By LEAH WEATHERSBY

Wallingford author Bharti Kirchner's new novel proves you can sometimes take the book out of the kitchen, but not the kitchen out of the book.

"Darjeeling," (St. Martin's Press, hardcover, $24.95), was published in July. It is the third novel from Kirchner, who was a cook book author before turning to fiction.

The story is set on a tea plantation - a culinary back drop. The plot centers around a love triangle between two sisters and a fiery labor activist who wants to organize his fellow plantation workers.

"It's a complex novel," Kirchner said. "It seems like it's a love triangle...but the main theme of the (book) is that family relationships are stronger than human short-comings."

Food is another theme running through "Darjeeling." A number of pivotal scenes revolve around cooking and eating.

Despite her background as a cook book author, Kirchner said that food imagery in her writing has more to do with Indian culture than her own interests.

"Food is so big in India," Kirchner said. "Whenever there is any kind of occasion people think of food first."

Kirchner's early career gave little indication of the either the culinary or literary paths she would later take. A native of the Bengal region of India, she first moved to the United States from the in the 1960s to study computers and mathematics at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo. Kirchner said few students from her town went abroad to school, and those who did usually chose England over the U.S. because the education available there was considered more prestigious. However, Kirchner said, America turned out to be the right place both for her field of study and her later work in publishing.

During her career as a systems engineer, which lasted several decades, Kirchner lived in several countries including France, Iran and Holland. She finally returned to the U.S. in the 1980's, moving to Seattle in 1985 with her husband, Tom, also a who also worked with computer software.

Kirchner wasn't in Seattle long before she realized she had a new ambition: she wanted to write.

In 1990, Kirchner began to forge herself a freelance journalism career, seemingly out of sheer tenacity. She took a nonfiction writing course through the University of Washington extension program and read books on writing at the library. She wrote articles on spec, often on food or fitness, which had been two important interests in her life. Kirchner not only learned about the culinary arts from her mother and aunts (and on her own), she also studied cooking while living in France.

In addition, Kirchner was an avid runner (before sustaining a knee injury) often indulging that passion at nearby Green Lake.

Before long, Kirchner had an idea for a cook book: a selection of recipes from Bengal - a cuisine which had not yet been addressed much by the western press. Kirchner's first book, "The Healthy Cuisine of India: Recipes from the Bengal Region" was published in 1992. (That book became an alternate selection of the Better Homes and Gardens Book Club and Food Arts magazine named it one of the best cookbooks of 1992.)

More cook books, "Indian Inspired," (recognized as among the top cook books of 1993 by USA Today and the Chicago Tribune), "The Bold Vegetarian" (now in its eighth printing) and "Vegetarian Burgers" quickly followed. Having successfully published four volumes of recipes Kirchner felt she'd said virtually all she had to say about cuisine and was ready to move on to fiction.

"I've always had a lot of stories in me," Kirchner said.

"Shiva Dancing," her first novel, hit the shelves in 1998. It became a best-seller in India, was translated into German, and was named by the Seattle Weekly as one of the top 18 books by Seattle authors in the last 25 years. ("Darjeeling" will also be translated into German and Dutch.)

Kirchner said that despite the endless recipe testing needed to create a cook book, writing a novel is still the greater challenge.

"With a novel, you have to create a whole world," Kirchner said. "Cook books take some of your expertise (but) a novel takes everything you have so I think ultimately a novel is harder." Kirchner expects her next book, "Pastries," to come out next year. No doubt it will be another creation of both fiction and kitchen.

"Darjeeling" is available from most bookstores. Kirchner will give a talk at this year's Northwest Bookfest on Saturday, Oct. 19, at 4:45 p.m. Her topic: the subject of sisters. For details, call the Bookfest at 378-1883.