The Dancing Gourmet has won several awards including the Gourmand World Cookbook Award and the ForeWord Magazine's Book of the Year. I was shocked at the actual quality of the book. The publishing is excellent.
As a dancer, I know that one thing you have to maintain is discipline, and with all the tempting recipes out there, it's hard. Surely one of the most attractive things about this cookbook is its pictures. Almost every other page has a beautiful photo of one of the recipes. At the beginning of each chapter, there's a picture of a dancer, and these alone make the book worth buying. Alright, enough said about the images - let's consider the food.
I was really surprised to find that one of my favorite recipes was an appetizer. Edamame, which I'm really not sure how to pronounce, is simply prepared, salted soy beans, which you take out of the pods and eat. They aren't too filling and they make a great replacement for the traditional crackers and cheeseball appetizer.
The second section of the book is devoted to soups. While these aren't entirely easy to make, all the preparation is well worthwhile. The Gazpacho Andazul was my favorite; it's basically a really complicated version of tomato soup. It tastes like something that you would get in a cafe in Europe, but maybe that's just me. There are a lot of spices added in, so if you accidentally overdo it a bit, it can taste rather strong. (By the way, there are a ton of adorable cooking quotes scattered throughout the pages, and for this soup the quote is "Only the pure of heart can make a good soup.")
Moving on to third chapter, the salad selections are phenomenal. There are recipes for European salads, like the Taboulleh with Shredded Baby Spinach, which is really good and the Panzanella, which includes a recipe for the dressing as well. I don't know if you are anything like I am, but I'm not entirely used to gourmet food. I'm the girl who ends up getting the tossed salad and mixed vegetables in most restaurants, so it takes a bit of getting used to. But if you give them a chance, you won't be sorry.
A lot of these recipes are not veg, so you may have to weed through the ones you don't want to try. Lucky for us, there is an entire section devoted to Vegetarian and Meatless Entrees! Many of these recipes took the longest to prepare, especially the Fresh Spinach, Roasted Eggplant, and Mushroom Lasagna. While this took a while, it serves eight and you can easily hang on to the leftovers. There are a lot of other really great meatless recipes including sesame noodles and a really great pizza recipe. But this is one section where some of the more culturally diverse food comes in. The curried banana balls were a bit different, I'll admit, but it doesn't hurt to try them once.
Lastly, we have the land of desserts. No complaints here! These were amazing with a couple of great biscotti recipes and Irish soda bread. There is also an applesauce carrot cake that is to die for.
In the back of the book is a glossary filled with both ballet and cooking terms and more pictures. It's a great ending to a great cookbook. Overall, I would highly suggest adding this to your kitchen. It is a great way to impress any guest that comes along and an even better way to treat yourself.
