Recipes for Cool Kitchens

BOOKS

I don’t know much about cooking (I do, however, have the recipe for takeout: Get in car, turn ignition, step on gas . . . ), but have friends who are great at it. Predictably, their favorite room is the kitchen, and they like to make the most of this familiar space.

Ellen Whitaker, Colleen Mahoney and Wendy A. Jordan’s “Great Kitchens: At Home With America’s Top Chefs” ($35, Taunton Press, 1999) lets you know what the really good cooks look for in their kitchens, from small stuff such as lighting and spice trays on up to the overall design. The chefs are into both utility and ambience, and the authors toss out their ideas with plenty of photos.

For instance, the book notes that Mary Sue Milliken of Border Grill in Santa Monica and Ciudad in Los Angeles installed a “light-blue ceiling structure” lighting system in

her home kitchen to reflect off her outdoor pool and create “a tranquil underwater feel.” The more practical John Folse of Lafitte’s Landing in Donaldson, La., pays attention to his pots and pans, whether at work or home.

He goes for simple cast-iron ones, for their appearance and dependability. “Every pot that’s made in the world today is made to mimic the qualities of cast iron,” says Folse, “and none of them ever cooked better than these pots I inherited from my uncle Paul.”

Mulching Like Lasagna

Patricia Lanza’s new book “Lasagna Gardening” ($16, Rodale Press, 1999) has nothing to do with Italian cuisine. It’s a how-to for gardeners who love to grow but would rather avoid a lot of digging, tilling or weeding.

“Lasagna” refers to Lanza’s technique, which uses layering mulch such as old newspapers, leaves and grass clipping to provide a nutrient-dense base for the garden. The benefit of all this mulching, Lanza stresses, is that you don’t have to work the soil to ensure that plants, flowers and vegetables prosper. The book in

cludes graphics and instructions

on the layering approaches that work best with which greenery.

THE WEB

Driveways of the Celebrated

So, you think your driveway is special? Take a short cruise up “Driveways of the Rich & Famous” (https://www.driveways.com) for a tour of truly glamorous blacktops. All right, there’s very little that separates these car entrances from yours, except that rich celebrities own them. But as we all know, money and fame make everything more interesting, even pitted, oil-stained stretches of concrete.

At least, that’s how John Cunningham feels. He created this impossibly mundane but strangely compelling site that simply shows photos of dozens of driveways of stars and notables and includes brief interviews with significant others such as mail-carriers, gardeners and chefs.

Among the big names are Madonna, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Woody Allen, Regis Philbin, Bill Gates, Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith, Mary Tyler Moore, Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell, Whoopi Goldberg, and Billy Crystal. We learn from Nicolas Cage’s contractor the thrilling news that “he was here a month ago. He’s fine. He’s OK.” And from Johnny Cash’s gatekeeper we’re told that the Man in Black “waves, speaks, stops and talks” to people all the time.

* To have a book or Web site considered for this column, send information to: Home Design, The Times Orange County, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626. Mark Chalon Smith can also be reached by e-mail at mark.smith@ latimes.com.

Inside

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