Eighteen years after her first book, the well-regarded Perla Meyers' Seasonal Kitchen, and 12 years since her last major one, Perla Meyers' From Market to Kitchen Cookbook, this Spanish-born American author is still extolling local seasonal produce but also drawing on the global pantry that has become available in the interim. The present collection, still seasonally arranged, embraces both old-fashioned and nouvelle concepts, owes much to French and Italian motifs, and tends to company fare, dressed up in sauces, ``marmalades'' (not necessarily sweet or fruity), and various mixed toppings and trimmings. But none of this is tricky or elaborate, nor are Meyers's combinations capricious. Her hefty compilation of dishes, from soy-sauced black-bean salad or double- squash soup to roasted red-pepper quiche or veal medallions with chanterelles and apples, is well timed to meet an emerging demand for dishes that are original but not outrÇ and meals that are a little more formal than the snappy, emphatic features of the 80's but lighter and easier than the gourmet clunkers of a generation past.
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1991
ISBN: 0-671-64984-1
Page Count: 608
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1991
BOOK REVIEW
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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