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• by:
• Herbst, Sharon Tyler and Herbst, Ron

Based on Barron’s popular and authoritative The Food Lover’s Companion, this enlarged and enhanced new reference volume was written for discerning home chefs and everybody else who wants to become more knowledgeable about good food and elegant dining. Alphabetically arranged entries define and describe—

• Fruits and vegetables, both well-known and exotic varieties
• Meat cuts and preparation methods
• Fish, shellfish, and ways to cook and serve them
• Breads, pastas, and other grain-based foods
• Cooking tools and techniques
• Reliable ways to preserve and store foods
• Herbs, spices, and their many uses . . . and much more

Miniature glossaries are interspersed throughout the text. For instance, following the entry for apple, an “Apple Glossary” provides descriptions and recommended uses of 28 different varieties. A generous array of sidebar features throughout the book offers quick tips on food purchases, as well as Fast Facts and advice on preparation, serving, and dining. For example, immediately following the "al dente" entry in reference to cooking pasta, readers will find this sidebar:

Fast Facts ~ Al Dente

• An obvious line flowing through the thickest part of the pasta means it's not done
• Lingering heat will continue to cook the pasta for a short time after it's removed from the hot cooking water

More than 6,700 entries are supplemented with a general introduction, hundreds of illustrations, and pithy quotations about food and dining from chefs and gourmets. The new deluxe hardcover binding with dust jacket includes a ribbon place marker and golden-tipped page edges.

Sharon Tyler Herbst was an award-winning author of seventeen books, and has been dubbed the foremost writer of user-friendly food and drink reference works. Her seminal work, Food Lover’s Companion, is broadly hailed as “a must for every cook’s library. Sharon frequently discussed those topics on national radio and TV.

Ron Herbst, a dedicated wine expert, is also a wine and food journalist. His best-selling The New Wine Lover’s Companion, also published by Barron’s, is the wine dictionary used on Internet sites, including Condé Nast’s “Epicurious.”