RESTAURANTS

Ruth Reichl’s “silver terrine” in her Bistro 45 review (June 30) is indicative of her taste and spelling. Both are atrocious. A terrine is a small earthenware jar. A tureen is a large vessel with a lid.

Bouillabaisse is a chowder--thick and white. What planet is she on? She does indeed indulge in fault finding.

R. Z. GOLDMAN

West Los Angeles Ruth Reichl replies: Goldman’s right about the terrine ; it was a copy-editing mistake , and I didn’t catch it on the proofs.

But Goldman’s wrong about bouillabaisse . In “The Food of France,” Waverly Root devotes more than 10 pages to bouillabaisse. “Everybody agrees,” he writes, “that it is not bouillabaisse if it does not include olive oil, tomatoes and saffron--which gives it its typical orange color.”