The New Art of Japanese Cooking

This is the title of the first cookbook by Masaharu Morimoto, and it's great. Of course, we all fell in love with the pudgy Japenese chef, decked out in his earring and shiny silver cooking outfit, with American flags all over it, on the original Iron Chef series.

It was on that show where we were first exposed to Morimoto's culinary vision: Japanese cooking meets global flavors-or global flavors get the Japanese treatment. The same is true in the book.

The book is enormous and has beautiful, lush photographs of the food. We also get a primer in proper sushi eating and a short but informative bio on the chef. His life is interesting. It's been a struggle for him, and he's really a self-made man. The book is well worth the yen.