Well, I've checked around. The Knowledge Base says, pretty bluntly, not to do this:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106474
It seems that it
might work sometimes. I wouldn't rely on it, if I were you. (Of course, you can still restore it using the steps in Section 5 of the User's Guide, but I wouldn't count on being able to boot from it directly.)
What exact Mac do you have? Is it recent?