While there are a lot of recipes that call for what rural Ontario considers "exotic" ingredients (foie gras? I wouldn't know where to buy it, but I'm pretty sure it's a 90 minute drive at least), many others are quite simple but elegant. The first time I used this cookbook, I made porcini-crusted salmon (admittedly, from dried porcini I brought back from Italy!) and roasted Provençal vegetables, both of which were very easy to make and very impressive. This cookbook is a keeper. Small caveat: read the recipe thoroughly before starting. Occasionally something doesn't add up - calls for ingredients but doesn't say when to add them, or seems to be missing a step (the salmon recipe mentioned "roasted garlic" in the title but never seemed to roast it). Easy to fix that kind of thing if you are alert to catch it. ( )