My Favorite Cook Books

Budapest, Hungary on October 23, 1956
			Overview The Plato Escape Another chapter in the Cold War began in Budapest, Hungary on October 23, 1956. The Allied powers of the United States, Britain, and France could not agree on what to do about the Hungarian Revolution. Against the wishes of their allies, the CIA forges a daring plan to free Hungary’s inspirational leader, Imre Nagy, create a government-in-exile, and force the Soviet Union to leave Hungary. The CIA selects two special agents, Quincy McGregor and Steve Morgan, to complete the mission. McGregor, daring ace fighter pilot of World War II and Korea, will fly the airplane into Hungary. Morgan, paratrooper and weapons expert, is chosen because he speaks fluent Hungarian. Everything goes wrong from the start. Trapped in Hungary and betrayed by their government, McGregor and Morgan elude Russian KGB agents and American CIA agents in a breathtaking escape to Zurich, Switzerland. A surprise ending unveils a secret Russian agent within the CIA, and McGregor and Morgan get away with three million dollars.

			Editorial Reviews: I was overjoyed to see this fantastic cookbook on Amazon. I already own it, but took the opportunity of finding it on Amazon to send it as a gift. Clara Czegeny transcribed these recipes handed down by her mother not only with love, but with an understanding that the reader might need very complete instructions. When Clara says "follow the recipe completely", take her advice, and I'm sure you'll be satisfied with the result. Her nokedli recipe (a basic of Hungarian cooking) is the best I have come across. In addition, Clara has enhanced the cookbook with wonderful anecdotes about her family and Hungarian culture. The pictures and art, designed by her daughter, help make the book extremely pleasant to thumb through. If you're interested in a real Hungarian cooking, this is the book to buy!

			Editorial Reviews: A Taste of the Past serves as both historical record and cookbook. Tells the story of his great-grandmother, a Jewish woman growing up in a nineteenth-century Hungarian town and assimilating into the dominant gentile culture. She left behind a trunkful of recipes, and from these, Koerner has reconstructed a culinary tradition, updating the recipes to make them reproducible in a modern kitchen. Riza's family was religious, and Koerner also describes the special foods (pike in sour aspic, cholent, apple-matzo kugel, and much more) she served to celebrate the Sabbath and the six major Jewish holidays. Short introductions to the recipes describe the evolution of the dishes through the centuries, their role in Jewish culture, and how cultural influences and religious traditions shaped Riza's cooking.

			Editorial Reviews: This unique cookbook is written with the today's busy lifestyle in mind introduces modern versions of recipes handed down for generations. The cookbook brings the true traditional taste of Hungary to your table by choosing among the easy-to-follow recipes. The book is packed full of practical tips, useful hints and step-by-step lavish color photography About the Author I wrote this book because friends always ask for my recipes. After their countless cooking disasters, they insisted that I put together a collection of recipes with an easy to follow step-by-step guide.
			Editorial Reviews: Hungary has 22 wine regions, and a once-proud tradition that had to be completely reinvented after 45 years of communism—during which time the entire structure of grape growing and wine production was altered beyond recognition. This fascinating reference details that readjustment, which continues to this day, and shows how it has developed through privatization, foreign investment, and the dedication of small producers who struggle to achieve quality standards despite a chronic lack of capital. More than 300 wine producers are featured, not only from the famous regions like Tokaj and Villany, where significant progress has been made, but also from the lesser-known regions that may yet have the potential to make world-class wines.

			Editorial Reviews: Book Description "Our appetite for this interesting cuisine, a      melding of Germanic, Slavic, Tartar, and Turkish influences, has    been whetted by [this] excellent new work."--New York Times About the Author Susan Derecskey was born in New York City and educated at Brooklyn College and the University of Strasbourg. She worked in publishing and journalism until she met a transplanted European journalist named Charles Derecskey, by origin a Hungarian from Transylvania, and embarked on the globe-trotting uncertainties of life with a foreign correspondent...

			Editorial Reviews: June Meyer's Authentic Hungarian Heirloom Recipes cookbook has 95 wonderful kitchen-tested family recipes. It is nicely organized with one recipe per page and each recipe is preceded by a short colorful remembrance or historical fact. The cookbook has 195 pages, measures 9X7 and is spiral bound so it will lay flat in the kitchen. It has an Ingredients page, an Alphabetical and Category Recipe Index with English and Hungarian names. About the Author June Meyer, a Chicago native and graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, taught Art at Deerfield's Wilmot Elementary School for 25 years until her retirement in 1994. June grew up with these recipes since both of her parents were born in Hungary and they brought their ethnic dishes with them when they emigrated to America.

			Editorial Reviews: This unique cookbook is written with the today's busy lifestyle in mind introduces modern versions of recipes handed down for generations. The cookbook brings the true traditional taste of Hungary to your table by choosing among the easy-to-follow recipes. The book is packed full of practical tips, useful hints and step-by-step lavish color photography About the Author I wrote this book because friends always ask for my recipes. After their countless cooking disasters, they insisted that I put together a collection of recipes with an easy to follow step-by-step guide.