THE ART OF FRENCH COOKING

The fole call of the contributors puts the Cordon Bleu on this reissue of a now out of print book encompassing the broad sweep of the tradition of French cooking. Gilbert, Escoffier, Brillat-Savar in, Pellaprat, Montague -- to name a few -- provide close to 4000 recipes, some-historic as well as modern menus, gourmet lore, a sommeliers' guide to selection and service of wines with lists of the vintage years. Introductory material on utensils procedures (in photographic sequences), basic methods provide the distinction that continental cooking warrants. There is emphasis throughout on stocks, sauces and garnishes, but it is interesting to note that the section on them comes first- before soups, hors d'oeuvres or any of the main parts of the meal. Provincial cooking is deservedly integral to the whole, but, frankly, the inclusion of ""Foreign Cooking""- America through Turkey and Jewish Cooking, seems out of step with the rest, and distinctly inferior in quality. All in all this is unquestionably the best single volume in English (translated by Joseph Faulkner -- edited by Bart Winer) on the score of text alone.