BONE IN THE THROAT

BONE IN THE THROAT Anthony Bourdain (Villard Books, $20) The Mafia and the FBI compete to run a seafood restaurant in this thriller by a noted New York City chef. The hero is a young cook torn between loyalty to his gangster uncle and his moral principles -- roughly stated, you are what you eat. Good guys are the ones who never burn the garlic or overcook the veal. Bad guys use canned tomato paste and drink beer with dessert. Murder our hero can overlook, but when he's ordered to deep-fry squid, he rebels. His food-based morality is an amusing notion, with satiric possibilities that beg pursual. Instead, Bourdain follows a familiar recipe, a dumbed-down version of The Godfather. Line cooks' lingo and gourmet tips on filleting salmon alternate with unappetizing scenes of kitchen mayhem, pantry sex, and downtown sleaze. Goombah, pass the Alka-Seltzer. C