I bought both The New Cook and soon after, Entertaining, during the same month due to the interesting food pairings and fusion of different ethinic cooking styles. I have not been dissapointed. Most of the recipes are extremely SIMPLE to make yet real crowd pleasers! I feel confident enought with this cookbook to make a recipe for a dinner party, without taste-testing it first! (Not many cookbooks inspire me to do this!) I am an avid cook and have a library of cookbooks. I've had this one for years, and while I leave it for awhile while I drool over my latest book, I always come back to it. The variety and richness of the flavors in this book continually inpsire my desire to create in the kitchen. The photograhs get your heart racing, and i really enjoy just browsing through it to learn about interesting food pairings and get inspired about the unusual flavor combinations I'll be making for dinner. If you'd like a little food adventure, this one's for you!