ELLE Cooking is an excellent collection of wonderful international meals for all occasions. The Windows version 1.0 was evaluated for this review.

This program provides many excellent features. Some of the more significant ones include: (1) is easy to install and use, (2) has 2,000 international recipes, (3) each recipe includes preparation and cooking times, ingredients, instructions, important tips, accompanying wine suggestion, and a full-screen illustration, (4) includes menu suggestions for all seasons and occasions, (5) designed for the novice as well as the expert, (6) includes 100 classic recipes, (7) has a comprehensive glossary that allows you to look up terms, (8) describes techniques such as caramelizing a dish, (9) can do searches based on ingredients you already have, for a specific kind of meal, or a specific amount of preparation time, and (10) much more.

I especially liked the following features of ELLE Cooking: (1) good documentation, (2) lets you print each recipe for easy reference if you want to, and (3) includes professional advice from over 2,000 chefs from 40 countries.

This is a marvelous collection to add to your cooking library. It provides variety and suggestions for all occasions and seasons. I especially like seeing what the end result will look like. To prepare and serve a successful meal, all you have to do is simply follow the step by step instructions. That is what I did and it came out great. By the way, I prepared the Greek Cucumbers. They were great.

Reprinted with permission from Van Christopher, CHUG