James Villas' The Town & country cookbook

In 1972, James Villas-then a French professor at Hunter College-was picked by editor in chief Frank Zachary to oversee Town & Country's dining coverage. He spent 27 years at the magazine, introducing readers to California wines, American caviar, and more. JAMES VILLAS' THE TOWN & COUNTRY COOKBOOK contains not only all of the recipes that have appeared in TOWN & COUNTRY up to 1985 but also many others the author has either developed or collected from numerous sources. Nearly 600 recipes, regional as well as international, are included. There are recipes for such old-fashioned favorites as French Onion Soup, short ribs of beef, crab cakes, and pecan pie. In addition, Villas sparks the appetite and inspires the imagination with such creative dishes as duck rillettes; onion, feta cheese and olive pizza; johnnycakes with creamed shrimp and oysters; sautéed rabbit with anchovies and black olives; scrambled eggs with crabmeat and vermouth; and strawberry-peach cobbler. Very few of the dishes utilize fancy, expensive ingredients; not a single recipe is beyond the scope of any chef with a grasp of kitchen basics; and suggested menus and numerous cross-references throughout make the book a pleasure. This practical yet inventive cookbook will appeal to sophisticated Americans who know the fundamentals of cookery and are interested in producing dishes that have new flair, that investigate today's fascination with fresh native ingredients and that easily lend themselves to individual interpretation.