Based on B.E.S. popular and authoritative The New Food Lover's Companion, this enlarged and enhanced reference volume was written for discerning home chefs and everybody else who wants to become more knowledgeable about good food and elegant dining. This second edition has been updated with new information to reflect the way we eat in today's world. The authors have taken into account our healthier lifestyles and more diverse palates to include: More than 500 new listings, including entries relating to Indian and Southeast Asian ingredients, plus expanded coverage of South American, Hispanic, and Middle Eastern cuisines Updated information for hundreds of existing entries A blood alcohol concentration chart for men and women An extensive breakdown of food labels and nutritional facts Department of Agriculture recommendations for a 2,000 calorie per day food plan More than 7200 entries plus line art are included in this seminal work. Miniature glossaries are interspersed throughout the text. Sidebar features throughout the book offer quick tips on food purchases, as well as Fast Facts and advice on preparation, serving, and dining. Handy appendices cover many topics including suggestions for substituting recipe ingredients, a microwave oven conversion chart, recommended safe cooking temperatures for meats and fish, and much more! The deluxe hardcover binding with dust jacket includes a ribbon place marker and golden-tipped page edges, making this gorgeous book as much a showpiece as it is an indispensable reference.

Contains alphabetically arranged entries that provide definitions of nearly six thousand terms related to food, drink, and cooking, and features a selection of reference appendices, including a pasta glossary, ingredient substitutes, and measurement equivalents.

"Essential for anyone who talks, eats, or thinks about food." —Bev Bennett, Chicago Sun-Times The New Food Lover's Companion is an indispensable resource for everyone from home cooks to culinary professionals. This widely praised and highly esteemed reference guide has been updated with new information to reflect the way we eat in today's world, taking into account our healthier lifestyles and more diverse palates, including: Over 500 new cultural listings, including Korean, Persian, and South American additions Definitions and explanations for cooking tools and techniques A microwave oven conversion chart An extensive breakdown of food labels and nutritional facts Suggestions for substituting recipe ingredients Among the myriad of foods and culinary subjects defined and explained are meat cuts, breads, pastas, and literally everything else related to good food and enjoyable dining—a veritable food bible for the novice home-cook, culinary student, or the self-proclaimed foodie. The New Food Lover's Companion is a reference guide—not a cookbook—but it includes hundreds of cooking tips plus an extensive bibliography of recommended cookbooks. More than 7,200 entries plus line art are included in this seminal work. "As thick and satisfying as a well-stuffed sandwich." —The New York Times

A basic information handbook for everyone who takes cooking seriously, this A-to-Z guide defines and describes cooking methods, ingredients, herbs and spices, cuts of meat, kitchen utensils, and more. Includes explanations to the sometimes confusing details of cooking that other cookbooks don't always make clear. Line drawings throughout.

From the PEN/Faulkner Award-winning author James Salter and his wife, Kay—amateur chefs and perfect hosts—here is a charming, beautifully illustrated tour de table: a food lover's companion that, with an entry for each day of the year, takes us from a Twelfth Night cake in January to a champagne dinner on New Year's Eve. Life Is Meals is rich with culinary wisdom, history, recipes, literary pleasures, and the authors' own memories of successes and catastrophes. For instance: • The menu on the Titanic on the fatal night • Reflections on dining from Queen Victoria, JFK, Winnie-the-Pooh, Garrison Keillor, and many others • The seductiveness of a velvety Brie or the perfect martini • How to decide whom to invite to a dinner party—and whom not to • John Irving's family recipe for meatballs; Balzac's love of coffee • The greatest dinner ever given at the White House • Where in Paris Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter had French onion soup at 4:00 a.m. • How to cope with acts of God and man-made disasters in the kitchen Sophisticated as well as practical, opinionated, and indispensable, Life Is Meals is a tribute to the glory of food and drink, and the joy of sharing them with others. "The meal is the emblem of civilization," the Salters observe. "What would one know of life as it should be lived, or nights as they should be spent, apart from meals?" BONUS: This edition includes an excerpt from James Salter's All That Is.