I like the writing style and idea behind this book, but the recipes so far have been disappointing. Several friends (all of whom know what they're doing in the kitchen) tried cooking from this book with poor results: an "inedible" pot roast, overwhelmingly orange gingerbread with lumps of flour in the finished product(even though the recipe says lumps in the batter would be okay), and a forking strange potato salad. Of all the cookbooks we've tried, this was the first utter failure. One of my friends has attended parties thrown by the authors and thus was really excited about the book, but I think the ambience and style of the parties was the part that won her over. I wonder if these recipes were tested at all. So if you want to be a hip host/ess and get some good entertaining ideas, this one is fun to read. Just look elsewhere for recipes.
