The authors of the most loved cookbook of the eighties are back together again. Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins, those groundbreaking writers of The Silver Palate Cookbook, have collaborated once more for the 25th Anniversary edition of their beloved cookbook.

The women had followed that success with The Silver Palate Good Times Cookbook and The New Basics Cookbook. Julee Rosso wrote two other books on her own, and with her husband runs the acclaimed Wickwood Inn in Saugatuck, Michigan. Sheila Lukins has been the food editor of Parade magazine since 1986, and is also the author of three books on her own. Both women have been inducted into the Who's Who of American Food and Beverage by the James Beard Society.

Anyone who is a great cook was sure to have a copy of The Silver Palate way back when and probably still uses it to this day. There are more than 2.3 million copies in print.

I remember first getting this book. Wow, did it have fun stuff in it! As a young professional cook, I loved that the book was so chock-full of info—from the sassy sidebars, boxes and tips to the two pages of drawings and descriptions of pasta shapes. It was one of my first treasured cookbooks and still is even now.

The illustrations were important and entertaining and unique at that time. When most cookbooks did not have much in the way of visuals, this one had tons and they really helped the cook see how the results should look.

This now-classic cookbook has been reissued, and updated, with a new introduction and more than 100 color photographs. I asked Sheila for details about the new edition: they re-checked temperatures; reviewed all the chicken and baking recipes�retesting breads and baked goods; cut a little oil here and there; and added oven-roasted tomatoes, honey-roasted carrots, grilled asparagus, and some new cheeses. The Silver Palate Cookbook 25th Anniversary Edition (Workman, $19.95) is a must-have for any budding cook and for those of us who need a replacement copy for our tattered and stained volumes!

This book was a modern-day Joy of Cooking, a hip, all-purpose culinary tome, for a new generation of cooks. Then-first-time buyers, who are now in their forties or fifties, remember The Silver Palate bringing into their cooking and their homes sun-dried tomatoes, salmon mousse, blueberry vinegar, field greens, and carrot and orange soup—and teaching them how to entertain.

Here's a little history for those who don't remember the debut of this book. In 1977 Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins cofounded The Silver Palate retail and catering—what some call the first gourmet takeout—in New York City. They went on to write The Silver Palate Cookbook in 1982.

At first they were afraid to do the book: customers would make the dishes at home and no one would shop in the store. As Julee put it, "You write the book and then you'll be out of business."

But they laughed a lot, and their business developed. Sheila said, "This was a time that women were busy working and buying away."

"We wanted to make it personal, to tell stories. It was truly unorthodox, the way we wrote the book," Julee continued. "At one point, the copy editor inserted a note: 'No, girls, this has too much garlic.' It took us aback; apparently we had broken a rule of cookbook writing. We wrote her back: 'We like it this way.'" They wrote the book that they wanted to do and conveyed their passion for food and the fun of it all.

One thing I absolutely had to know: Where did you get your original inspiration for Chicken Marbella? Shelia said she has always loved Middle Eastern and Spanish food, and when she lived in Paris and London in the seventies, she went to the Moroccan areas on Sunday nights for couscous. "Indian and Moroccan foods have such great flavors. It was a natural thing—easy to put together; a one-dish meal; sweet and savory combinations that people love; you marinate it overnight; it's a great party dish."

For this article it was hard to choose which recipes to feature: there are so many fantastic ones in the book. So, I asked some great home cooks I know what they can't live without in their recipe repertoire.

Kathy Cain, an uber foodie, is someone who thinks about food a lot. She writes creative copy for a living and loves it when her work takes her into the realms of food and restaurant clients. She was thrilled when I told her of the new anniversary edition. "Oh, great! I can replace my ragged copy with a new one!" When asked what her favorite recipes are, a roll call of dishes came bubbling out. "Oh, the Chestnut Cake or the Ginger Pumpkin Mousse! Or what about that Duck with 40 Cloves of Garlic?! And, of course, the Chicken Marbella."

"But then there is the Roast Lamb with Peppercorn Crust. Anybody can make great lamb with this recipe because it�s made with a boneless leg, which is a little less intimidating to beginners. And it marinates for eight hours before you cook it, so you can�t really screw it up. Actually, that�s not entirely true. The first time I made it, I accidentally dropped the plastic bag with the meat and marinade on the floor. And, since our apartment had this little Pullman-car style kitchen, when the bag hit the floor and exploded, there wasn�t a surface anywhere, including me, that wasn�t covered in marinade. I picked up the lamb, washed it off, made new marinade and spent the next few hours figuring out how to get the red-wine and soy stains out of everything."

I also heard from massage therapist Christine Coe, who said she uses her well-worn copy for inspiration. "It's one of the handful of cookbooks I reach for for proportion guidelines when I improvise, which this book encourages. But one of my early favorites was the minted pea soup. I also like the pies because they lend themselves to improvising flavors and using less sugar." She says Julee and Sheila also influenced her to use more blueberries and to use vinegars, especially blueberry and balsamic, in different ways.

Meredith Jenkins, a Seattle artist and hospital privacy program analyst, said she loves the Silver Palate recipes "because they work and are fun. My favorite dessert item is the Blueberry Tart. This area is so stained with blueberry and lemon juice, it�s very hard to read, but I have most of it memorized!"

Ecology professor Renee Perry wrote that "the SP covered complicated dishes, but its real strength for me was how it covered the basics. It was a bridge between the familiar and a new, more sophisticated kind of cooking. One of the best things about it for a young cook was the information interleaved among the recipes. The notebook notes are as much a part of my becoming a good cook as the recipes.

"Penciled stars on spattered, yellowing pages record early adventures, early successes. That French Dressing and the Poppyseed one: until the reign of the Balsamic, these were my standard dressings. Spicy Sesame Noodles: although there are recipes that are probably more authentic, few are as satisfying or as quick. Lime Mousse: this was a staple for potlucks in graduate school; it never failed, even with the colleague who refused to eat 'white' food.

"There's another legacy of The Silver Palate. I had it at work a few months ago and a young coworker, seeing me flip through it, said, 'That's my favorite cookbook!' He's all of twenty-three and I suspect that The Silver Palate is his favorite cookbook because it was his mother's."

Thank you, Shelia and Julee, for changing the way America cooks.

�2007 by Kathy Casey Food Studios�

To try some of their tasty recipes, go to www.silverpalate.com then scroll to the bottom of the page and click the From Our Kitchen link.

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