THE PERFECT HOSTESS COOK BOOK

Not since Thoughts for Food injected a new concept of gastronomy has there been so successful a venture in this particular phase of epicurean publishing. There have been superb specialty cook books; first rate general cook books; cook books which give a fillip to the imagination of the housewife. But here is a cook book that assumes (a) that you set a good table; (b) that you know more than the ABC's of good cooking and good eating. There are virtually no basic recipes here -- and yet one has no feeling of its being so de luxe as to be outside the range of the hostess. It is just that the fine points of good food, the little extras that make a meal memorable, the off the beaten track ideas are given full rein.