John Byrne (3)

While there are a lot of recipes that call for what rural Ontario considers "exotic" ingredients (foie gras? I wouldn't know where to buy it, but I'm pretty sure it's a 90 minute drive at least), many others are quite simple but elegant. The first time I used this cookbook, I made porcini-crusted salmon (admittedly, from dried porcini I brought back from Italy!) and roasted Provençal vegetables, both of which were very easy to make and very impressive. This cookbook is a keeper. Small show more caveat: read the recipe thoroughly before starting. Occasionally something doesn't add up - calls for ingredients but doesn't say when to add them, or seems to be missing a step (the salmon recipe mentioned "roasted garlic" in the title but never seemed to roast it). Easy to fix that kind of thing if you are alert to catch it. show less