Thinking, cooking outside the jar

If Daniel Boulud, whose namesake restaurant has been called one of the 10 best in the world, praises a cookbook, you wouldn't be surprised that it contains great recipes.

Nor would you be astonished that one of its authors, like Boulud, is an acclaimed chef. But you might be startled to learn that it's a book about baby food.

The book is "Feeding Baby" by Joachim Splichal (dubbed a culinary Mozart by Gourmet Magazine) and his wife, Christine. Boulud confesses that the recipes in it are so delicious he wishes it had been around when his daughter was born or, better yet, when he was a baby.

But why shouldn't professional chefs be as interested in feeding babies as adults? Their goal, after all, is to make eating more pleasurable and, as Margaret Kenda and Phyllis Williams observe in their classic book on the subject, "Food is the most important pleasure in your baby's life."

As one who never outgrew that stage of life and who has recently become a grandparent, I've become attuned to how we feed babies and children in this country. And I've learned that all too often even a child born with the proverbial silver spoon in its mouth may be eating poorly.

The typical infant in America, once he or she moves beyond breast milk or prepared formula, begins a diet of mass-produced baby food from a jar, plastic tub or resealable pouch. Though the manufacturer may give such products taste-tempting names (Gerber even has a line of Latin-flavored baby food), if you taste it you may be hard pressed to discern much difference between, say, the beef and peas and the turkey and squash. As Kenda and Williams conclude, feeding your baby this way is the equivalent of your eating a TV dinner every night.

Moreover, baby food, as health columnist Clare Howard explains, "sets the stage for a lifelong relationship with food, whether obsessive bingeing or epicurean appreciation." Children fed out of a jar may lose their natural culinary curiosity and balk at food that is fresh and flavorful, preferring processed food instead.

(Eerily, given the shelf life of processed food, as Kenda and Williams note, some babies conceivably are eating stuff older than they are!)

As the Splichals advise, children need to learn at an early age that food comes from the earth, not a box or a plastic bag, if they are to develop a palate and be open to new tastes. Thus, they propose something which seems novel to us but which is common in Europe (where restaurants don't have children's menus) and quite old-fashioned: feeding babies real, fresh food, prepared with your own hands. Not because it is safer, which it may be, or cheaper, which it certainly is, but simply because it tastes better.

Babies who start off this way, the Splichals report, can by eight months or so break bread with the rest of the family and eat, with modifications, pretty much what everybody else is eating, thereby bonding that much sooner with their parents and siblings. What better way to show your love for a baby than by such thinking outside the box -- or jar?

Wild Rice Risotto

Though you might want to fix it just for yourself, this sophisticated dish adapted from the "Feeding Baby" cookbook is not too chic for babies or toddlers. For children under 1 year, just puree the mixture with enough chicken broth to reach the appropriate consistency.

Ingredients:

4 cups low-sodium chicken broth

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/4 cup minced sweet onion

1/4 cup diced carrots

4 ounces shiitake mushrooms, chopped

1 and 1/2 cups wild rice, rinsed

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

leaves of 1 sprig fresh thyme

2 tablespoons butter, room temperature

salt and pepper

Directions: Bring chicken broth to a simmer over low heat. In large pot heat oil for 1 minute over medium heat. Add onion, carrot, and mushrooms and cook 6 to 8 minutes until tender. Add wild rice, stir to coat with the oil, and cook 1 minute. Pour 1/2 cup heated broth into the rice, stirring constantly. As the rice absorbs broth, add additional broth in 1/2-cup increments. Continue for 18 to 20 minutes until the rice is tender and puffed. Remove pan from heat and add Parmesan, thyme, and butter, stirring until creamy. Season with salt and pepper.

Listen to A Harte Appetite Fridays at 8:49 a.m. on KRCU, 90.9 on your FM dial. Write A Harte Appetite, c/o the Southeast Missourian, P.O. Box 699, Cape Girardeau, Mo., 63702-0699 or by e-mail to tharte@semissourian.com.