A culinary genius who helped change the way America eats, Sheila Lukins is the cook behind the phenomenal success of The Silver Palate Cookbooks and The New Basics Cookbook , with over 5 million copies in print. Now Sheila embarks on her first solo journey, visiting 33 countries on a cooks tour of cuisines, ingredients, and tastes. The result is pure alchemy--a new kind of American cookbook that reinterprets the best of the worlds food in 450 dazzling, original recipes. In addition, there are new wines to discover, menus to experiment with, ingredients to learn, spice cabinets to raid--and travelogues to savor. Main selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club's HomeStyle Books and Better Homes & Gardens Family Book Service; and selection of the Quality Paperback Book Club.
Sheila Lukins (1942–2009), was an American cook and food writer. She was most famous as the co-author, with Julee Rosso, of the The Silver Palate series of cookbooks, and The New Basics Cookbook, a very popular set of cookbooks which introduced many Americans to southern and eastern European cooking techniques and ingredients and revitalized a richer and very boldly seasoned style of cooking to Americans in sharp contrast to the health-food movements of the 1970s. Together, their books sold more than seven million copies. She was also the co-founder and owner of the popular Silver Palate gourmet shop in New York City and, for 23 years, the food editor and columnist for PARADE, a position previously held by Julia Child.
Great, huge compendium of recipes and info. Special short sections on wines or beers from certain areas, spices, sample menus, cheeses, etc. Separated into types of recipes, but there's a lot of cross-pollination. Easy to read, lots of useful information, lots of ways to modify or adapt to local ingredients.
Great cookbook full of delicious recipes, and designed in such a way as to make learning the flavor profile and herb/spice palates of different countries easy. For cookbook collectors, this is a must-have. A classic.
Found this for a couple of bucks at a thrift store, a definite good deal. A treasure trove of wonderful ethnic recipes from around the world collected in one book. Much to my delight I even found a recipe for Pavlova, something I had not been able to do in my extensive collection of cookbooks. I especially enjoyed the section on Afternoon tea with recipes for teas, sandwiches and desserts. The one gripe I have with this book is the recipe index, which I found to be inadequate. I found I had to make notes in places I felt the recipe could and should have been listed in order to ensure I'd find it again when needed. But overall a happy find for a foodie who wants to venture out with traditional recipes from around the world.
Some very interesting recipes are included in this cook book. I purchased the book so I could look for various international dishes to use when my family has our new tradition...a heritage smorgasbord Christmas dinner. When needing to figure out a Scandanavian main course, Irish appetizer, Scottish salad and German desert...this book was a God send. The recipes I have tried were all easy to follow and have all been "hits" and not "misses," thus far.
I understand later editions had many of the typos and mistakes corrected. Unfortunately, my impression of the book was formed by that first edition that still had all the errors. Now you can look for errata sheets on-line (although we shouldn't HAVE TO because the book should be proofread before being released.) Some potentially nice recipes just didn't work out because of sloppy proofreading.
This is one of my all time favorite cookbooks, a gift from my father making it extra special. It is a collection of recipes from around the world and includes two recipes I have incorporated into everyday cooking and share with friends and family;the Moroccan Tea Loaf is made with organic pumpkin puree and the Mexican Frijoles Negros is made with cocoa powder.
I really like this cookbook for the anecdotes about the around-the-world travels. However, in terms of recipes, there are only a few I use because they are not really practical for the most part...some of the ingredients are hard to find and some of the recipes don't appeal to a wide range of tastes, as is to be expected I suppose.
Got this when our son was in kindergarten, because his school seemed to have a regular "multicultural festival" where each class was assigned a country and parents were asked to provide a dish from that country for the program. His middle school did the same thing so the book was used for grades K-8.
Packing away now as we declutter the house, preparing to put it on the market.
Only a few countries/regions are represented in the book, and most of the recipes are very common. I found only a couple I wanted to try. I could have done without the cartoon clipart, preferring images of the finished recipes instead, but that is just my opinion. Compared to others, this one is lacking.
Adore flipping through this book. Have made only a few things (rather rich and involved recipes) but they were fabulous! Apple crab salad rocks. The Moroccan Pumpkin loaf has been made several times.
This is a book to read. Fascinating, it tells the tale of regional cuisine and how it came to be based on the geography, economics, religion, and traditions of the areas. With text this absorbing the recipes pale in comparison.
This was one of my favorite cookbooks from a former phase of my life, and I'm sure I have it in storage somewhere. The Jamaican jerk recipe was always a crowd pleaser.
Looking at this again now that I am more of a cook and more of a cookbook reader and this remains one of my favorite cookbooks.
I've had this cookbook for a long time but I don't use it very much. I think if you are looking for a specific kind of food, you might find an okay recipe. It's okay for a beginning cook.