Samuel Chamberlain:Clementine in the kitchen

By LINDA HERRICK

Before the Second World War ravaged Europe, an American family called the "Becks" discovered the sublime pleasures of French gastronomy while living in a sleepy little town in the Ile-de-France.

Their rustic kitchen became a shrine to good cheer with the arrival of a true domestic goddess, an apple-cheeked cordon bleu peasant cook named Clementine whose skill with food neared alchemy.

Life was beautiful in the Beck household until war forced the family back to the States; dark days indeed until Clementine - who couldn't speak a word of English - decided to go with them.

Once settled in a small seaport near Boston, the Becks were daily enchanted and entertained by Clementine's efforts to come to grips with American food and shopping, let alone the language.

The result, first recorded by "Phineas Beck" (actually Samuel Chamberlain) in Gourmet magazine in 1943 before being published as a book in 1949, has been revised by Chamberlain's daughter and reissued as part of the wonderful Modern Library Food series with an introduction by series editor Ruth Reichl.

With charming line drawings and sketches by Chamberlain and more than 150 recipes, Clementine in the Kitchen is one of the most lovable food-related books you'll ever read, now rescued from out-of-print oblivion in this exceptional series which invites further exploration.

Modern Library

$30.95