The Savor Way

This is one of the best cookbooks ever. You can randomly pick out a recipe and prepare it for guests without ever having tried it before, and it will be a big success. Yum!

So many do-able and delicious recipes - all a bit out of the ordinary, yet deeply satisfying.

`The Savory Way' is an early (1990) book from leading vegetarian cookbook author, Deborah Madison so, as Ms. Madison has a new book on the way, I thought it was high time for me to catch up with her body of work so I can give an informed review of how her new volume fits into her other books. Ms. Madison is a former colleague of Alice Waters and Lindsey Shere at Chez Panisse who specializes in a very general way, like Mollie Katzen and Madhur Jaffrey, on dishes that fit into a vegetarian lifestyle. Note that the term `vegetarian', especially as used by these three authors, is extremely misleading, as it is much more appropriate to say that they construct meals of everything under the sun except meat, fowl, fin fish and shell fish. Both Madison and Jaffrey make extensive use of milk, cheese, yoghurt, and eggs. Madison's objective in this book is, in fact, to cover as broad as possible a survey of what can be done without using animal flesh. The book's title may be a bit misleading to some foodies in that `savory' is often one of the words used to divide dishes in two great groups of `savory' and `sweet'. This book in fact includes two rather long chapters on sweets. A first look at this book shows lots of headnotes to the many recipes. The first thing you need to know if you are put off by `chatty' recipe books is that these notes are almost exclusively devoted to an understanding of the cooking involved with the recipe and how to get the best results from your ingredients. While little stories about the historical provenance of a recipe may interest many, including myself, that is not what this book is about. On top of this, I firmly agree with the blurbed opinion from Mollie Katzen who compliments both her cuisine AND her writing. Almost all professional culinary writers are pretty good, or have an excellent copy editor at work on their prose, but Ms. Madison is a food service professional who writes very well. I often wish the soon to be beknighted Jamie Oliver had a bit more talent with words, as I find his books so comforting in spite of the heavy contribution from his editors. The very first attraction of the book is its Table of Contents, which lists every single recipe title in the front of the book. This is doubly useful in that this relatively long book divides recipes into chapters covering eleven different types of dishes suitable for just about any time of the day, including a good selection of recipes very good for breakfast. The eleven recipe chapters are: Quick Bites with 40 pages of recipes for sandwiches, toasts, and spreads. Salads to Start or Make a Meal with 42 pages Soups and Stews with 50 pages of thick, thin, and pureed soups, including a new one with my favorite fall ingredient, chestnuts. Eighteen Quick Pasta Dishes for Five and Company, 32 pages Stovetop Vegetables, 27 pages of sautes and braises. Baked and Roasted Vegetables, 25 pages with ratatouille, gratins, tians, and other goodies. Grilled Vegetables and their

This book contains one of my all-time favorite recipes - Cold Noodles with Peanut Sauce. I have yet to make (or taste) another peanut sauce as good as this one. The recipes are easy to follow, although some of the ingredients are difficult to get!Overall, this book offers elegant and savory recipes for all levels of cooks, and I recommend it to anyone wanting to make a special meal.

The Savory Way is a wonderful vegetarian cook book without being noticeably vegetarian. I have been working my way through the cook book since I received it as a gift in September '99 and have yet to discover any bad recipes. Some I've even made twice. The recipes are easy to follow and don't require very unusual ingredients. I would recommend this cook book to anyone interested in cooking good food that is not ordinary.