Fresh Today

So what's osso buco, and why is it on all those menus?

The short answer is "braised veal shank," but Raphael Calise of Salute in Citta says the bald English does little justice to this Northern Italian classic. "This is a wonderful meal, a real delicacy," he says.

At his restaurant in the Vance Hotel, Calise favors osso buco with Remolata sauce: the bone-in shank is rolled in flour, salted and peppered on both sides and rubbed in rosemary. It's braised in a sauce made with wine, cubed carrots and celery.

"You finish it with whole peeled tomatoes - good tomatoes, Italian tomatoes - and serve it over a nice risotto or polenta," Calise said.

Properly cooked, the veal is so tender it virtually falls off the bone.

In Italy, he said, the cooked bone marrow is extracted from the center of the bone and eaten along with the meat - osso buco means literally, "bone with a hole in it."

"This may take a while to catch on in America," he conceded. "People here are not so adventurous in their eating."

Calise, who comes from the isle of Ischia in the bay of Naples, remembers the alarm he caused when he introduced calamari to the menu at Prego in 1983. "The owner of the restaurant said, `Raphael, you are a barbarian!' "

Calise, who will soon open another Salute in Bellevue, thinks Seattle diners may be ready for sweetbreads - sauteed calf neck glands - another Italian delicacy not for the squeamish. He recommends them sliced thin and served with sun-dried tomato, capers and caramelized onion. "It may take me a few years," he admits. "But a few years ago, who ate squid?"

Morsels

-- What's in a name? Good taste, in the case of Julia Child Prudhomme. The Seattle actor and niece of chef Julia Child is not related to famed New Orleans chef Paul Prudhomme, but says she gets some disbelieving looks whenever she shows her full-name ID. She was on hand at a Seattle luncheon honoring her aunt last week.

-- Szmania's, the Magnolia restaurant, is offering lunch again after a two-month slow-season hiatus, says chef Ludger Szmania. Menu samples: Dungeness crab cake on greens with roasted pepper aioli; black pepper fettucine with roasted tomatoes, grilled vegetables and fresh basil; osso buco with orzo pasta; angel hair pasta with rock prawns, fresh spinach and gorgonzola. Szmania's is at 3321 W. McGraw St.

-- Is this a trend? The Nickerson Street Saloon opens Monday as a non-smoking pub. Pool, darts and 18 draft beers, but no smoking, please. "We want to put some emphasis on our food, and you can't do that with a big cloud of smoke hanging over everything," said co-owner Jay Farias. The menu by chef Lew Pettis features coconut beer shrimp, a porter chicken sandwich and drunken shellfish. It's in the old 318 Tavern, 318 Nickerson St.

-- Californian Anna Steele has been named executive chef at Lake Quinault Lodge. She's comes from the McCully House in Jacksonville, Ore., where she was sous chef. She plans to introduce several new "heart-healthy" items to the menu of the venerable Roosevelt Room.

-- The Salish Lodge at Snoqualmie Falls has also named a new executive chef. He's Dean Ecker, lately chef at a tennis spa-resort in Arizona. Bill Morris, formerly with Rover's and the Sorrento Hotel, has been promoted to executive sous chef. Former executive chef David Kellaway is now at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas.

-- Amateur chef Rohn Matthies of Seattle won first place in the Washington regional semi-finals of the National Beef Cook-Off with his recipe for "Stir Fried Beef Italian." He won $850 and an all-expense-paid trip to - we are not making this up - Little Rock, Ark., where the finals will be held in September.

Events

-- The Herbfarm at Fall City is offering its usual spring classes. Most begin in mid-March. Besides the old standby, "Cooking with Savory Herbs," offerings include "Herbal Stress Relief," "The Herbal Medicine Chest," "Making Sachets and Scented Pillows" and "Weaving an Egg Basket." No, not underwater. That's at Evergreen. Information: 784-2222.

-- There'll be a chocolate orgy at the Everett Yacht Club this Sunday, as the Snohomish County Center for Battered Women hosts its annual Chocolate Lover's Gala. Patrons will bid at silent auction for some of the most decadent creations of Everett's restaurants, bakeries and caterers. Bite-size samples will be available for those who just can't wait. Proceeds from the $15 ticket go to the nonprofit women's shelter. Information: 252-2827.

-- Working in a fishbowl: Rovers chef Thierry Rautureau will demonstrate Gascon cooking at Renton Technical College at 6:30 p.m. Monday to help raise money for the college's Culinary Arts program. Guests will pay $50 for the privilege of watching Rautureau prepare Moulard duck breast with wild mushrooms and Armagnac sauce - and, of course, sampling the result. Other chefs in the Celebrity Chefs Scholarship Series, which continues monthly through June: Monique Barbeau of Fullers, Jeff Prather of Ray's Boathouse, Gretchen Mathers of Gretchen's of Course; and Jerry Traunfeld of The Herbfarm. For tickets, call 235-2356.