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The NEW ELEGANT BUT EASY COOKBOOK by Marian Burros Lois Levine
The track record of the Elegant but Easy Cookbook speaks for itself. Almost 40 years and 500,000 copies in print is the figure of best-selling novels, not cookbooks. Yet co-authors Marian Burros and Lois Levine have endured, and The New Elegant but Easy Cookbook is destined to continue the tradition. The concept for the book hasn't it's filled with recipes that can be prepared ahead of time so the cook can enjoy the party instead of hovering over the stove. However, the old book had become dated, often relying on canned and prepared ingredients that--while perfectly acceptable in 1960--did nothing to reflect more modern tastes. The New Elegant but Easy Cookbook manages to maintain the integrity of the original while taking a new culinary approach with more emphasis on fresh ingredients and world cuisine. Only 50 favorite recipes are included from the original volume (including Lois's Original Plum Torte, the most requested recipe reprinted in the New York Times, ever), while the rest are a dynamic new approach to simple and easy cooking. Dishes like Chicken Breasts Stuffed with Goat Cheese or Couscous are elegant, yet still sturdy enough to be prepared in advance. Burros and Levine have done their homework, and it shows. None of the recipes are to be underestimated because they are simple or can live in a refrigerator until mealtime. The authors have also provided ten foolproof menus, planning guides for large dinner parties, and ingredients lists with mail-order sources. In an age where time has become a precious commodity, The New Elegant but Easy Cookbook provides a resource to help free the chef from the kitchen to enjoy the ritual of the meal. --Mark O. Howerton
- GenresCookbooksNonfiction
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1998
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 28, 2021
I have adored Marian Burros since reading her Pure & Simple: Delicious recipes for additive-free cooking : an elegant & easy cookbook with up-to-date advice on avoiding ingredients that contain chemicals & preservatives back in the 1980s. I still swear by two Burros cookbooks, which remain my forever favorites: 20-Minute Menus: Time-Wise Recipes and Strategic Plans for Freshly Cooked Meals Every Day and Eating Well is the Best Revenge: Everyday Strategies for Delicious, Healthful Food in 30 Minutes or Less. I have lost count of how many times I have given those two cookbooks as gifts — which is the highest praise possible.
But I didn’t love The New Elegant But Easy Cookbook. Burros and co-author Lois Levine revised this cookbook in 1998, noting that the original 1960 edition had too many canned soups and processed foods, and too much red meat, MSG, gelatin salads, Velveeta, and the like. The newer version contains ingredients that, surprisingly to younger cooks, were difficult to procure in the 1960s or completely unavailable, items that are ubiquitous now: cumin, fresh herbs, bok choy, couscous, fennel bulbs, cruelty-free veal, bulgar. Cooking had changed so much in 30 years that the old cookbook was no longer useful.
But the 1998 book has suffered the same fate in an even shorter amount of time. Does anyone have dinner parties with four and five courses? Except for Super Bowl parties and, occasionally, Thanksgiving and/or Christmas, how often does anyone serve up canapés, trifles or intricate desserts? Already in 1998, 60 percent of women were working outside the home; they’re the wives and mothers, like me, who devoured 20 Minute Menus and its 30-minute companion, Eating Well Is the Best Revenge. Today get-togethers aren’t 12 seated around a dining-room table; in fact, the National Association of Homebuilders says that 43 percent of Millennials don’t want a dining room at all. My home has one; in the 13 years we’ve lived here, we have used it to eat in exactly zero times.
I liked some of the recipes in this cookbook, but most were too dated or too much trouble for me.
Burros must be somewhere in her 80s at least, but, if you’re still up for it, please, please, please, PLEASE update this treasure one more time.
But I didn’t love The New Elegant But Easy Cookbook. Burros and co-author Lois Levine revised this cookbook in 1998, noting that the original 1960 edition had too many canned soups and processed foods, and too much red meat, MSG, gelatin salads, Velveeta, and the like. The newer version contains ingredients that, surprisingly to younger cooks, were difficult to procure in the 1960s or completely unavailable, items that are ubiquitous now: cumin, fresh herbs, bok choy, couscous, fennel bulbs, cruelty-free veal, bulgar. Cooking had changed so much in 30 years that the old cookbook was no longer useful.
But the 1998 book has suffered the same fate in an even shorter amount of time. Does anyone have dinner parties with four and five courses? Except for Super Bowl parties and, occasionally, Thanksgiving and/or Christmas, how often does anyone serve up canapés, trifles or intricate desserts? Already in 1998, 60 percent of women were working outside the home; they’re the wives and mothers, like me, who devoured 20 Minute Menus and its 30-minute companion, Eating Well Is the Best Revenge. Today get-togethers aren’t 12 seated around a dining-room table; in fact, the National Association of Homebuilders says that 43 percent of Millennials don’t want a dining room at all. My home has one; in the 13 years we’ve lived here, we have used it to eat in exactly zero times.
I liked some of the recipes in this cookbook, but most were too dated or too much trouble for me.
Burros must be somewhere in her 80s at least, but, if you’re still up for it, please, please, please, PLEASE update this treasure one more time.
July 13, 2009
Prepared two recipes for a recent dinner party and got great reviews. Using a library copy, so I just might have to get my own.
December 9, 2023
Fun to Read
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews