CONTEMPORARY FRENCH COOKING

Not at all comprehensive--these recipes have been selected from French cooking ""as it has adapted itself to the facts of life in our time"". Consequently, with the exception of some excellent, classic soups and sauces, the recipes included here can be found in almost any standard American cookbook. Definitely inferior to the highly explicit Mastering the Art of French Cooking (Knopf p. 766) no special attention is given here to the various techniques of classical French cooking, and the book is arranged according to the usual categories. The one exception to this arrangement is a chapter called ""Heat and Serve a la Francaise"", which includes a lengthy introduction about how meals are prepared on various Air France flights. The actual recipes in this chapter are meat, poultry and vegetable dishes chosen from Air France menus. It is very difficult to understand what their special attraction is supposed to be, since ""the authors believe that most of the recipes given in this chapter could be quick-frozen, either at the halfway or a final stage, and reheated after thawing on the day of serving. They also suggest that you don't freeze the dishes unless you have to, since there is a certain risk of loss of flavor when they are thawed."" Also included are the usual glossary of French cooking terms and some general information on serving wines.