Kitchen Angst: Have You Got Problems? : Cook 'Em Out

From Publishers Weekly Sullivan, who teaches at Columbia College in Chicago, suggests snacks and meals on a common--yet unusual--theme: despair and disaster. So, we get "Rude-Awakening Nectarine Pudding," "Irrevocable Dusted Ricotta," "Hummus with Garnish to Conquer Ennui" and "Pepper Steaks with Pain." The author, as self-styled Professor Angst, prefaces recipes with appeals for advice--and motley comments--from her public, and with other amusing bits of correspondence: "Dear Professor Angst," reads one, "Your proposal for funding a symposium on 'Kitchens of the Inner Child' has been rejected." Her cooking directions can be sketchy, and the food seems rhetorical, meant to make a point more than to fill a plate. But that's all right--Sullivan's mordant approach is likely to refresh the reader's palate. It's a good idea for a book, and the low-budget black-and-white design looks appropriately, jaggedly down-and-out. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.