SOMEONE IS KILLING THE GREAT CHEFS OF AMERICA

SoufflÇ sequel to Someone is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe (1976)—just as brainlessly brilliant, sustained, and instantly dated in its trendiness as the Lyonses' somewhat better last outing, The President is Coming to Lunch (1988). It strives to center itself on American cuisine while the authors dream up comic dishes with zest and relish but no ketchup. Achilles van Golk, the world's greatest gastronome, who was committed to an asylum for murdering four famous chefs, is not dead after all, as has been falsely reported. Instead, Swiss behavioral scientist Dr. Enstein (as in Frankenstein) has brainwashed and revamped Achilles, bringing him down from fattysphere to 150 pounds, canceled his homicidal psychosis, and has now sent him forth renamed Alec Gordon, a free man who detests gastronomic excess. But, sadly, a fat man inside Alec screams to get out, and Alec—like Dr. Jekyll- -wakes time and again to find that Achilles has struck while Alec was in blackout. Set on seducing his old nemesis, dessert queen Natasha O'Brien, Alex/Achilles flies to America—and then it's deja vu all over again as leading chefs about Manhattan begin turning up deboned, roasted and glazed, etc. The climax boils over at the Culinary Olympics in Paris, amid chocolate statues of Mother Teresa and bittersweet busts of Beethoven. Whirligig excess, perfect for beautiful spenders. Bring mints.