Book will have you cooking like a chef in your own home

Can you really cook fancy restaurant fare at home, without a handy supply of sous-chefs and demiglace? Gourmet magazine and its ilk have made that promise for years. “Chef Interrupted: Delicious Chefs’ Recipes That You Can Actually Make at Home,” by Melissa Clark (Clarkson Potter, $32.50), like several other new cookbooks, contends it’s not just possible, but easy.

Clark took recipes from more than 50 well-known chefs and simplified them – in her publicist’s words, “interrupted a chef’s elaborate vision before it got out of hand.” The “interrupted” terminology isn’t just catchy. It’s an affirmation for the humble home cook; Clark isn’t dumbing down dishes so much as reining in culinary artistes.

Dishes are the sophisticated, even exotic, sort you’d expect at high-end restaurants: Pear and Pecorino Ravioli; Flatiron Steak Rendang with Spiced Coconut Sauce; and, from the I-dare-you school of outlandish ingredient usage, Rosemary Polenta Poundcake and Olive Oil Whipped Cream.

But does the easy-as-pie promise pan out?

Some dishes really are a snap, like the Yellow Pepper and Almond Soup, a velvety puree of toasted nuts and peppers. The Warm Gougeres with Crunchy Sea Salt – tasty cheese puffs, made with a savory pâte and choux dough – were harder to pronounce than bake.

Other recipes took some doing, either because they involved steps like grinding spices with mortar and pestle or required hunting down exotic ingredients (kaffir lime leaves and lavender salt, to name a few). They weren’t all worth the effort.

The book is written in an informal, occasionally self-deprecating, tone. It’s attractively designed, though it does not have lots of photographs. Beside each recipe are good tips for handling and locating obscure ingredients.