Everyone who wishes to cook must have at hand a comprehensive French cookbook. The best available for this purpose in English is La Cuisine, which is more modern in taste than Escoffier. The first 160 pages are splendid, and they should be read again and again before trying any of the recipes. All the basics are presented: how to address a dinner invitation, how to cook eggs properly, how to roast a chicken (you will see why American turkeys are dry), how to carve a hare. Then there are 1,500 recipes for every kind of dish you may wish to prepare. These are followed by a sensible section on wines. Throughout nearly 800 photographs, 96 of them presenting in full color finished dishes, and maps of the wine regions assist the reader in an invaluable way. If you master everything in La Cuisine, you have mastered cooking.