Customer Rating: 
Summary: Great book.
Comment: This is a great reading book. The recipes seem a little bit off but the pictures help you with the presentation. This book completes my collection of the Culinaria series.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Superb work for very serious cooks and chefs
Comment: This book is a steal at twenty bucks but you'll need a wheelbarrow to lug it around -- it's big and heavy! The book is 12 1/2" x 11" and 1 7/8 inches thick. It's 640 pages in length and there's a nice index to steer readers to where they need to go.
The product description says that this book weighs just under eight pounds but it feels more like twelve to me. The paper is of excellent-quality stock, very thick and heavy. This volume is what we used to call a "coffee table book".
Here's what the book is about:
1. It details individual and exotic ingredients which serve to make traditional European ethnic dishes.
2. It features, specifically, European recipes and dishes.
3. It provides hundreds of beautiful color photographs and detailed descriptions which insure that the reader will know precisely what these regional products look like and how they fit in to particular dishes.
Here is a list of the countries whose food and beverages are featured in this fine work:
1. England
2. Scotland
3. Ireland
4. Denmark
5. Norway
6. Sweden
7. Finland
8. Russia and other member states of the former Soviet Union
9. Poland
10. The Czech Republic and Slovakia
11. Hungary
12. Austria
13. Switzerland
14. Germany
15. The Netherlands
16. Belgium
17. France
18. Spain
19. Portugal
20. Italy
21. Greece
22. Turkey
The book is bulging with tips, (e.g., how to cook crayfish, how to make tortellini, etc.) These recipes are not for the beginner, many are even difficult but they're the real deal. For that reason, it's not actually what I would term "a cookbook". Still, newbies can benefit from learning all about basic ingedients and the ethnic origins of our own American cookery.
There's no use to say more. This book gets my highest recommendation.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great for reading but not for cooking
Comment: These books provide a nice history of the cooking techniques but the recipes are hard to reproduce because the ingredients are hard to find. If you read cookbooks like they are novels then this is for you.
Customer Rating:
Summary: So much to learn
Comment: While I completely agree with all of the other reviewers (in that this is an excellent book), I do want to take the time to point out that this is not just a cookbook. Within each chapter (each dedicated to a certain country), there is history, education and just so much to learn. For example, the book tells you about the cheeses, wines, beers and other specialties of each country and special holiday meals and snacks. The traditions of the peoples are spelled out and almost makes you feel like you are there experiencing them. And, of course, great recipes of each country as well. This may be the BEST book I've ever owned. I highly recommend it. Unlike most cookbooks, you can just read this one and have a ball.
Customer Rating:
Summary: NOT 'just another cookery book'.
Comment: I dithered for months whether to spend such a lot of money on 'just another cookery book', but I'm glad I did - it is definitely NOT 'just another cookery book' ... I've just spent most of my day off totally absorbed in these 2 books.
There is plenty of interesting information, with superb photography and illustrations; well-researched commentaries on the various industries; snippets of little-known historical info (did you know that Britain's King Edward VII gave the name Crepe Suzette to a spoiled dessert?) and well-chosen recipes which highlight the particular country's culinary strong points.These are 2 weighty tomes (6lb/3kg each!), but only in the physical sense - they are very readable. With a chapter devoted to each of the European countries, the authors give an introduction, an overview of the country's specialities and an in-depth look at each speciality:- how it is grown/made; different varieties; anecdotes from the area; useful snippets of information, as well as some wonderful recipes (not all of them well-known).
Obviously some countries get more coverage than others; France Spain & Italy each get far more attention than, say, Russia - but deservedly so, given their gastronomic heritage (although the wines of France are over-played, to my mind).
While I would not recommend this as a working cookery book, it is certainly a valuable addition to anyone's culinary library - an ideal present for that friend of yours who has a love of food and cooking; anyone would be over the moon to receive such a present!
