Nominated by Katy E. Shrout

"My mom likes to tell how when she and Dad were first married, in the '60s, she used to make all the meals. Back then, the woman cooked, and the man ate, and that was that. But in the years since, Dad [has become] more and more interested (perhaps obsessed?) with matters culinary. I think it went from barbecuing occasionally to becoming increasingly distracted by recipes in Bon Appétit and Southern Living: making his own salad dressings, beef brisket and flourless chocolate tortes. Mom never cooks now. She couldn't be happier.

"Each year he participates in the Doctors Who Cook fund-raiser for charity, and I swear the man spends the whole year thinking about what he's going to make. He has self-published his own family cookbook, 'Cooking Like a Shrout,' and even has a Web site ( www.cookinglikeashrout.com). Right now he's researching an article on the history of barbecue in the Augusta area."

Mike Shrout's enthusiasm for cooking started later in life but then took off with an intensity that amazed his friends and family. His culinary curiosity has led him to research projects, a Web site and even a self-published cookbook. Not to be forgotten, though, are the actual results of his cooking, which he perfects every time he goes into the kitchen.

Family/background: "I am the middle child from a family with seven kids. I had an older brother and two older sisters, and two younger brothers and one younger sister. We were born and raised in the upper Midwest -- Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri and South Dakota. Both my mom and dad were good cooks, and everyone in the family cooked. When I was 7 or 8 years old, I started cooking breakfast for my two younger brothers and myself: pancakes, coffeecake, French toast or scrambled eggs. Today I cook for my family: my wife, Carol, and, when I can, my daughters Katy, 27, and her husband, Josh Phillipson of Atlanta, and Maggie, 24, in Los Angeles."

• Career: "I am a dentist. I had a private practice for 10 years in St. Louis but became an academic dentist in 1983, when I started teaching at Washington University School of Dental Medicine. I am currently a professor of oral diagnosis at the Medical College of Georgia, School of Dentistry."

Hobbies, interests: "Cooking, reading, traveling and writing."

Who taught you to cook? "My parents. In our large family, one had to help before or after the meal. I preferred before, so I observed both parents cook. Additionally, as a young Air Force officer, I had a job that allowed me to watch Graham Kerr, the 'Galloping Gourmet,' on television for about 18 months. (I was an electronics maintenance officer. We acted somewhat like firemen; we had to be available, but didn't have much to do until something broke.) Finally, I really believe I taught myself, because I enjoyed the positive outcome of the exercise."

How did your love of cooking develop? "I'm not sure. I became interested in chemistry in fifth grade, leading to a chemistry major in college. It was about fifth or sixth grade I first remember wanting to try baking cakes from scratch. One of my earliest was burnt sugar. I think of cooking and chemical reactions as parallel processes; in both, you combine the proper proportions of ingredients and heat and then enjoy the outcome."

Culinary roots: "My mom, a great Midwestern cook, was born and raised in the Sioux Falls, S.D., area. She was raised on cooking designed to maintain hardworking farm laborers. My dad was raised in Kansas City, and his mother's cooking had a definite Southern influence. (Kansas City is considered the South by most of the Midwest, although maybe not in Georgia!)"

Cooking style: "Middle American. Meat and potatoes, sauces, stews, desserts. I also experiment with Asian cooking. This interest was encouraged by an assignment I had in Korea while in the Air Force. I spent a year as an electronics adviser to the Korean air force, which gave me the opportunity to travel to Japan and Taiwan."

Early food memory: "One comes from when my maternal grandmother would come to visit. She was a widow farmer with a central European accent who would get up in the pre-dawn hours and fix cinnamon rolls for the family for breakfast. Another was when our family (at the time only eight of us) would go to a park a couple of blocks away and make a hearty breakfast of fried potatoes, bacon and fried eggs in big cast-iron skillets on the park's grill."

For whom do you cook? "Family and friends. I also cook once a year for the Doctors Who Cook fund-raising event for the children's hospital at Medical College of Georgia."

What is the most enjoyable aspect of cooking? "I love complex recipes; cooking and mixing a series of ingredients and bringing them together as part of a larger dish."

• Specialties: "Desserts. Especially chocolate desserts, built around flourless chocolate tortes."

Culinary achievements: "I have written two cookbooks (more correctly, two editions of one cookbook; although the second was twice the size of the first). They led to my Web site, (www.cookinglikeashrout.com)

Culinary ambitions: "I am working on a feature article about a unique aspect of Southern barbecue. I hope to get it published in Bon Appétit, Southern Living or maybe an airline magazine."

What is your favorite thing to cook? "Dessert. I'm including one of my recipes."

Culinary pet peeve: "Sea salt, shiitake mushrooms, or whatever else is the pop ingredient of the day."

Memorable flop: "One Thanksgiving I was making a maple pecan pie for my son-in-law, who loves pie, using my own recipe, substituting maple syrup for some of the corn syrup. I must have left something out, and it didn't set. It wouldn't even freeze. So we used it as a sauce for vanilla ice cream."

Most memorable meal you ever prepared: "While I was in dental school, a friend and I used to make a big meal once a quarter. One of them was steamed pork pao, Peking duck, poached sea bass, Chinese pancakes and hoisin sauce, stir-fried chicken, steamed vegetables and rice. We had to hang the Peking duck in the shower and baste it with sugar water for two days."

• Do you favor a particular ingredient? "Probably garlic, lemon, tomatoes."

Best thing about your kitchen: "My wife bought me a set of Calphalon pots and pans. I just can't imagine cooking without them."

What's the magic ingredient that makes some cooks turn out great food? "The magic is knowing when to add that special addition to a recipe. I use several 'secret' ingredients: cinnamon, allspice and cocoa powder in chili (a Cincinnati secret); ground fennel seed and extra basil in red spaghetti sauce; lemon juice in sautéed mushrooms (Graham Kerr's secret)."

Do you have a tip for today's cooks? "Learn how to cook. I recently surprised a secretary at work by telling her the recipe I used to make frosting for a cake. 'You mean you actually make frosting?' she exclaimed. 'I thought it came in a can!' "

Favorite cookbook: "Joy of Cooking" (1975 edition).

When I eat out, I like to order: "Hot dogs (Chicago style), deep-fried onions, steaks, Mongolian barbecue, very rich chocolate desserts."

-- Betty Parham

DESSERT

Chocolate Dream Truffle Torte

Makes 10 servings

Preparation time: 30 minutes, plus 4 hours to cool

Cooking time: 40 minutes

This cake is so rich you might want to skip the ganache topping. If you have two 8-inch springform pans, you can make the crust and cake concurrently. Otherwise, make and remove the cooled crust, then reuse the same pan for the cake. Shrout also makes his own fruit sauce by mixing a can of Mott's berry drink concentrate with a 12-ounce bottle of spreadable raspberry fruit and warming it until smooth. To serve, Shrout puts 1 tablespoon of the sauce on one side of the plate, places the pointed side of the torte on the sauce and adds a raspberry and a mint leaf.

For the crust:

2 cups pecans

1/4 cup packed light brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature

For the torte:

12 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped

3/4 cup unsalted butter

4 medium eggs

For the chocolate ganache:

6 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped

2 tablespoons corn syrup

1 tablespoon milk

To make the crust: Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line the bottom of an 8-inch springform pan with parchment paper.

In a food processor, pulse pecans, brown sugar and cinnamon until nuts are roughly ground. Remove half the mixture and set aside. Finely grind the remainder. Add butter and reserved nuts and pulse until combined. Press nut mixture onto bottom of pan. Bake for 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Transfer to rack and cool. Run a thin knife around the sides of the crust, release the sides of the springform pan and carefully remove crust. (You can invert it and remove the parchment or slide it out with parchment attached.) Place crust on serving plate.

To make the torte: Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Butter an 8-inch springform pan and line bottom with buttered parchment. Wrap the outside of the pan with a double layer of heavy-duty foil.

In a double boiler or microwave, heat chocolate and butter until just melted. Stir until totally incorporated.

In a large bowl set over a pan of simmering water, heat the eggs until just warm to the touch, stirring constantly to prevent eggs from cooking. Remove from heat and beat with an electric mixer until tripled in volume and soft peaks form when the beater is raised, about 5 minutes.

Gently fold half the eggs into the chocolate mixture until almost incorporated. Fold in the remaining eggs until just blended and no streaks remain. Scrape into the prepared pan and smooth with a spatula.

Set the pan in a roasting pan and pour in 1 inch very hot water. Bake 5 minutes. Cover loosely with a piece of buttered foil and bake 10 minutes. (The cake should look soft.) Let the cake cool on a rack for 45 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until very firm, about 3 hours.

Run a thin knife around the sides of the cake and release the sides of the springform pan. Line up the cake with the crust, invert the cake onto the crust and remove parchment.

To make the ganache: Microwave chocolate, corn syrup and milk for 20 seconds; stir until smooth. Spread sides and top of cake thinly with ganache.

Per serving: 547 calories (percent of calories from fat, 72), 6 grams protein, 35 grams carbohydrates, 4 grams fiber, 47 grams fat, 118 milligrams cholesterol, 36 milligrams sodium

Who are the best cooks? We're looking for Georgia home cooks who deserve recognition for their talents and who have interesting recipes to share. Fax at 404-526-5509, e-mail kitchen@ajc.com or write to Betty Parham, Food Department, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 72 Marietta St. N.W., Atlanta, GA 30303. Give us your name and phone number, as well as the name and number of the cook you'd like us to consider. And tell us a little about what makes this cook special.