Most fondue books are the size of a pamphlet, or slightly larger. This one is nearly full-sized, and a good 245 pages long. To a certain extent she got so much further than other authors because she looked further than American and European cuisine, dipping (if you'll excuse the pun) extensively into Oriental hot pot dishes, for example.

Chapters include a variety of recipes, plenty of basic information on each type of fondue, dips, and things like the entire side-bar on how to "Jazz Up Your Basic Cheese Fondue." Recipes include cheese fondues, broth and hot oil fondues, hot pots, Nabemono, dessert fondues, and plenty of things to go with: side dishes, salads, breads, beverages, dips, the stocks and broths you'll use in the fondues, and so on.

As if all that weren't enough, Ms. Slack provides endless variations - on dips, on dippers, and on the fondues themselves. This means that there are even more recipes than at first you might suspect! Each fondue comes with a list of possible "foods for dipping," some of which are simple (fruits, bread), others of which she provides recipes for (almond dipping cake - yum!). She provides pages and pages of sources for unusual equipment or ingredients, many of which include web page addresses.

The layout is fairly clean and obvious. My only (minor) gripe is the tendency of recipes to trail from one page onto the back (necessitating flipping around a bit). Other than that, I honestly can't think of a single complaint! Every recipe that we've tried from this cookbook has garnered a great big star next to its title - they've all been fantastic, delicious, and easy.

Full review at ErrantDreams ( )