I was given this book as gift ten years ago. I enjoy the content and style of the recipes. The pages, however, are already yellowed and brittle. It's a shame that the publisher (Crown) would decide to print such a timeless work on such worthless paper. Find in a better edition.
Review #2
It's probably an abridged version
I do not how big or how many recipes the original Escoffier book has, but this one is most probably not the all-in version. As i read through the book, i somehow found myself loosing my way from one category to the other, not to mention that there are lists and indexes that are lacking basic data - which certainly Escoffier hadn't left out when he first wrote the book.
However, as a first contact with this great Chef, it's a good start buying this if you do not want to spend more for the full version. Just have in mind that - expect for the hard cover - the rest of the paper used for this version is of really low quality and very easy to be torn apart.
Review #3
Dangerous but Great
I call this book dangerous because when I fell under its spell, a couple of years ago, I spent a ridiculous amount of time, and certainly more money than I should have, attempting various of its recipes. However, if you love traditional French cuisine, if you have lots of time to spend in the kitchen, and if you already know the basics, this book is a treasure. I personally can attest that the "little tea cakes", the "Reve de Bebe" (strawberries and cream inside a pineapple) the trouts in aspic, the hollondaise and espangole and various braised meat dishes are all sublime.
In Mastering the Art of French Cooking Julia Child and her colleagues often offered slightly simplified versions of many of these things. Sometimes there was a promise held out: they would write something like "someday you will learn from Escoffier how to give it the full original treatment, but to start with...." I think that sums up the role of this book. If you've mastered what Julia Child has to teach (which you should if you want to do French cooking) and want to try something even more traditional and more "aristocratic", then get this book.
Another treat about this book is that a whole world opens up while reading it--the world of Proust and Collette and the Paris chapter of Brideshead Revisited: here we see what they were eating and how.
I haven't really used this book for a long time now. It's too seductive--if I start looking into it I end up spending hours in the kitchen over stocks and braises. And yes--you'll dirty a mind-bogglingly large number of pots and pans. But once in a while I try something new from it and I've never been disappointed yet.
*Note--I am not sure that the version I am reviewing is the same as the one I have in mind--some other reviewers have alluded to it's being an abridgement, which mine assuredly is not. What I say above is said with the original in mind.
