This book (and its companion) is a reprint about Jeffrey Steingarten's food obsessions in handy bite-size chapters. He loves all the right things - espresso, bread, cheese, pizza, croissants, and pursues them with a fantastic obsessive zeal. Oh, his partner must be so tolerant - he had 18 espresso machines. He tried every technique to make a good pizza, flying to Naples with an electronic thermometer. Such a crazy guy makes me feel much more normal. This is a very funny book by a brilliant food writer.

Well, it's certainly the best food book I've ever read, and knocks everybody else, including my old favourites, into a cocked hat. Every one of his stories or investigations is an eye-opener that can also make you laugh aloud whilst learning fascinating stuff;I quote him all the time, and have become rather an expert in many people's eyes on caviar, bread, bluefin vs yellowfin tuna, the ultimate gratin, salt(FABULOUS!)and the lesion in the brain that can cause excessive interest in good food . He is the cleverest and most entertaining food writer of our time.

Steingarten is witty, erudite and opinionated. Above all, though, he is obsessive (and I mean that in the nicest possible way).

If a subject catches his interest he researches it with a thoroughness that is nothing less than terrifying to ordinary mortals. In his quest for authentic coq au vin he scours New York for roosters and chickens' blood. His experiments with coffee-making involve covering his dining table with 14 home espresso machines. As for his attempts to arrange a hot enough oven to bake the perfect pizza - no, we won't go into that.

This is not a book of amusing anecdotes, though some are scattered through it. The essays vary. Some are wonderful pieces of research (I especially enjoyed the piece on MSG), while others are accounts of Steingarten's search for culinary enlightenment in various parts of the world. Occasionally his considerable ego does tend to get a bit overpowering but, well, he's a lawyer and a New Yorker...

Although I found this book marginally less enjoyable than its predecessor, it is still wonderfully entertaining and informative. One can only admire somebody so dedicated to his work that he will subject himself to a brain scan in order to test the theory that obsession with food is caused by some sort of lesion.

I eagerly awaited the release of this second book having thoroughly enjoyed the first. In this book it is more of the same. Jeffery picks a topic (for example :Pizza, Steak, Boudin Noir, Coq au Vin, Espresso)and then attempts to find the best possible ingredients and method of cooking or creating that item. His missions involve much empirical testing, quite often a scientific element and authentic re-creation in his loft apartment in New York. To aid us he also includes precise recipes where possible to allow us to share on his discovery. If you have only a passing interest in food this book will fascinate you and in places have you laughing out loud. It has certainly inspired me to look at many of the things i eat in a different light.