Daily News from New York, New York • 620

"thrift my dddmBs ffiie fesUft COLETTE The stars would like to thank all the ladle people at Cafe Edison By tENOWE SKENAZY Q. My family had tfrww at Carmine's, whara wa bad a dalicio "Chtckan Scar-parialto." Could you fat mm the racipa? F. Saizona, Brooklyn A. Chef David Marines agreed to furnish the recipe. Marinate overnight a 3V6-pound chicken, cut into serving pieces, in cup olive oil mixed "with 2 tablespoons lemon juice and 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary.

Place the chicken pieces in a baking pan and bake in a pre-heated, 350-degree oven for 50 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool. In a large skillet, heat 1 cup of vegetable oH. Add the chicken and saute briefly until golden brown and crisp on all sides. Remove the chicken to a platter and drain the oil from the skillet.

Melt 2 tablespoons butter in the skillet. Add 10 sprigs of rosemary, 3 chopped shallots and 4 peeled, sliced garlic cloves. Saute until brown. Add A cup white wine. cup lemon juice and 1 cup chicken bouillon.

Cook until sauce is slightly reduced. Add chicken pieces. Cook for 8 minutes; serve. Daily News Saff Wntef L. HERE'S A bowl of soup for ev-I I cry bright light on Broadway, I I and most of them get slurped I I right here.

fcJ Here at the Cafe Edison, that is, Broadway's best-loved, borscht-brewing. brisket-braising institution, where everyone who's anyone in the theater and especially everyone who's not feasts on cheap, hearty Polish-Jewish fare. "I come here as often as I can, says Jerry Zaks. director of "Guys and Dolls." "Six Degrees of Separation," and any number of other hits, enjoying his bagel and newspaper. "My parents are from Poland, so our background is very similar." he adds with a nod toward Frances Edelstein, the proprietress you'd like to install as your grandmother.

Frances smiles, as usual, and bustles off to the kitchen. Across the restaurant sits Claude-Michel Schonberg. composer of Miserables," equally drawn to Frances and her food. Though he'll be in New York just 24 short hours, one of them is dedicated to the Edison's chicken soup. "Sometimes I would like to call here and have them send me an injection," says the French wunderkind.

This time Harry Edelstein. Frances' husband of over 50 years, smiles. "He wants us to open a restaurant an Paris." says Harry. But no thanks. The Edelsteins had enough of Europe.

They're Holocaust survivors. "Hitler was my college." says Frances, easing herself into a booth in coffee shop's "V.I.P." Q. I was gfrrom a atovatop frill pan for Christmas. It caul without UMwettona and 1 raaHy do aot know how to grHI vagota-Mas, flan at chiefcaa. Do you have to atari- I DAILY NEWS NOW STtftJfM2 Son-in-law Conrad Strohl helps Frances Edelstein run the cafe.

Maoaaftaii A. For vegetables, mix together cup olive oil with 2 tablespoons lemon juice, salt and pepper, 1 tablespoon fresh thyme and 1 tablespoon dried tarragon. Marinate vegetables for 20 minutes to two hours. For poultry, combine 1 cup dry white wine, 2 tablespoons melted butter, 1 medium chopped onion. 1 crushed garlic clove, salt and pepper.

Mm weM and pour over chicken. Marinate chicken for at least an hour. For fish: Mm together 1 tablespoon light soy sauce with 2 tablespoons Thai fish sauce, 1 tablespoon lemon juice and 1 teaspoon sage. Mix weH and pour over the fish. AHow fish to stand at least 1 hour marinade.

good cook. "When you're liberated, who's going to feed you?" Not Mama. Not Grandma. "So you remember what your mother did." You practice, trying to recreate the tastes tinged with grief. And, eventually you get it right After the war.

Frances and Harry wed. They came i to America. bought a farm in New Jersey and At 'You take a matzo ball from ajar, God knows when it was born room actually three Formica tables roped, off a few feet from everyone else. As a child in Po-land. Frances lived a nice, nor raised, as Frances likes to say.

"chicken and children. The chicken were easier!" Later the Edelsteins moved to Q. I tavo ajMsht Koartoy ana af yoar, I ahraya foal I Ah, the soup. Actors between gigs live on this stuff: big (read: filling) bowls of mushroom-barley, lima bean, or meat borscnt made fresh each morn. Frances goes to the kitchen where seven steaming cauldrons speak to her prowess.

"Look." she says. ladling up her speciality. "You know bow many times we make matzo balls? Three or four times a day!" From scratch? Such a question! "You take a matzo ball from the jar. God knows when it was born," scorns Frances. But here! "This is what they're getting for two and a half dollars.

Two balls!" Big. ones. "You eat this, you'll be happy all day. That's why they come here. You think it's because they like me?" WelL yes.

that too. Frances is clearly as much a legend as her cooking. She is to the Cafe Edison what Carol Channing is to "Hello. Dolly!" When Jed Bernstein, the recently installed bead of the League of American Theaters, stops by to say hello, he admits the terror be felt upon first meeting Frances. With all the responsibilities of his new job, "The most nervous I was was for my first lunch here.

I came in. I was introduced to this lady and I was chopped liver! I was nothing, and she's this goddess!" Frances tries to shush him. but it's no secret: Having Frances know your name and favorite lunch order is the "you have arrived" equivalent of being bear-hugged by the entire staff at the Russian Tea Room. In fact, insiders call this place the Polish Tea Room. You want to glimpse scenes Broadway? You want to hear a smattering of Yiddish? You want to feel like family, pay almost nothing and slurp to your heart's You've come to the right place, bubelah.

Let Frances get you some soup. The Cafe Edison is at 22S W. 47tk St. Open Jion.Satf Jf a.m.-10 p.m.; Sun. 6 a.rrL-9 p.m.

mal Jewish life: School and friends and helping Mama make the special Friday night Shabbes dinner. "She'd wake me at one." recalls Frances. That's I a.m., time to start making the challah and. of course, the soup. Then Hitler invaded, and Frances' family hid in a barn.

So did Harry's. Someone tipped off the Nazis. Only-Harry and his brother and Frances and her sister survived. I lost my mother when I was 14." says Frances, not asking for pity but explaining how she came to be such a Brooklyn and ran a series of candy shops. Then in 1980 a fellow Holocaust survivor invited them to take over the cafe at his Hotel Edison, right in the heart of the theater district.

This coffee shop was no vinyl-wallpaper affair. It began life as the Edison's ballroom, circa 1920, and thus boasts high ceilings, rococo friezes and even a small balcony. Taped to these gracious, salmon-colored splendors are Magic-Markered signs advertising the chopped-herring sandwich and, of course, today's soup. aoo can frooxe If I bmho a latg aatcaT Ue're or cno sen? 3 a A. A mushroonvbariey soup is indeed wonderful to dig into and easy to make.

In a saucepan, brown a 3-inch piece of smoked Virginia, Smithfiekl or smoked cubed. Add to the skiHet 3 shaHots and 1 on- -ion. diced, and cook them until transparent Add 10 cups of beef bouMon, cup whole grain barley, 2 ounces of dried PoKsh mushrooms, soaked and drained, celery stalk and 1 carrot, both diced. Bring to a boH, skim the surface and simmer for 45 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

You can double the recipe and freeze half. DaHy Itows Soup Contest co Food taction Datty Maw 480 W. 33d Si. Maw York, MY 10001 All entries must be postmarked by Feb. 8.

You may send more than one recipe. Please print your name, address and daytime phone LEGIBLYI on your entry. AH entries become property of the Daily News and cannot be Soup's on and so is Th DaHy News Soup Contest. We're looking for your favorite soup recipe and any stories you have about where that recipe came from. Did your grandmother make this soup back in the ok! country? TeH us! print the best recipes here, and our First Prize Winner recieves "Splendid Soups." by James Peterson (Bantam Books.

Send your recipe and story to: CM By Colette Wonawt cooMn, wHto to Colette t. eo DaHy Now Mow YOfftCa NY lOOM. Eaaoaa SAM for I -8 L'l ul'.