Rating: 
Summary: The Bible
Review: Answers all my questions, and provides pictures of some of the more obscure ingredients I've fretted over in some of my cookbooks. If cooking were a game of Scrabble, Larousse is the dictionary you turn to in the event of a 'challenge'. Disagreement over the proper way to cook hollandaise? Look it up in Larousse. Forgot how to make a veloute? Larousse. Great reference for food, wine, and classic recipes.
Rating:
Summary: The Bible
Review: Answers all my questions, and provides pictures of some of the more obscure ingredients I've fretted over in some of my cookbooks. If cooking were a game of Scrabble, Larousse is the dictionary you turn to in the event of a 'challenge'. Disagreement over the proper way to cook hollandaise? Look it up in Larousse. Forgot how to make a veloute? Larousse. Great reference for food, wine, and classic recipes.
Rating:
Summary: So You Want To Be A Cook?
Review: Buy the book. Yes, the book is expensive. Notice the # of pages. Think of the cost for paper, printing costs, etc. This is a great value. Content is direct and understandable. Information accurately describes the roots of good food and discipline to produce it for family and friends.
Rating:
Summary: Tout le Monde
Review: Certainly the grande dame of cookbooks can't be everything to everyone but what it does do, better than anything else, is teach you the proper way to master the myriad of cooking techniques. If the book is heavy, it's because it's the foundation of every other cookbook you could own. Certianly "Joy of Cooking" is also remarkable in this respect, but if you want to rise about just being good, Larousse will teach you. Yes it is Franco-centric but deservedly, the French have a culinary legacy second to none in the world and the techniques you learn in Larousse will serve you well no matter if cooking Chinese, Italian, or even New American. The four foundations the book synthesizes are: Technique, Tools, Ingredients, and Creativity. Ever wanted to know the essence of celery? Just how an egg does all the things that it does? Larousse will tell you. Similary, with tools, Larousse is an illumination. If Williams Sonoma ever seemed superfluous, Larousse will shock you into realizing there are advantages to owning copper pots, balanced wisks, and a bombe mould or two. Correct tools are essential to exemplary results. Larousse is not a dead book of "ancient regime" heavy sauces (though they are included), but rather a living book, inspirational in its depth. If it can be accused of being stodgy, and it has, it's because it wants to emphasize the basics of cooking and, once that is mastered, leaves you free to go out on your own. Once the four foundations have been mastered it's up to you to excel. That's not to say there aren't complex and difficult recipes, there are; but they tend to be more traditional though make no mistake, the top chefs of France have contributed recipes to Larousse. There are shortfalls. As noted before it does not cover the other grande cuisines of the world (namely Chinese and Italian) with anything remotely resembling a catholic perspective, but then it doesn't purport to be an all-encompassing cookbook. As a book it is dry and its emphasis on exact, rigid technique seems rather imperious. While the haughty tone may seem to be a fault, it's actually worded so as to express the exact requirement of a task in the clearest terms. When you get to the highest levels of cooking techniques there is no room for error. You're dealing with physical and chemical properties that require exact processes to succeed. Pull them off and you'll amaze yourself. If you learn to cook using Larousse Gastronomique and follow it faithfully, there won't be a cuisine in the world you can't tackle or a cooking task you won't perform without confidence. I can't say that about any other cookbook.
Rating:
Summary: Exhaustive and user-friendly
Review: Did you ever sit with a dictionary and just randomly thumb through the entries? That technique is perfect for making your way through Larousse. It's a spectular compendium of European food and gastronomy, from absinthe to zabaglione. The "completely revised and updated" edition also includes an impressive amount of information on African, Asian and New World culinary topics. Ingredients, techniques, specific dishes, biographical sketches and geographical regions are all covered here. There are a few well-placed color photographs and illustrations throughout the book that enhance it beautifully, as well.
Rating:
Summary: Larousse Gastronomique
Review: First published in 1938 and last revised in 1988, Larousse Gastronomique one of the culinary world's most familiar reference sources has been updated again with a sleek, stylish look for a new generation of cooks. The encyclopedia continues to retain its focus on the classic continental culinary tradition, but this new edition acknowledges the growing importance of other cuisines by including, for the first time, entries on American cooking and by offering more information on terms, ingredients, and dishes from other parts of the world. Larousse does overlap with The Oxford Companion to Food (LJ 10/15/99), a recent addition to the culinary reference shelves, in that both works cover ingredients, dishes, famous persons, and cooking techniques. However, even when the same topics are covered, such as chocolate or lemons, there is enough difference that libraries will want to have both. Larousse will probably be the first choice of cooks who need information on culinary terms and cooking techniques, and, unlike Oxford, it contains more than 3500 recipes and an array of gorgeous color photographs. An indispensable part of any culinary reference collection, this is highly recommended for all libraries.
Rating:
Summary: The Source
Review: Full of history definitive terms, classical techniques, this book is a must own for any student of the culinary arts. Lierally a dictionary of terms with helpful photographs and period drawings.
Rating:
Summary: This book is essential to serious cooking.
Review: I have an older copy, one from the 1960s, but this book is absolutely essential to serious cooking. No restaurant or B&B should be with out one.
Rating: 
Summary: Considerably shallower than the 1969 original translation :(
Review: I just bought the 1969 first edition for $45 at a used shop. I hadn't noticed that the modern version reviewed here was actually on remainder for 5 bucks less -- the cashier pointed this out to me, and I went back to compare. There was a note in the old edition saying "This (better) ed OP". I trust my local bookshop, so I put them side by side, and was shocked to find that a *large* number of recipes have been excised from the original edition. In some cases it's merely the omission of a few variations under a heading [see "achar" -- from 3 recipes to 1 in the new], but in many cases it's a wholesale excision [see "ketchup" -- no recipe in current version AFAICT].
I believe very much in cookbooks that do one thing and do it right -- ethnic cookbooks dedicated solely to their particular cuisines. A grand unified cookbook is a noble undertaking, but in this edition it appears that depth has been sacrificed to include a broader range of items in less-than-ideal detail.
I have been saddened in recent years to see the great cookbooks watered down or losing focus -- the new Joy of Cooking feels much the same to me when compared to my mother's version.
Bottom line: Larousse had a great vision -- an encyclopaedia of *French* Cuisine. The addition of other cuisines by the editors should not have been undertaken without the same attention to detail. The end result is still a massive and relevant book, but lacks the focus and truly stunning depth of the original.
If they decide to compile a 10,000-page multivolume compendium, then we'll be talking. Until then, I'm sticking with the older editions.
Rating: 
Summary: Broader but not deeper
Review: I kept 3 editions of this important title. No doubt on its authoritativeness. This new 2001 edition caught my immediate attention when I first saw it. I browsed thru it nearly from cover to cover. There are some newer entries not listed before (the 1984 ed), e.g., tiramisu. However, information on other cuisines is brief, e.g., only 2 pages on Spanish cuisine. For a serious cook like me who own 100+ cookbooks, this title is not essential. But, if you haven't yet owned previous editions, this is not a bad idea.
| 
