The Gourmet Foods Cookbook

Note: This edition of The Gourmet Foods Cookbook has been updated to include Metric equivalents.


If you prefer mink to mouton and like camellias better than cornflowers, this is your book. For this is a door opening into haute cuisine—a step toward the realms of culinary art where perfection dwells and the fabled has its home.


What are gourmet foods? Exotic viands of far-off lands, touched with the mystery of strangeness? Ineffable delicacies, exciting to read about but beyond the capacities of the average homemaker or the facilities of her kitchen? We think that gourmet food is food with a flair. It is sometimes a familiar food in a striking new dress with a retinue of unusual flavors. Or a beloved favorite cast in a new role in the drama of the dinner menu. It is always perfectly prepared and its service testifies to the imagination and artistry of the hostess. And above all, it is food that creates a pleasure that is more than gustatory, that intrigues the palate and delights the eye at the same time that it satisfies the appetite.


Gourmet foods announce the expert’s touch, but they are not the exclusive property of professionals.


Every homemaker, including the newest comer to the ranks, can start on the road to creative and dramatic cookery if she follows directions. Confidence and audacity are part of the equipment you take on this journey, but the confidence is based on honest respect for fundamental principles and the audacity is tempered by good taste.


Here is your guide book. The pride of achievement it leads to will be your own. And bon voyage!