COOKBOOK WATCH

When Jack Czarnecki wrote “A Cook’s Book of Mushrooms” (Artisan, 1995), he didn’t bother to include portobello mushrooms. He didn’t like them much at the time, and as recently as a year ago he told The Times, “They’re nothing but overgrown criminis.” True. But Czarnecki has been converted to the meaty pleasures of cooking with portobellos--they’ve become the steak of the vegetarian world--and has just come out with “Portobello Cookbook” (Artisan, $14.95). You can teach an old mushroom cook new tricks.