Weir Cooking in the City: More than 125 Recipes and Inspiring Ideas for Relaxed Entertaining (Hardcover)

That last cynical remark is not fair. This is a very good book on both cooking and entertaining. It is as good as Sheila Lukins' new book `Celebrate', but complimentary to that book as Lukins is focusing on inexpensive family entertaining and Weir's target is more for young couples with few children to eat up disposable income. Both books gain from offering food / beverage pairings. Weir is more parochial in that her beverages are all modest to higher priced wines. Weir's book is clearly better than Ina Garten's book on parties, as Weir offers a really valuable instruction on a lot of the nuts and bolts of organizing and prepping a party. It is not in the same league as the classic Martha Stewart `Entertaining', which is really directed at large, catered parties.

The first feature about this book which impresses me is a table of contents which lists every recipe in the book, in chapter and page order, and chapters are arranged by course. This feature is doubly valuable in that chapters are based on very logical courses familiar to modern American families. These chapters are:

Firsts (Weir knows her stuff here, as she wrote a book on Tapas and Mezes)
Salads
Soups
Mains and a few Sides (Why not go to the very small extra effort to split these up?)
Desserts

Weir's cuisine is centered on the Mediterranean, with some East Asian and Latin American dishes added for variety. Interspersed with main dishes are recipes for pantry preparations such as salsa, preserved lemons, dashi, and potato chips. Many dishes are familiar such as spaghetti and meatballs, or variations on familiar themes such as Panini Caprese (the old familiar mozzarella, tomato, and basil combination).

All the cooking instructions are mindful of tips and techniques familiar to most Food Network junkies, such as being careful not to burn the garlic when you do a sauté beginning with garlic in olive oil. The author is also brave enough to recommend making your own chicken stock and her recipe may not be worthy of Judy Rodgers, it is quite good for the home cook.

My biggest problem with the book is with the section on pantry items. I have never seen anyone succeed with a viable pantry-stocking list, leading me to believe that no fixed pantry list will work for anyone other than the person who makes it up. By all means, buy this book if you like to entertain at home, but avoid the author's advice on pantry items. Her giving us three (3) different lists compounds the error. One for the Mediterranean cuisine, one for a Latin American cuisine, and one for an Asian cuisine. Heaven forbid if you want to cook from all three. Let me just cite a few errors in the Mediterranean list.

Does not recommend salt packed anchovies and capers over products packed in olive oil.
Does not give any warning on spoilage risks for nuts, nut oils and whole grains.
Puts phyllo dough on the shelf. I believe this must be frozen to preserve beyond a few days.
Pictures mozzarella as a pantry item, while authorities I know say this must be a serve on day made item.

The pantry notion is doubly misguided since the book is aimed at city dwellers who are both short on living space and long on availability to nearby markets and specialty stores. Best strategy is to simply buy what you need when you need it, keep a careful eye on shelf life, and never, never buy anything because you may make something with it in the future. You never do.

A cookie cutter blurb from Alice Waters graces the dust jacket. I give Alice credit for supporting a former employee, but I suspect the value of her endorsement may be wearing itself a little thin by now. More surprising is a rare blessing from Madeline Kamman. Not bad.

This is a superior book if you like to entertain at home and you do not have the time to wade through books devoted to regional cuisines to pick out suitable dishes (although I suggest Patricia Wells' books are an exceptional resource on this matter).

Highly recommended for people who entertain at home and wine and food fanciers.