Rating: 
Summary: best cookbook by far
Review: I've got a lot of cookbooks, and this is the best. Great reading, great recipes, and I like the way its broken down by region, highlighting the differences in Greece food (like is accepted practice for discussions on Italian food).
Rating:
Summary: The glorious Foods of Greece
Review: Ms Kochilas's cookbooks are so full of so much information and
background and her recipes are so easy to follow.
The recipes are many and different from the norm of "Greek food"
and what pleasures they are to experience.
If just trying Greek cooking for the first time or have many books on the subject you'll love this book. It is so full of
so much, you'll feel as if your there......Kutos to Ms Kochilas keep up the good work
Rating:
Summary: The glorious Foods of Greece
Review: Ms Kochilas's cookbooks are so full of so much information and
background and her recipes are so easy to follow.
The recipes are many and different from the norm of "Greek food"
and what pleasures they are to experience.
If just trying Greek cooking for the first time or have many books on the subject you'll love this book. It is so full of
so much, you'll feel as if your there......Kutos to Ms Kochilas keep up the good work
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Book, But With Faults
Review: The "Glorious Foods of Greece ...." is an excellent introduction to the superb cuisine of that ancient land, and, as the title suggests, the subject is treated with all the gusto and enthusiasm that it deserves. However, as is often the case with those affected by an extreme enthusiasm for a particular subject, the author may be tending toward too narrow and rigid concept of what constitutes authentic Greek cooking. Greek cooking not only varies from region to region, but even the same dish may recieve a different treatment dependent on family tradition. Keeping that in mind, it's best to just enjoy that which is set before us for its'own worth without so much forced reference to supposed standards of authenticity.
Rating: 
Summary: Doesn't stand on its own, but an excellent read nevertheless
Review: The down side of this book is that it essentially functions as a follow-on to Kochilas' earlier book, the Food and Wine of Greece. If you want a basic introduction to Greek cuisine, pass this one by -- it will tell you a great deal about Greek cuisine, but the basics are covered better in her earlier book.
Kochilas writes with a more mature and experienced voice than in her first book -- she's been living in Greece for much of the time since the first one was published, so she's had time to develop more experience. Thus, in the writing of this book, she's had a chance to bring out much more of the history of Greece and how its food got to be the way it is. The book is part cookbook, part travelogue, and as long as you already have a more basic book on Greek cuisine it's an excellent read. It's an expensive book, though for the monumental nature of the subject matter that's understandable.
As I said, though, it's incomplete. A lot of the basic things that fans of the Greek-American diner are used to are not here; look to her first book for the basic recipes for moussaka, spanakopitta, and other dishes famous here, because if you look in this one you will find regional varieties that may be quite good but aren't exactly what you're looking for. What you will find is stunning and varied recipes from different areas that are as different in their own ways as the cuisines of Italy or China.
If you keep all of the above in mind, this book is a worthwhile investment in conjunction with its predecessor. Highly recommended, with appropriate caveats.
Rating:
Summary: More than just a cookbook
Review: This is a cookbook original in both form and content. In form, the recipes are compiled by geographical region rather than by food category. In content, the book illustrates the provincial variations in Greek cooking related to differences in the local history, climate, and economy.Each chapter begins by introducing the reader to a region. The Author describes the region's geography and climate, its history, its people, and how these factors have shaped local culinary traditions. Included at the end of each chapter, are a few selected recipes which are characteristic of the provincial cuisine. The Author travelled to every corner of Greece collecting recipes from the local people region by region. The recipes come from people in all walks of life - restaurant cooks as well as housewives, rich as well as poor, the educated and the illiterate, the farmer and the city dweller. This cookbook is not a re-hash of traditional dishes. I mean, does the world really need another published recipe for basic spanakopita? If that is what you are looking for, then this book may not be for you. Obviously, this Author's work is more than just a cookbook. It is well researched, creative, modern and traditional at the same time, and a tribute to the Motherland, her people and culture. As always, Kali Orexi.
Rating:
Summary: More than just a cookbook
Review: This is a cookbook original in both form and content. In form, the recipes are compiled by geographical region rather than by food category. In content, the book illustrates the provincial variations in Greek cooking related to differences in the local history, climate, and economy. Each chapter begins by introducing the reader to a region. The Author describes the region's geography and climate, its history, its people, and how these factors have shaped local culinary traditions. Included at the end of each chapter, are a few selected recipes which are characteristic of the provincial cuisine. The Author travelled to every corner of Greece collecting recipes from the local people region by region. The recipes come from people in all walks of life - restaurant cooks as well as housewives, rich as well as poor, the educated and the illiterate, the farmer and the city dweller. This cookbook is not a re-hash of traditional dishes. I mean, does the world really need another published recipe for basic spanakopita? If that is what you are looking for, then this book may not be for you. Obviously, this Author's work is more than just a cookbook. It is well researched, creative, modern and traditional at the same time, and a tribute to the Motherland, her people and culture. As always, Kali Orexi.
Rating:
Summary: Delicious recipes, fascinating text. HIGHLY RECOMMEND!
Review: This is a very exciting book, and I highly recommend it. Instead of the same old standard Greek recipes that you get in every other Greek cookbook, Ms. Kochilas has found interesting, traditional recipes, based on the way people really eat in Greece. This is a break-though book, and shows that Greek food can be more than a stereotype. The Italians broke out of their spaghetti and red sauce food ghetto years ago, it is well past time for the Greeks to do the same. I am astounded by the cricism given this book by other reviewers, particularly when it seems to be based on the author's failure to live up to some people's stereotypes of what Greek food ought to be. But oh, the recipes she includes are grand. For example, grape leaves with winter squash stuffing or grape leaves with eggplant stuffing -- both are fabulous and welcome breaks from the classic (and wonderful) grape leaves stuffed with meat or rice. Don't get me wrong, I love traditional (stereotypical Greek food). But it is so refreshing to see in print the wonderful variety that makes up Greek cuisine. I only wish I were a better writer so that I could give this book the full credit it deserves. It is well worth the price.
Rating:
Summary: A worthy follow-up
Review: What some of the early reviewers may be missing is that this isn't Kochilas' first book. She covered the familiar standards in an earlier volume, The Food and Wine of Greece (also available here on Amazon). Glorious Foods is interesting because it takes us a little off the beaten track. But, to me, the real value of Kochilas' books is that she's one of those rare authors (Penelope Casas is another) who knows how to write recipes that WORK. Surely that's worth something. One star off, btw, simply because I'm stingy with five stars. It means I recommend the book highly, but don't consider it a "must have."
Rating:
Summary: A worthy follow-up
Review: What some of the early reviewers may be missing is that this isn't Kochilas' first book. She covered the familiar standards in an earlier volume, The Food and Wine of Greece (also available here on Amazon). Glorious Foods is interesting because it takes us a little off the beaten track. But, to me, the real value of Kochilas' books is that she's one of those rare authors (Penelope Casas is another) who knows how to write recipes that WORK. Surely that's worth something. One star off, btw, simply because I'm stingy with five stars. It means I recommend the book highly, but don't consider it a "must have."
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