Time has caught up with me. I�m in style now. Or, at least my ethnic cook persona is in style. Ethnic food is in all of the magazines. It is the major subject of the great rash of new cookbooks. It�s even hit middle America. The prairie gourmet wallows in sophistication as he prepares dinners of gazpacho, poulet saute, salata, and pudim flan. Spanish, French, Greek, and Portuguese. Nothing authentic, everything Midwestern. Foods out of context, like levis in Paris.

No matter how authentic a recipe is, if its setting is Early Melting Pot, the recipe is Americanized. And American ethnic cqoking is a waste of time. So are Americanized ethnic cookbooks. I already know what American food tastes like. I want food that will, open up wondrous new possibilities.