COOKBOOK WATCH

In “Latin Ladles: Soups & Stews From the King of Nuevo Latino Cuisine” (Ten Speed, $17.95), New York chef Douglas Rodriguez makes grandmother food hip. He takes sopa de medula, or bone marrow soup, and suggests that the cook scrape the bone clean and use it as an architectural garnish, creating an elegant presentation for a normally humble (but delicious) soup. His version of the Honduran sopa de caracol, or conch soup, is one of the dishes that helped establish his restaurant Patria as one of New York’s most talked-about places. The book’s photography is sophisticated, the design cutting-edge and Rodriguez’s flavors often refined, but at heart, most of this book’s stews and soups--whether it’s the South American seafood chowder called chupe de marisco or Mexican white pozole--are the sort of thing Latinos first tried at their grandmothers’ tables. Comfort food chic strikes again.