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 Booty
Food
by Jacqui Malouf with Liz Gumbinner
The
Seduction Cookbook:
Culinary
Creations for Lovers
by Diane Brown
Reviewed
by Kevin Schoeler
Two
new books passionately combine food and romance. Food Network
personality and Angeleno Jacqui Malouf (along with writer
Liz Gumbinner) penned Booty
Food, "a date-by-date, course-by-course, nibble-by-nibble
guide to cultivating love and passion through food."
Another L.A. food figure, Intimate Catering proprietor Diane
Brown, brings us The
Seduction Cookbook: Culinary Creations for Lovers—intended
to help you "work culinary magic on your mate."
 Malouf,
known best as the cohost on "Hot of the Grill with
Bobby Flay" puts forth a diligent and comprehensive
treatise on the connection between food and relationships—"Couples
who cook together in the kitchen cook together in
life." In more than 250 weighty and colorful pages,
we journey through the life of a relationship, from First
Date Eating, to The Marathon of Lust, to Everything Old
is New Again. It's part dating manual, part therapist, part
relationship advice and part food guide and cookbook.
It's
easy to dismiss a book like this as gimmicky. Malouf, however,
has put a great deal of effort into her work. She's a lot
of fun but the message is serious, so Booty Food
balances the message with lots of banter, winks and naughtiness.
It is both entertaining and informative, and appropriately
blunt at times. It will help you buy a good selection of
kitchen tools, teach you how to behave appropriately in
many circumstances (including dinner with the parents),
and cook Grilled Lamb Chops with Shaved-Truffle Gnocchi.
You'll find opinions on what to order up "when cooking
is the last thing on your mind" as well as help mending
a broken heart with the "booty food breakup food pyramid,"
which includes plenty of chocolate, cake and ice cream.
This
only scratches the surface. Booty Food's recipes
are written with two in mind, and range from Crispy Calamari
with Caper Aioli, silky Five-Star Butternut Squash Soup,
and Bistecca all Fiorentina to White Truffle Mac and Cheese,
and Rice Pudding. It's altogether delicious, provocative
and necessary.
 In
The Seduction Cookbook, Restaurant industry professional
Diane Brown's intentions are more straightforward. It's
all about spending "less time in the kitchen and more
time enchanting a lover." Brown begins by teaching
how to set the stage-with a "sexy invitation to dine,"
dimming the lights, scented candle... and then there's the
food.
Brown
shares more than 80 recipes like Curried Chick Pea and Red
Pepper Soup ("a hot and spicy soup that will lead to
a hot and spicy physical state"), Horseradish and Pecan
Crusted Chicken, and Seductive Chocolate Soufflés.
The libido link is explained for each dish-even Sautéed
Spinach with Golden Raisins and Pine Nuts.
Seduction
or suggestiveness is more obvious with some dishes—like
Chocolate-Dipped Cherries or Caramelized Figs with Raspberry
Coulis. Others, like Pasta Puttanesca, make more sense after
you think for a minute. Betcha didn't ever consider the
origin of "puttanesca."
The
Seduction Cookbook is perfect if you're looking to get
right to the point, whereas Booty Food is carnal,
cerebral and emotional. Whatever direction you take, there's
plenty to eat along the way.
Buy
Booty Food
Buy
The Seduction Cookbook
Recipe
—CURRIED
CHICK PEA AND RED PEPPER SOUP
—WHITE
TRUFFLE MAC AND CHEESE
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Corner for additional reviews
(Updated:
01/20/06)
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