Victoria & Lucinda's Flavour of the Month: A Year of Food and Flowers

It should have worked: two longtime friends and experienced entertainers sharing their ideas, arranged with a menu and table setting for each month of the year. Unfortunately, Londoners Cator and Bruce have a sense of taste that's entirely lost in translation. Hamstrung by an amateurish layout, the book looks and feels dated, and few dishes can redeem it. Though they do include serviceable recipes for lasagna, Penne Alla Vodka, chocolate cake and a lamb and chicken-based meatloaf, the duo pay far more attention to their table settings, which are prettier than any of the dishes. The few culinary bright spots are overwhelmed by nightmare platters like the ash-grey Poached Chicken Breasts with Morel Sauce; Sloshed Grapes, a stomach-churning mixture of green grapes, brown sugar, vodka and yogurt; and Passion Fruit Jellies with Popping Chocolate Sauce, which not only calls for raw egg yolks in a basic chocolate ganache but, for reasons unknown, is sadistically spiked with '3 packets of popping candy' (Pop Rocks?) and poured over a citrus jelly. Ex-Brits who want to be reminded why they left the U.K. might pick this up; anyone else will want to give it a miss.