Splendid Soups: Recipes and Master Techniques for Making the World's Best Soups

This book is great. I bought it for the Senegalese Peanut soup recipe and it was a stunning winner. When the weather turns colder and darker I make a lot of soups and this is the best book I have seen on the subject.I have been reading some of the other reviews and I am somewhat amazed. I guess the net of all of these remarks is that this book is not a step-by-step for beginners. It assumes you know something about cooking. It does not give exact instructions. It gives outlines with options for branching out. This is exactly the way I like to cook, so it is perfect for my style.

After checking this book out of the library, and cooking my first presentable soups. I ended up getting the book for my library. My friends and family ended up buying the book for me after eating a few of the soups from this book. Mr Peterson includes alternate finishes as well as ideas on what to do with the leftovers. I've been using this book for a few months now and good soup is part of my weekly ritual now. As an amateur cook I found the book easy to follow and enjoyably elegant to have around. I end up reading it on the couch figuring out what I'm going to eat for supper. I've also found it an easy book to improvise with I've converted the avocado soup into dip for parties, and used the roasted garlic and acorn squash soup as a sauce. I'm looking forward to reading his sauce and vegetable books as well. Mr. Peterson I thank you for the good food...

A hefty, comprehensive, door-stop of a book, this "soup-lopedia" includes every soup I'd ever had a hankering to make--"Sopa de Ajo"--Spanish-style garlic soup with an egg in it (I craved it after a trip to Madrid) and Dried Fruit Soup (which my Scandinavian grandmother made when I was growing up)--and every other broth-based dish under the sun.The histories of the soups and ingredients are so thorough and so fascinating that I felt like I was in a cooking class being taught by a wise, likeable teacher--and the photos of the soups were mouth-watering, and gave me serving suggestions.An A++ book--I'm giving it to several people for Christmas!