Het boek zelf is prachtig, de recepten zijn nog niet uitgeprobeerd maar zien er goed uit.

Maar de vertaling heeft er weer eens met de pet naar gegooid. Allspice is geen Nederlandse term, dat spul heet hier piment. En wat ze kunnen bedoelen met glazige aardappelen? Ik heb geen idee.

This is a visually stunning volume. It's one of the prettiest cookbooks I've ever seen, and would make an ideal gift book. Recipes are divided into sections by country--each reflecting a different part of Kiros's heritage and history. Several of them are intriguing and unusual--particularly the sections on Cyprus and Finland. Less interesting is the section on South Africa which includes recipes for such exotica as fried chicken, garlic bread, and buffalo wings with blue cheese.

That complaint aside, the photography is stunning, the prose is charming, the family history aspect is a lovely excuse for the book, and I'm eagerly anticipating diving in to the more unusual recipes offered here. ( )

Beautiful cookbook, luscious pictures, wanders from Finland to Greece -- the gift of a friend who calls it her favorite cookbook. ( )

Among the many reasons I'm enjoying (and recommending) this book:
excellent photos, concise and clear recipes, surprisingly approachable descriptions of techniques and methods that I'd thought to be difficult, and a narrative that flows enjoyably like a good conversation.

Available at your local indie bookstore: http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780740781520 ( )

I received this as part of the Early Reviewers program last winter--and was super-excited to sit down and look it over.

Like many reviewers here, I agree that the book is beautiful. The images are lush and inspiring. And I love that it includes cuisines that are so often overlooked by other cookbooks.

I also deeply appreciate the detailed level of instruction in the recipes. In the marinated herrings recipe (p. 21), there are directions on how to go about filleting a herring. What a great inclusion for those of us who don't just know such things (or haven't already learned it from another cookbook!)

On the other hand, some instructions are less-than-clear. Again in the marinated herrings recipe (p. 21), she calls for "4 (2 1/4 lb) lightly smoked salted herrings. I'm a fishetarian, I guess, because I cook vegetarian but eat fish out at restaurants. So I have no idea what the average size of a herring might be. And this wording doesn't help. Does she mean 4 herrings for a total of 2 1/4 lbs or should each herring weigh 2 1/4 lbs?

And at the end of the day, the book fails me because it has yet to work its way into the regular rotation of cookbooks. I've flagged a couple to try (but have been put off by either the vast quantities of butter, heavy cream, and oil involved or the length of time involved--which is surprising considering I'm known for spending entire weekends happily cooking!) and have made just one (a potato salad I enjoyed but not so much that it would replace others in my repertoire).

It's almost too pretty to be useful as a COOK book, yet there's not quite enough narrative to make me read it like a coffee table book (I'd say Marcella Cucina does more on that score.) Nevertheless, I'll keep it and hope to use it if for no other reason than the inclusion of cuisines otherwise missing from my "international" cookbooks. ( )