Millennium Cookbook: Extraordinary Vegetarian Cuisine

Rating:
Summary: Gourmet Cuisine
Review: Vegan or carnivore, people are impressed with and love food prepared from these recipes. Sophisticated and complex, the dishes cover the globe in style. When I first bought this book I became frustrated, being unused to saucing my dishes and not having both blender and food processor. The time consuming procedures and multiplicity of steps were daunting and it sat on my shelf for a year. I went back to it when I started entertaining and, renovation of my kitchen complete, found that I could indeed handle the recipes. Some of the dishes are out of my range either because I don't have the means for smoking food or because in my rural Mid-Atlantic community there is not a farmer's market with the types of produce that San Francisco enjoys. I am, however, all about the culinary philosophy that undergirds this book, and many of the recipes have been fantastic. It is apparent that it was written in a restaurant kitchen but nevertheless it makes for superb holiday or entertaining meals. Big hits have been the Latin-style Torte with Plantains and Tofu, the Filo-Wrapped Spring Rolls, the Hot and Sour Soup (which is Vietnamese in style), and the Pureed Root Vegetables.