Brown, Alton. I'm Just Here for the Food. Stewart, Tabori & Chang. May 2002. 288p. index ISBN 1-587479-08-3. $32.50

Brown, the irreverent host of the long-running Food Network series Good Eats, is just as interested in the science of cooking, the how and why, as he is in good food. His unusual cookbook is organized by technique, from searing to brining -- but it's much less conventional than that may sound. Ingredients lists, for example, are divided into "software" -- the food -- and "hardware" -- the equipment (he recommends welding gloves rather than pot holders for "sear gear"), and colorful diagrams, line drawings, charts, and graphics illustrate the detail-crammed text. In addition to the 60 recipes, from Cast-Iron Duck ("I'm chronically depressed about the puny amount of duck we eat in this country," he says) to A Pack of Wild Corn-Dogs, there are dozens of sidebars on such topics as "The Story of Teflon." Sort of a hip, and abbreviated, version of Harold McGee's classic On Food and Cooking, this is recommended for most collections. [See also Robert L. Wolke's What Einstein Told His Cook, reviewed on p. 121. -- Ed.]