People looking for a cookbook with a few recipes accompanied by photos need to go elsewhere. Larousse Gastronomique is a reference book owned by professional French chefs (of course, in the original French language). That such a resource is available for amateur chefs under one cover is a blessing. There are wonderful French cookbooks with photos by Michel Roux (e.g. SAUCES, which I've reviewed on amazon.com) and other wonderful authors. Indeed, buy all of the best books available before they go out of print (which they often do because most people prefer Betty Crocker to serious French cuisine). But all discerning readers should note that the purpose of Larousse Gastronoique is to serve as a constant reference guide for people who know how to cook well, and either need to refresh their memories on age-old classics, or wish to learn new dishes they have yet to attempt. Here's the good news. Though Larousse Gastronomique primarily serves gifted professional and amateur chefs, it serves as a splendid introduction to fledgling cooks who wish to learn the art of French cooking. Most advanced books on cooking don't have many photos. Experienced chefs gauge the reliability of the recipes in two ways: (1) they look at the ingredients and taste the food in their minds "and" (2) try them out. In truth, no experienced chef simply mimics a recipe. Recipes are guides that invite the chef to vary the menu to his or her own particular taste. I would hope the person who gave this book a "1 star" rating reconsiders the rating. Please meditate on the audience of the book and give this wonderful professional guide its appropriate ranking. This IS one of a handful of tomes on French cooking almost every professional chef has on the bookshelf. The best part is that the discount on-line via amazon.com is wonderfully generous. (Note: Please get an edition that is edited by a French chef; examine it at your local bookstore before ordering. I'm sure you'll be delighted.)

I have many times over many years gone to the Larousse Gastronomique as my first step in menu planning before a grand meal. Its encycopedic breadth, its to-the-point informative essays, its side-by-side alternative recipes, and its marvelous way of linking recipes, ingredients, geographical biases and lore into nearly endless chains of ideas is a great inspiration. So often, different sources say very different things about a food, and the Larousse becomes the arbiter of these disagreements. It is authoritative and comprehensive.

But it can be a pain in the tenderloin to use as a cookbook. Its recipes, even in the most recent editions, can be too dense, too full of recondite practices, and just too damned French in their prejudices and presuppositions. So I've always used it as a first source, but rarely for practical guidance with individual dishes. For years I have returned to the same unfulfilled wish: to have the recipes excerpted, reorganized, edited, and cleaned up for kitchen use. Sometimes you just need to know how much onion goes in the soup without all the chauvanistic opinions about onions in their many forms. I am very pleased to say that the editors at Larousse have produced exactly this book.

The book is in fact four: meats, fish and seafoods, vegetables, and deserts are separately bound into four handy volumes. The books are compact, beautifully designed following the old French format of one recipe in paragraph-form per page, with saddle-stitched bindings and stain-resistant covers. The volumes come in a strong paperboard box. With some gentle stretching the books will lie open on the counter. Each volume is intelligently arranged by major ingredient or thematic relevance. Everything is easy to find [assuming you know some French], and easy to use. Leave your full Larousse in the library, and keep this recipe collection near the stove. Or, since it is so incredibly inexpensive at Amazon, buy two and let one get encrusted in Cassoulet sauce.

One caveat: The French-format recipes may take some getting used to. You'll have to be careful to line up your ingredients, since they are not listed except as needed within the paragraph. This format works very well if you are a reasonably experienced cook who is comfortable reading a recipe through and then improvising the dish as you go. If you need precise instructions, other cookbooks might be more accessible. But if you know a mirepoix is a highly-variable mixture of vegetables, you can relax and let the recipes suggest a direction, and adjust as needed. Where exact instructions are more important, with delicate pastries and souffles, for example, you may want to supplement these recipes with a step-by-step cookbook, but for Coq au Vin, just dive in and let go your fears of imperfection.

I highly recommend this monumental compendium for every cook who loves French food. It is fast becoming one of the vertebra of my cookbook library.

Larousse Gastronomique is the ultimate culinary reference for the serious foodie and cook, whether a good home cook or a professional. It was never intended for the person who does not already know something as basic as what a flan case is (or how to boil water) nor for the person who lacks the intelligence to observe that the book is arranged alphabetically, so no cross reference to "flan case" is required. It is only necessary to turn to f-l-a-n, alphabetically. Nor is "a list of ingredients" the truly traditional way to write recipes. Even Gourmet magazine wrote recipes in the paragraph style until the 1980s.

Larousse Gastronomique answers just about every culinary question you have and describes everything you need to know to cook at a world class level using real (not mass-produced processed) ingredients in the traditional way. Not for the person who thinks a great recipe contains canned cream of X soup!

If you have already mastered the basics of real cookery and are ready to step up to great cooking, this is the book for you.