task fraught with peril for the uninitiated).
Furthermore, each demonstration is ”indexed” with a handy reference number at the top of the television frame so that it can be cross checked in the clearly written recipe booklet that accompanies each tape.
These are dishes firmly grounded in the history of the French countryside, time-honored classics (aromatic stews, roasts, omelettes, pates, tarts and quiches) that any French grandmother would be proud to prepare. And let the diet-conscious be warned: The divine trinity of butter, cream and eggs is worshiped without shame.
Best of all there is Julia-funny and wise and totally at ease in front of the camera. Who could ask for anything more?
BON APPETIT ”TOO BUSY TO COOK” SERIES: ”EASY ENTERTAINING,”
By Mark Peel and Susan Arnell
(Lorimar Home Video; $14.95)
(STAR)
Bon Appetit magazine has marketed four home videos in a series entitled
”Too Busy to Cook.” And based on one tape, ”Easy Entertaining,” if you`re that busy, maybe you should stay out of the kitchen altogether.
In an effort to make things simple and yet sound profound, the hosts, Mark Peel and Susan Arnell, often sink into banality. At one point, chef Mark instructs us solemnly that when making a salad, the greens ”should be washed ahead of time.”
But the major problem is that the main recipe is far too easy for anyone who knows anything as basic as how to broil a lamb chop. In fact, that`s exactly what the main recipe is: broiled lamps chops. Well, sure they`re gussied up with a little bit of garlic-olive-oil-and-lemon-juice marinade, but when you get right down to it, we`re talking broiled lamb chops. Mark and Susan, of course, discuss this recipe with the same fervor that others reserve for nuclear disarmament.
The recipe cards that accompany this tape, however, are useful as are Mark`s tips for deglazing a pan to make a classic sauce to serve with your steak. But unless you want to watch two very pleasant and attractive people say very little, you can skip this tape.
CHEF PAUL PRUDHOMME`S LOUISIANA KITCHEN. VOLUMES 1 AND 2
By Paul Prudhomme
(J2 Communications; $19.95 each)
(STAR)(STAR)
Do not be fooled. Paul Prudhomme is not really Dom DeLuise pitching ZipLoc bags on the tube. Prudhomme is the very, very famous chef of K-Paul`s Louisiana Kitchen in New Orleans. And chef Paul pitches chef Paul. He also pitches Louisiana cooking, Cajun and creole. If it comes from New Orleans, chef Paul pitches it.
Prudhomme has two tapes out. Vol. 1 includes a complete Cajun meal (Cajun popcorn and sherry wine sauce, blackened redfish, Mama`s yeast rolls, bread pudding, and Cajun martinis) and Vol. 2 includes Cajun and creole classics
(jambalaya, blackened prime rib, chicken and andouille smoked sausage gumbo and the fabled Cajun roux). Each tape is $19.95 and runs less than 40 minutes. What you get is Prudhomme doing his act, which basically is lots of lip smacking platitudes on the glories of Cajun cooking. There also are some delightful shots of the bayou country.
Both tapes include an interesting demonstration of how food is
”blackened” Louisiana style (the first tape uses redfish and the second tape uses prime rib). A cast iron skillet has been cut away and we get to see how the intense-heat literally lifts the food from the pan. There`s lots of smoke, and because the shots were taken in slow motion, there`s a nice surreal effect, too.
But mostly, you just get chef Paul, an accomplished performer, telling us how wonderful Louisiana cooking is. Those who desire an in-depth look at Louisiana cooking will be disappointed with these tapes. But if you prefer your cooking lessons short and sweet, heavily seasoned with anecdotes, chef Paul is your man.
THE SILVER PALATE: GOOD TIMES LIVE
By Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins
(Video Paramount Home Video; $24.95)
(STAR)
There`s no arguing with success. Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins are the owners of New York`s tremendously successful ”Silver Palate” gourmet shop, which is known far and wide for the line of condiments it distributes nationwide. Julee and Sheila are also the authors of the two tremendously successful Silver Palate entertaining/lifestyle/recipe books. And now Julee and Sheila are the stars of their very own home-video, which will probably be tremendously successful, too.
Which just goes to show you what glitzy packaging, heavy promotion, and name recognition will do. This time out, however, Julee and Shelia can`t cut the mustard.
The problem is that this is a home entertaining tape rather than a cooking tape (recipes, however, are included in a slim booklet tucked inside the glistening tape box). And without Russo and Lukins actually doing anything (except giving us party ideas) we are forced to listen to their babble and view ”scenes” of staged New York parties that look like lifestyles of the not so rich and not at all famous.
Parts of the script sound like poorly written advertising copy (”From the high society days of 18th Century Versailles to the high tech present, champagne has exuded celebration and sparkled with romance”). Other statements strain credulity (”beer has moved into wine and champagne circles and become the beverage of the `80s”). And some of the entertaining ”tips” are impractical at best (”grow edible flowers in your garden and then float them in May wine”).
A few of the suggestions on purchasing coffee and making a poor-man`s capuccino are helpful, as are the tips on barbecuing and packaging food in foil.
But if you want to have a smashing party, read the Silver Palate cookbooks, with their delicious, easy-to-do recipes. Give this tape as a gift to some no-brain who will never open it anyway.
CRAIG CLAIBORNE AND PIERRE FRANEY
THE MASTER COOKING COURSE
By Craig Claiborne
(MCA Home Video; $29.95)
(STAR)(STAR)(STAR)
Claiborne fans probably won`t be able to do without this tape, produced in 1984, in which Craig cooks alongside his longtime colleague Pierre Franey, formerly a leading French chefs in Manhattan and now a columnist in his own right.
In Claiborne`s kitchen, Craig and Pierre whip up four complete menus:
fish mousse with bonne femme sauce, chicken Portugese style, buttered rice, a lettuce salad and meringues with ice cream; then cream of carrot soup, veal scaloppine Viennese style, pommes au gratin, beet and endive salad, and berry ice with cassis; then stuffed clams, steak au poivre, sauteed potatoes, mimosa salad, chocolate mousse, and finally asparagus vinaigrette, poached salmon with hollandaise, parsleyed potatoes, Swedish cucumber salad, and an apple tart.
In addition they teach us how to sharpen a knife using a sharpening stone, flute a mushroom and produce tomato roses.
Through the wonders of deft editing (it appears to have been shot on film and then transfered to tape), they do all of this in a mere 57 minutes. And therein lies a problem. The video tries to cover too much ground in too short a time.
But the instructions on proper breading technique, saucemaking, pan deglazing, and poaching are first rate. So are the recipes, many of them French bistro classics made easier by the use of the food processor. Just don`t try to tackle too many of them too quickly.
