Date: Fri 27-Jun-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

Carole-Peck-CIA-chef-Good-News

Full Text:

Carole Peck's Unique, Practical Style, Available For The First Time For Home

Cooks

(with photo & book cover)

BY KAAREN VALENTA

WOODBURY - Nothing seems to faze Carole Peck.

A rising culinary star long before she began opening restaurants in

Connecticut, she tackles major projects with aplomb. Not even the task of

preparing Grilled Black Bass Tricolor Provencale Peperade with Crispy Leeks

and Zucchini for 650 people attending the International Association of

Culinary Professionals' Julia Child Cookbooks Awards banquet several years ago

gave her pause.

She really loves a party. In fact, she's put on thousands of them in her 28

years as a professional chef, caterer and owner of The Good News Cafe in

Woodbury. Now she has pulled together many of her best menus and decorating

suggestions in The Buffet Book: Inspired Ideas for New-Style Entertaining , a

book she co-authored with Carolyn Hart Bryant.

If you're familiar with the Carole Peck story, the light-heartedness of her

approach to cooking belies her years of rigorous training. One of the first

women graduates of the Culinary Institute of America, she was a name chef

before she was 30, in demand at luxury resorts and top city restaurants.

She developed a style uniquely her own, an inventive American which employs

ingredients and techniques from around the world, but relies on the freshest

local produce - she cooks with the season, often organically.

Considering all of the praise she has received - voted one of the 10 best

chefs in the country by Food Arts and Eating Well magazines, called

"extraordinary" by The New York Times and "a flawless wonder" by Connecticut

magazine - you might expect Carole Peck, 43, to be unapproachable. In fact,

she is down-to-earth, quick-witted, elegant but entirely unpretentious. She

keeps her hair cropped short - practical for working in hot restaurant

kitchens - and freely admits she is always fighting an up-and-down battle with

her weight, another hazard of working constantly with food.

She lives with her husband, the artist Bernard Cabernet-Jarrier, in a

converted 1740 cider mill which was moved from Oxford to Woodbury in 1973.

Like the restaurant, the house is decorated with an eclectic mix of American

folk art, antiques and collectibles. It's chock-a-block with collections:

miniature working stoves which were salesmen's samples, folk art, Oriental

carpets, old kitchen equipment and implements, tureens, pottery. One recent

Monday on the five-minute trip between her restaurant and the house, Carole

stopped at the Southbury Training School where was delighted to find an old

glass Thermos liner for 10 cents to add to her collection of mercury glass.

She's pleased, too, that the price of her first hardcover cookbook could be

kept at $29.95 despite the exquisite color photography by Alex McLean and the

top-quality glossy paper used in the book's production. Affordability is

important, she said.

"I wanted to do a book that would be cumulative of what I do but would also be

out there for a few years. It's very friendly toward home cooks. I'm already

starting to get feedback since the book was published [by Viking] on May 20."

Carole acted as her own food stylist. All of the dishes that were photographed

are real food, which means home cooks should be able to duplicate them. The

book features more than 175 recipes for creating fresh and elegantly simple

buffets, perfect for today's fast-paced lifestyles.

"The book really started with catering - I've done thousands of parties,"

Carole explained. "Grand buffets were part of the curriculum [at the CIA].

I've been catering since Hilton Head [Sea Pines Plantation resort], 24-25

years ago. But buffets have changed greatly over the years because cooking is

always evolving."

She started the buffet book three years ago with the chapter "Soups As a

Meal," doing the photo shoot in her home. Most of the soup recipes call for

water or juice as a base rather than stock - a real asset for the home cook.

"I was trained as a classical chef and years ago I wouldn't have dreamed of

making onion soup without beef or chicken stock and onions sauteed in generous

amounts of butter," she said. "Now my onion soup is made with a base of apple

cider, the flavor enhanced with oyster sauce and fresh rosemary. The result is

a lighter, tastier soup that is also faster to prepare."

Besides the fact Carole's dishes tend to be lighter and healthier than those

in most cookbooks, they also are full-flavored.

"Now, when I do `new-style' buffets, I concentrate first on taste, offering

foods that are seasonal, fresh and appealing," she said. "The menus include a

variety of dishes, with interesting combinations of flavors. The tables have a

lot of color and texture, but the design is simple and natural, in keeping

with the menu. Most important, the buffets I do today are flexible and fun,

with an emphasis on personal style."

Buffets are great for entertaining, she explained, because most dishes can be

prepared ahead, either partially or completely.

"Once the buffet is out, you can enjoy being with your guests, leaving the

cleanup until later," she said in the introduction to the book. "Foods can be

kept at the proper temperature more easily: hot foods held over warming

devices, cold foods cold, other foods at room temperature. You can offer a

more varied menu and accommodate individual food preferences, such as

vegetarian, or dietary restrictions.

Buffet parties also are invariably lively because guests can mingle more

easily than at a seated meal, she said. A beautifully designed, visually

striking table can be the focal point of a party. Buffets also give you a

chance to showcase the rooms of your house by setting the makings of several

courses in different rooms.

All of the photography for the book was done in Litchfield County, much of it

at the homes of friends. There is an all-through-the-house party in a charming

farmhouse, a picnic buffet in a flower garden (white paper paint buckets

filled with light summer fare), a glittering champagne dinner in a formal

dining room - everything from a soup buffet for ten to a wedding luncheon for

fifty.

Working long distance with co-author Carolyn Hart Byrant, who lives in

California, did not prove to be difficult.

"I wound up writing the chapters and she went over them with a critical eye,"

Carole said. "The fact that she wasn't a food professional was an asset

because she looked at the copy from the point of view of the average home

cook."

The Buffet Book is filled with reassuring practical advice about every detail

of buffet entertaining and includes advance preparation tips throughout. Every

dish can be prepared ahead of time and the Planning Ahead tips tell exactly

how and when, which goes a long way toward relieving the stress so many people

feel about entertaining.

In the book Carole tried to let the readers know they can tamper with the

recipes, changing them to suit themselves.

"They should expand and try things, not be stuck in a recipe per se," she

said. "I tried to stimulate them, to make the recipes seem doable."

Arugula, Vidalia Onion

And Blueberry Salad

Blueberry vinegar is easy to make and delicious on salads of fruit, smoked

meat or fish, cheese, or garden lettuce. Marinating the Vidalias intensifies

the taste and softens their raw texture.

Blueberry Vinegar:

1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

¬ cup sugar

2 cups white wine vinegar, warmed

Puree the blueberries and sugar with the warmed vinegar in a food processor or

blender and strain through a fine mesh strainer. Pour into glass bottles or

jars and keep in the refrigerator until ready to use.

Salad:

2 Vidalia onions (or other sweet onions  such as Walla-Walla or Maui)

2 Tbs coarse salt

« cup chopped fresh basil

Juice of 1 lemon

¬ cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 pint fresh blueberries

4 bunches arugula, washed

‹ cup vegetable oil

Peel the onions and cut into paper-thin slices. Place in a shallow dish and

sprinkle with the coarse salt, followed by the basil, lemon juice and olive

oil. Cover the dish and marinate in the refrigerator for at least two hours or

up to three days.

Remove the onions from the refrigerator and toss them and their marinade with

the fresh blueberries in a serving bowl. Add the arugula.

Whisk together « cup of the blueberry vinegar with the vegetable oil and pour

the vinaigrette over everything in the bowl. Toss again and serve. Serves 12

as part of a buffet.

Planning ahead: Blueberry vinegar will keep in the refrigerator for months.

The onions can be marinated up to three days ahead. With the rest of the salad

ingredients washed and stored in sealable bags in the refrigerator, this salad

can be assembled quickly.