Two cookbooks, two very different cultures

As mentioned in previous posts, PJ spends a lot of his time on the road, spreading pearls of wisdom about video-gaming around the corporate world. When he's away on longer trips, I generally ask for a cookbook from the place he's visiting; combined with my holiday cookbooks, I'm building up a pretty good collection. Last week's trip to the US's Mid-West resulted in two gems at polar opposites of the culinary scale:

Tru, by Rick Tramonto. This cookbook from one of Chicago's most celebrated (and expensive) restaurants is classic food porn. Stunning pictures of caviar staircases intersperse recipes with complicated and over-capitalized titles: Langoustine Ravioli with Buttered Leeks, Foie Gras Sauce, and Blood Orange Reduction; Mosiac of Seafood with Saffron Foam; Deconstructed Insalata Caprese with Olive Oil Sorbet. However, the actual recipes are fairly straightforward, even if they do involve multiple steps to serve the dish as suggested. The many gorgeous amuse-bouches are manageable, especially if you're happy spending 5 hours making something that will be wolfed down in 5 seconds -- which I am. Not sure about the items that require a gas canister, but who knows? I'm up for a challenge.

Less challenging -- but probably more useful on a day-to-day basis -- is The Great Minnesota Hot Dish by Theresa Millang, courtesy of the Mall of America in Minneapolis. Hot dishes are, apparently, casseroles. There are no pictures of the finished dishes -- only a cute picture of what is presumably the state bird -- and these recipes have titles like: Chicken Reuben Hot Dish; Tuna Noodle Hot Dish; and Quick Taco Hot Dish. There's no chocolate-bergamot paint with a gold leaf drizzle, but instead, canned condensed mushroom soup, beef rice mix, and tortilla chips take center stage. I've quickly identified PJ's new potential fave: Fish Sticks Au Gratin. Now that's a quality side!

Of course, should I track down an Amsterdam supplier of edible gold leaf and N2O chargers, I'll attempt some of Rick's easier dishes -- and you, dear readers, will be the first to see the pics.