When it comes to food, Jane Fonda...

When it comes to food, Jane Fonda is a man’s woman. Her culinary evolution started with her father and developed through subsequent husbands.

But when it comes to business partners and advisors, she’s a woman’s woman. She surrounds herself with longtime female friends.

The star status, the flawless makeup and that killer smile don’t get in the way. Just don’t ask her to cook.

“I rarely cook anymore,” says the 58-year-old actress and fitness guru. But she does have a cookbook. “Jane Fonda: Cooking for Healthy Living” (Turner Publishing Inc., $29.95) is due out Oct. 1.

She was in Los Angeles recently to pick up a lifetime achievement award from Shape Magazine for her contributions to fitness, to see friends and to visit her 23-year-old son, Troy. She managed to squeeze in a few 20-minute interviews with journalists behind double doors of a function room in the Bel-Age Hotel in Hollywood. Elegantly garbed in silk and camel-colored gabardine, she gave directions. And took them.

Between camera flashes and the intermittent charge of the makeup brigade, brandishing hairbrushes and spray cans, the actress held the right chin angle and caught up with news of friends’ children.

She delivers a boardroom handshake and disarms almost everyone with wisecracks and a good ol’ boy’s demeanor. When she wants to emphasize a point, she raps her knuckles against the nearest knee when a shoulder is out of reach.

The cover of the book will not show her in a tomato sauce-stained apron, wielding a ladle. “That’s the first condition I made to the publisher,” she says. “I don’t cook, and the recipes in the book are foods we eat, not ones I make.”

. She gives credit for the 120 recipes in the book to Karen Averitt, her personal chef and good friend.

The idea to do a cookbook came, as do all of Fonda’s business ventures, from a suggestion. “People always ask me what I eat,” she says, “not, ‘Do I cook?’ They think I look good for my age.

“I didn’t give it too much thought at first. But we do eat well and entertain a lot. Guests always rave about the food and say they never gain weight. So Karen and I thought, ‘Why not? We’ll put it all down in a book.’ ”

Her earliest introduction to good fresh food came through her father, the late Henry Fonda. He was a Midwesterner by birth and an avid gardener and farmer. When she was growing up in the Santa Monica Mountains during World War II, he had a victory garden and raised rabbits and chickens.

Years later, he continued to till the soil in the backyard of the estate he’d moved to in Bel-Air. It was he who taught Jane and her brother, Peter, about soil and composting, seeds and planting.

But the Fonda family always had full-time domestic help, and cooking held little appeal for Jane. “And besides,” she says, “I was always Henry Fonda’s daughter, so no one ever expected me to cook.”

Studying in France was her first genuine exposure to serious cuisine and the European way of regarding the table. When she married French film director Roger Vadim, who was passionate about food, the 24-year-old Fonda put herself in cooking school and tackled the Paris markets with imperfect French. She was married to Vadim from 1965 to 1970. She became fascinated with the shops that specialized in the cheeses and breads.

“The French live by the table,” she says, “and long after the food is gone, they are still there. Dining is as much about friends and conversation as it is about food.”

Vadim is now a chef. “Says a lot about his wives,” she adds.

During the post-Vietnam War era, she spent more time at the podium than in the kitchen, except to make a baby formula of goat’s milk, cranberry juice, yeast and desiccated baby veal liver. Her influences at that time were Adele Davis and Frances Moore Lappe, and she still keeps in touch with the author of “Diet for a Small Planet” and calls her “my guru.”

Today, living with Turner has brought out her outdoors side. “All the men in my life were great fishermen,” she says, “so I learned how, and I’m good. I can even bone ‘em.”

Henry Fonda, Vadim and Turner were all deep-sea fishermen. Tom Hayden, former political activist and now a Democratic state senator from Los Angeles, whom she married in 1973 and divorced in 1989, is a big bass man.

When asked for her best fish story, she doesn’t hesitate. “A 24-inch brown trout in a creek by the ranch,” she insists, stretching out her hands. “I was alone, didn’t have a camera. A ranch record. Take that, Ted.”

She’s a cookbook reader and occasional user and buys them on the merits of their photos. But she makes exceptions for photoless favorites, such as “Joy of Cooking” and “Jane Brody’s Good Food Book.”

“ ‘Joy’s’ recipes aren’t that healthy but they’re good and they work. Brody’s are delicious and they’re healthy,” she says

If Fonda is home alone, a hands-down favorite meal is stir-fried vegetables “cooked in the wok with lots of garlic” until they’re nearly black, and rice--basmati or glutinous.

When she and Ted dine alone, the menu is pasta, which she learned to cook during a year in Italy. “My favorite dish is penne arrabbiata. It means ‘red and hot.’ It’s fiery and fast.” Her tips for pasta include using rock salt in the cooking water and the best olive oil.

It’s an irony, she admits, for a onetime bulimia sufferer like herself to do a cookbook, but her years of 500-calorie-a-day dieting are over. That regime kept her metabolism so low, even an apple would cause her to gain weight. Today, she’s an advocate of moderation.

When asked how many calories she eats in a day, she consults with a friend-business partner and they guess 2,000. She limits herself to two glasses of wine a day, and if she wants a sundae, she has it. But the next day she adds more exercise and cuts back a little on calories.

The demands of travel derail her best exercise plans, but in the big picture, she gets it all in. Breakfast is a mainstay of her day.

After so many years of being afraid of food, that enemy has become a friend. “I can’t tell you,” she says, “what a pleasure it is to eat a meal, enjoy it, and not feel bad about it.”

CHOCOLATE CHEESECAKE

In addition to the preparation and cooking times, allow at least 1 hour and 15 minutes for the cake to cool before serving. This cake satisfies even the most serious “chocoholic.” The chocolate makes the cake sweeter than plain versions, but it is still not so sweet that fans of more tangy cheesecakes won’t enjoy it.

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons graham cracker crumbs

2 tablespoons plus 3/4 cup sugar

2 tablespoons margarine, melted

2 cups nonfat ricotta cheese

1/2 pound nonfat cream cheese

1 egg

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/3 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa

3 tablespoons flour

1 1/2 ounces semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled

1/2 cup nonfat vanilla yogurt

3 tablespoons nonfat dairy sour cream

1/4 ounce semisweet (plain) chocolate, grated

In medium bowl, combine graham cracker crumbs, 2 tablespoons sugar and margarine and stir to mix well. Lightly press mixture into bottom of 9-inch springform pan sprayed with nonstick cooking spray.

Process ricotta, cream cheese and 3/4 cup sugar in food processor or blender until smooth. Add egg and vanilla and process until blended. Gradually add cocoa, flour and melted chocolate and process until smooth.

Pour filling into crust and bake at 300 degrees until center is set, about 1 hour. Turn off oven, prop open oven door and leave cake in oven to cool for 15 minutes. Remove cake and cool completely in pan, about 1 hour.

In small bowl, stir together yogurt and sour cream.

Release cake from pan, top with thin layer of yogurt and grated chocolate, slice into 8 wedges and divide among individual dessert plates. Store covered in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.

Makes 8 servings.

Each serving contains about:

368 calories; 304 mg sodium; 66 mg cholesterol; 18 grams fat; 40 grams carbohydrates; 14 grams protein; 1.40 grams fiber.

EGGS BENEDICT WITH LOW-FAT HOLLANDAISE

This is a special-occasion treat. Consider it for brunch and plan an especially low-fat dinner that evening. Note: In a recipe test-taste at The Times, tasters wanted a sharper taste. If desired, add an additional 1 teaspoon or more of lemon juice.

EGGS BENEDICT

2 ounces Canadian bacon, cut into 4 slices

4 eggs

Coat large nonstick frying pan with nonstick cooking spray and place over medium heat. Add Canadian bacon and cook until brown on both sides, 3 minutes. Drain on paper towels.

In medium saucepan over high heat, bring 4 inches of water to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low. One at a time, break eggs into small bowl and carefully slip into simmering water. Poach until whites are cooked through, 3 to 5 minutes.

LOW-FAT HOLLANDAISE

2/3 cup nonfat evaporated milk

1 egg yolk

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons margarine

1 tablespoon unbleached flour

1 tablespoon lemon juice (see note)

4 English muffins, halved and toasted

1/2 teaspoon ground paprika

In small bowl, whisk together milk, egg yolk and salt. In nonstick frying pan over medium heat, heat margarine. Gradually whisk in flour, reduce heat to low and cook, stirring constantly, until smooth and bubbly, about 3 minutes.

Increase heat to medium. Gradually add milk mixture, stirring constantly, and bring to boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring constantly, until thick and bubbly, about 1 minute. Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice.

Stack 2 English muffin halves on 4 individual plates. Top each stack with 1 slice of Canadian bacon. Using slotted spoon, place egg on top of bacon. Top each with equal amount of the Low-fat Hollandaise and paprika.

Makes 4 servings.

Each serving contains about:

325 calories; 860 mg sodium; 289 mg cholesterol; 11 grams fat; 35 grams carbohydrates; 19 grams protein; 0.06 gram fiber.

GARLIC PORK CHOPS WITH BLACK MUSHROOMS

If you cannot find black (cloud ear) mushrooms or shiitake mushrooms, substitute fresh button mushrooms. The sauce will not be as richly flavored, but the overall taste will still be delicious. Note: In a recipe test-taste at The Times, tasters wanted more sauce. If desired, increase the amount of broth or stock by 1/2 to 3/4 cup.

1 cup chicken stock (homemade or canned reduced-sodium chicken broth)

1 ounce dried black (cloud ear) mushrooms or dried shiitake mushrooms, stemmed

1/4 cup rice vinegar

2 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce

2 tablespoons honey

1/4 teaspoon hot pepper flakes

2 teaspoons dark sesame oil

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon minced ginger root

4 (1/4-pound) boneless pork loin chops, trimmed of visible fat

In small saucepan over medium heat, bring stock or broth to boil. Add mushrooms, reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, 10 minutes.

In small bowl, combine vinegar, soy sauce, honey and pepper flakes.

Heat sesame oil in large nonstick frying pan over medium heat. Add garlic and ginger root and saute, stirring frequently, for 2 minutes. Add chops and cook 2 minutes. Turn and cook until browned, about 2 minutes more. Add vinegar mixture and bring to boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer 5 minutes.

Using slotted spoon, remove mushrooms from stock or broth and slice into thin strips. Reserve liquid.

Stir mushrooms and reserved liquid into pan with chops, reduce heat to low and simmer until sauce is reduced and chops are no longer pink in center, about 5 minutes.

Divide chops among 4 individual plates. Top with equal amount of mushroom sauce.

Makes 4 servings.

Each serving contains about:

248 calories; 492 mg sodium; 55 mg cholesterol; 12 grams fat; 16 grams carbohydrates; 19 grams protein; 0.91 gram fiber.