Not <i> the</i> Mezzaluna Cookbook

Crown Publishing has just published the “Mezzaluna Cookbook.” But the author is Aldo Bozzi, owner and creator of New York’s Mezzaluna, and is unrelated to the now-infamous Brentwood restaurant. That fact, which is not made clear in Crown’s book catalogue, has some people accusing the publisher and author of trying to cash in on the incredible amount of publicity Mezzaluna has reaped since the O.J. Simpson circus began.

“The owner and culinary adviser for the famed Mezzaluna Restaurants, our nation’s best-known trattorias, shares the secrets behind his acclaimed seasonal Italian fare,” the catalogue notes.

Karim Souki, the owner of Mezzaluna in Brentwood and employer of the late Ron Goldman, is outraged.

“They refer to Aldo as culinary adviser for the famous Mezzaluna restaurants,” says Souki, “but he’s not my adviser now and he’s never been my adviser.”

According to Souki, the only thing his restaurant shares with Bozzi’s Manhattan Mezzaluna is a name.

“Aldo is a very talented man. He is the owner and creator of the Mezzaluna in New York and he gave me permission to use the name. But my Mezzaluna has nothing to do with him,” says Souki. “We’ve been friends for years, but he runs his restaurant, I run mine.” Bozzi is out of the country and could not be reached for comment. But Crown publicist Jennifer Graff says the Mezzaluna cookbook has been in the works for several years. “If we wanted to take advantage of the publicity,” she says, “we would have published the cookbook in February when they were still picking the jury.”

Since the book was released, however, tabloid TV has picked up the story. “Friends of mine told me they heard about [the cookbook] on ‘Hard Copy,’ ” says Souki. “And ‘Entertainment Tonight’ called me to ask about it. We told them we are not doing a cookbook, that it had nothing to do with us, but they said it was too late and ran the story anyway.”

“Obviously ‘ET’ was interested in the book because of the Mezzaluna name and what it could mean,” says Graff. “But there is no way we want a connection made between the name and what has happened in L.A. We are a reputable company and this was not the kind of publicity we want.”

Out of respect to Goldman, Souki claims, he has gone out his way not to do anything that could be construed as trying to profit from the tragedy. He even closed his restaurant on June 12, the one-year anniversary of the double murder, so he wouldn’t have to deal with curiosity seekers or media frenzy. (He did, however, have a publicist alert the media that he was closing.) “I no longer give away any T-shirts, ashtrays or even matches,” says Souki. “I want it to be well understood that nobody here in Los Angeles is participating, profiting or trying to exploit that story.”