Cooking the nouvelle cuisine in America: A glorious collection of original recipes

I have used this cookbook for more than a decade, and I consistently return to this book by Urvater and Liederman for the best of clean, elegant and richly satisfying recipes. The recipes include very simple and easy meals with little preparation, as well as complex, highly detailed concoctions, all of which are beautiful and tremendously gratifying. The detailed descriptions for making stocks and glaces come first, as they form the basis of many of the sauces in their recipes to follow. Time-consuming but easy, these stocks provide a richness and depth to their cuisine found mostly in elegant restaurants, without relying on excessive butter, cream or cheeses. Most important, the recipes are painstakingly edited. I have never had a recipe fail for me, as long as I followed the directions. I keep this book on the same shelf as Julia Child, The Joy of Cooking, and The Splendid Table as the cornerstones of my cooking library.