Upon first opening, I was impressed by the author's inclusion of en croute recipes, Beef Wellington, etc. She really interprets "baking" in a very wide sense.

This is a very comprehensive book, and it's not the author's fault that I've been baking for so long that as I leafed through it I didn't see anything that I wanted to make, except for things I already have really excellent recipes for. It just didn't make the cut in this year's Desperate Cookbook Shelf Purge. But it was close. I'd recommend it to someone who does understand the basics of cooking (because a review on Amazon complained that it was confusing to a beginner), but hasn't been testing recipes for 45 years. ( )