This beautiful edition, illustrated with over 500 full-color photographs, contains 26 menus for cooking for company-gala feasts of every kind from Holiday Lunch to Dinner for the Boss to an Old-Fashioned Chicken Dinner. The menus are all complete from appetizer to dessert, and Julia Child's detailed recipes with hands-on guidance make the experience of entertaining as delightful for the host as it is for the guest. As you leaf through these pages, you will note that Julia's new emphasis is on the pleasures of the American table. In her inimitable fashion she gives us exciting, delicious, and utterly foolproof recipes, inspiring confidence in us as cooks and enlarging our repertoires with menus guaranteed to please. A chapter is devoted to each of the twenty-six menus included in the book. For all of the menus, Child provides first a checklist of staples and draws up a marketing list. Every detail is carefully thought out. There are luscious photographs to show how each dish should look and to demonstrate, step by step, unfamiliar techniques.