Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Move over Betty Crocker... I was astounded when I unboxed this brilliantly conceived cookbook (baking book). It is instantly recognizable that this one is near-perfect... and when one gets a chance to really look it over and use it, you additionally discover that, in fact, it's TOTALLY perfect! Here's why: 1. There are 700 high-quality, well-tested recipes. 2. This book is STURDY and lies open to your recipe perfectly. 3. The recipes are bound with 5 strong clasp-type binders, allowing you to remove the individual recipe that you wish to use (or, to add your own!) 4. The text is easy to read. 5. The organization of the text is terrific with "quick tabs" which stick out from the pages so you can go directly to the section that you want (17 of these, and you can read them from both sides). 6. The paper stock is heavy (no ripping of the page holes) and is of a slick texture as to resist stains from spills. 7. There are HUNDREDS of beautiful color illustrations throughout the text which illustrate techniques, "common mistakes," finished dishes, etc. 8. The substitution, equivalency, and conversion charts are all located on the inside of the front and rear covers. 9. There are nice sections on kitchen equipment (illustrated), basic techniques, and ingredients. 10. Beginners' recipes are so noted. 11. There's a beautifully-organized one-page table of contents. 12. The recipes are mostly one per page so there's no hassle with having to flip pages as you try to prep ingredients or bake. The baking recipes here are comprehensive but you'll be absolutely certain to find every old stand-by that you need such as Banana Cream Pie, Red Velvet Cake, Baguette (bread), Biscuits (multiple versions), Pizza, Calzones, Parker House Rolls, Soufflés, and many more. Trust me, ALL the baking recipes that you'll ever require are found in here. I do not award stars easily for cookbooks (you can check my reviews of such texts) but this is the first cookbook of any sort in which I can find nothing whatever to critisize -- it's simply marvellous. I'm a very experienced home cook (I cook from scratch every day and have about 300 of my own recipes posted on Recipezaar ["Bone Man" over there]; I have also been responsible for multiple large restaurant operations and have cooked in commercial kitchens. I can assure you that this fine baking book will fulfill your every recipe need in the home and commercial chefs would notably benefit from owning this fine text as well. The outer dimensions are 10" x 9 1/4", and the recipe pages are nice and large at 9 1/2" x 6 3/4". The books weighs 4 1/4 pounds and there are 544 pages in all, not counting "tab" pages. Most highly recommended!