Knight Ridder Newspapers

It takes a gutsy chef/cookbook author to title his newest book “The Best Recipes in the World” (Broadway, $29.95).

But Mark Bittman, New York Times columnist, television cooking show star and lovable curmudgeon who wrote the popular “How to Cook Everything,” did just that with this hefty hardback.

Bittman spent six years and traveled to 44 countries doing research for this one. It’s organized like any other cookbook, with 11 chapters on appetizers and snacks, salads, fish, grains and beverages. But within each chapter, home chefs will find a world’s worth of cooking and eating.

Thumb through appetizers and find recipes as varied and global as ceviche from Mexico, fried peanuts from China, farinata genovese from Italy and black-eyed pea fritters from the Caribbean.

I love the salad chapters, with entries from India (tomato salad with ginger) and Scandinavia (beet salad with horseradish). The chapter on fish is especially inviting, in part because Bittman has taken the scare out of buying fresh fish. Why not prepare steamed shrimp with lemongrass-coconut sauce for dinner? Or for a hearty fall meal, a beef daube from France? It’s just one of many of the meat dishes in its chapter.

The many vegetable and grain recipes are indexed by primary ingredient, from Stir-fried Watercress with Bean Sauce to Kasha with Bacon and Onions.

Bittman has also included chapters on menus, ingredient sources and two recipe guides. One tells whether the dish can be made ahead, the serving temperature, the time needed to prepare and what page the recipe is on. The other guide lists recipes by cuisine.

Globe-trotting was never this simple. Or this flavorful.