stature among his peers and fans. It's not just his personality, but also his desire to spread the word about the joys of East-West cooking and of course Blue Ginger, his renowned fusion restaurant.

Ming has written a couple of books before this one and I have them all in my library. I really liked Blue Ginger and Simply Ming was an excellent cookbook to accompany the like named television series. So, what about, Ming's Master Recipes? Once again, it accompanies a television series, but is perfectly capable of standing on its own. You don't need to be a Food Channel groupie to use and enjoy the book.

Master Recipes has an unusual concept that worried me at first and then succeeded in completely winning me over, as I read and cooked from the book. The idea is strange, but simple. Somewhat like basic French sauces, Ming shows you how to make 20, all new, master sauces. These are then used as the basis for several recipes, using each sauce.

We decided to try the Cranberry-Teriyaki Glaze and wound up using it up on a variety of things over the course of a week. My initial worry was that the dishes would basically all taste the same and that you would inevitably throw out the sauce leftovers out of taste-bud boredom. This turned out not to be the case at all. The sauce was delicious. It keeps for up to two weeks in the fridge and can be frozen if you prefer. The recipes are very different and each one combined differing ingredients with the master sauce creating a new and different flavor each time.

What really works here was the absolute convenience of having the prepared sauce in the fridge, ready to go. It made all the recipes easy to finish in double quick time with minimal preparation. It's ideal for mid-week cooking on the run. You could make the sauce on the weekend and enjoy the fruits of your labor all week. A practical and great idea.

The book is nicely produced, with a full page, full color picture per recipe. This makes selecting a dish easy and enjoyable and gives you an idea of what the final thing is supposed to look like. Ming is really practical about ingredients and sauces. He stays away from very exotic items and always provides an alternative when an ingredient might be hard to find. This is definitely a practical and kitchen friendly layout.

We cooked the Cranberry-Teriyaki Chicken on Garlic Bok Choy, obviously using the Cranberry-Teriyaki glaze master sauce. It was quick to make and tasted delicious. The whole master sauce idea was very nearly ruined by everyone taking extra helpings of the sauce for their chicken. It really does taste fantastic with chicken!

Using what was left from the first dish, (in reality we had more than enough for at least three meals if not four) we also cooked Pork Chops with Pears and liberally added the sauce to a couple of our own recipes later in the week.

The whole concept turned out to be really fun and everyone is waiting for the next sauce and the subsequent dishes made with it. The twenty sauces and bases are varied and look terrific. I was very interested in the Shrimp Mousse and the Szechwan Peppercorn Paste and am looking forward to giving them both a try. Aha - That's it! The book stimulates your imagination and makes the subsequent planning and cooking a lot of fun. It's a real bonus that the recipes are approachable and that they taste fantastic.

This book is also unusual in another way. It's a soft back with around 199 pages on reasonable quality paper, but it has a full color, full page picture with every recipe. Color photography and printing are expensive processes, so the cover price of $14.95 represents terrific value. It's a pity that more publishers don't take the hint. Cooking engages the senses, especially sight. Recipe books without photographs are dull and hard to use – this book is the exact opposite.

Overall then, this is a tremendous cookbook. We loved it and the meals we cooked from it. Congratulations to Ming Tsai for his continued efforts to spread the word that East-West cooking has a lot to offer the home chef and the discerning palate.