The strength of MOST of Mark Bittman's cookbooks is that they teach you *how* to cook by giving you tons of variation ideas on every recipe and lots of encouragement. They are good books to *read* and not just cook from. This book doesn't give you any variations at all, and little text. Instead, it gives you forty menus, and each menu consists of a short blurb, a few "keys to success", wine recommendations, a rough timetable, and the recipes.
The menus look pretty good, and are categorized by season. The recipes are pretty typical of his style - a few key ingredients, prepared simply, into a somewhat unusual finished dish. He writes in his intro that he keeps menus at a maximum of 2 complex dishes (and the others more simple or store bought, like good bread). I still find this too much when I entertain, especially for a crowd of 8.
I have to admit I'm not sold on the "menu" concept in general. I tend to enjoy doing this sort of planning myself - based on my own tastes, knowledge of my guests' tastes (vegans/non-spicy/no-fish/whatever) and my ability to juggle several courses in the kitchen while holding a coherent conversation with the guest that won't go mingle. I inevitably burn *something* at each dinner party. ;-)
I typically LOVE Mark Bittman books - I have the "Cooks Dinner" one, the "Cooks at Home" one, and "How to Cook Everything" which is in my opinion the most useful cook-book EVER. But this one isn't as good as the rest. I'm giving it 4 stars because the food still looks good, but I've cooked more from Ina Garten's "The Barefoot Contessa: Parties" more than I've cooked from this.
