More Chef on the Run

Arlene Gryfe is a Toronto-based professional nutritionist and home
economist.

In the past few years, an abundance of cookbooks has appeared in the market. Inevitably, duplications of topics occur, and one wonders if new ideas can still be found. Fortunately, More Chef on the Run and the author’s first book, Chef on the Run (Vancouver: Sunflower, 1982), have an original twist to them. Instead of listing recipes by categories, the author has grouped them into complete menus, from appetizer through to dessert with, occasionally, suggestions for wines. More Chef on the Run provides 16 complete menus, some characteristic of various countries (e.g., Mexico, Greece), some suitable to specific holidays (e.g., Thanksgiving) and some appropriate for various forms of entertaining (e.g., brunch or picnicking).

All menus are beautifully illustrated by coloured photographs, which unfortunately, are untitled and are on unnumbered pages. If a reader is visually inspired to create a luscious-looking stew, much sleuthing is to be done to find the name of the menu illustrated, and then the name of the dish. The index may or may not prove useful. Some items are cross-indexed numerous times, but not always in the most obvious category. “Light Lemon Mousse” is listed under “light,” “lemon,” and “dessert,” but not under “mousse.” The three pilafs are listed by grains or colour, but not by “pilaf.” Moreover, there are a few numbering and alphabetical errors in the index. Once the recipe has been found, however, the reader is encouraged to proceed by chatty comments, almost as if the author herself was giving personal guidance.

The recipes are in both imperial and metric measures, although it is more difficult to work in metric, since the measurements are not vertically aligned, and some conversions are missing or wrong. Useful comments are included concerning freezing, advance preparation, reheating, or substitution of items.

Novice hosts and hostesses will find that the abundance of illustrated ideas, in clearly printed recipes, with coil binding, make this book a useful addition to their libraries.