Stargazing dishes: tastes of Dr. Phil and Joan Rivers

So you've learned how to boil water but haven't mastered toast? Comic Joan Rivers can help.

Her recipe for toast, featured in a new celebrity cookbook, helps you conquer the culinary complexities: Put bread in toaster, press handle down, wait for toast to pop up, spread with butter.

Rivers' tongue-in-cheek toast tips join 80 recipes contributed by notables from Bill Gates to Jay Leno to Britney Spears to Venus Williams for "Star Palate," a large-format celebrity cookbook published by a Seattle company, Documentary Media ($29.95).

The authors are two Seattleites: Tami Agassi, executive director of Seattle's Marsha Rivkin Center for Ovarian Cancer Research and sister of tennis star Andre Agassi; and Kathy Casey, chef, restaurant consultant and freelance food columnist for The Seattle Times.

With the book's proceeds dedicated to breast-cancer and ovarian-cancer research organizations, the project drew recipes from an assortment of the famous or near-famous, including several from the Seattle area. Aside from Rivers' toast, they are meant for actual cooking.

Gates and his sister Libby Armintrout, who writes the forward, serve up a Gates family favorite, Gami's Clam Chowder. Adding glam to the enterprise, actor/model Elizabeth Hurley — fetchingly photographed in a white tank top — submits rosemary-seasoned Shepherd's Pie, which she says her father taught her. The dish might not make the rest of us look like Hurley, but it's certainly worth a try.

From the sports world, tennis star Williams offers Dump Chili, a ground-turkey concoction that she says is both healthful and easy, while golfer Jack Nicklaus and his wife Barbara cook up Oatmeal Cake with a brown sugar/coconut topping.

"Dr. Phil" McGraw, TV psychologist and weight-loss guru, weighs in with Rosemary Mashed Potatoes, made palatable for calorie counters with fat-free sour cream and fat-free chicken broth and enlivened with mustard and paprika.

Also plugging healthful eating is TV chef Graham Kerr, once known as the "Galloping Gourmet." Kerr, who lives in the Mount Vernon area with his wife, Treena, turns in Mediterranean Vegetable Soup.

Among dozens of others lending star quality to kitchen efforts are "Today Show" co-host Katie Couric, Seattle chef/restaurateur Tom Douglas, music impresario Quincy Jones, pop singer Celine Dion, NBA all-star Grant Hill and country music singer Tim McGraw.

None of their recipes, however, can quite top the elegant simplicity of Rivers' toast.

Judith Blake: jblake@seattletimes.com