Buffets: A Guide for Professionals

From a Viennese opera ball to a Swedish smorgasbord or Spanish tapas, this international cookbook offers concise and simple international recipes for appetizers, salads, soups, meats, seafood, poultry, side dishes and desserts. Osso Buco alla Milanese becomes just veal shanks braised with wine, olive oil, onions, tomatoes, lemon juice and spices. That entree, like others, is accompanied with suggestions for rice, noodles, salads and the like. Helpful featuressuch as a discussion of herbs and spices detailing their origins and cooking usage, and special handling tips for buffetsmake this book appropriate for the casual cook as well as the accomplished gourmet. Each recipe serves 50, but a test quantity for eight is also provided. Some dishes are a bit risky, and readers may want to inflict grapefruit seafood salad on a few close friends before serving it to 100 guests at the boss's 40th wedding anniversary gala. St. Laurent is CEO of a hotel research laboratory and Holden is an editor at Restaurant and Institution magazine. Photos. (May 8)