I borrowed this through Prime Reads.

Jacques Pepin has published tons of cookbooks over the years. In this one, he says he wanted to collect the recipes that he likes to make. The emphasis here is on foods for entertaining and savory meals. There are very few recipes for breads or desserts, and many of those are shortcut-style recipes (use existing brioche or madelines, that kind of thing) rather than making them from scratch.

Many of the recipes do look good. However, they also heavily reflect his level of prestige and the area where he now resides in New England. I live in Arizona. So many involve ingredients that I cannot get at all, or if I did, they would be terribly expensive. I look at a lot of recipes and thought, "Well, I might order that in a fancy restaurant" but I'd never make it myself at home--my husband sure wouldn't eat it.

I prefer cookbooks that have pictures of the finished results, too. There were few photographs. I did, however, enjoy Pepin's frequent paintings. That personal touch added to the pleasantness of his voice throughout the text.

In the end, I only found a couple recipes I might be willing to try, but nothing I want to rush out and make right away. This would be a fine cookbook for someone in the northeast US or with a willingness to spend extra on kitchen experimentation, but not for me. ( )