As a long time afficionado of the first Joy, I was wary to buy this one, especially after closely following the making of it. I wasn't sure a collaborative effort among some twenty chefs -- two or three per chapter -- could equal Irma's ability to make good cooking easily understood, even to a rank beginner, as I was when I was first introduced to Joy. The new edition has many good changes. It has greatly expanded the non red-meat sections in keeping with today's lifestyles. Many of the recipes also include ideas for lowering the fat and cholesterol. The problems come in when a beginning cook tries to make something as simple as scrambled eggs, and is instructed to first read "About scrambled eggs" which delivers an interesting, but complicated version of how French master chefs prepare this dish. While I do not doubt the excellence of a true French-style scrambled egg, in my mind the instructions for making scrambled eggs should read "Whisk eggs in a small bowl. Pour into a heated pan, stirring frequently with a spatula, until firm." The original Joy, written from the perspective of a midwestern housewife for other midwestern housewives, made cooking seem easy. If you had a saucepan and a pantry, you had dinner. Irma gave suggestions on how to stretch a budget by turning leftovers into casseroles, and even advocated using canned foods as time-savers. This new Joy reads more like a gourmet cookbook than the "all-purpose" one it claims to be. However, if you already own the original Joy of Cooking, especially an older edition (mine is from 1951!), the New Joy is a fantastic supplement. It may be the only cookbook in which it is possible to find both a recipe for a French rolled omelet, and tuna casserole made with Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup.