Sharing Gifts of Food for Christmas, by the Book : 1988’s Holiday Volumes Address Topics From Cookies to Environmental Toxins

World of Food by Paula Wolfert (Harper & Row: $25, hardcover, 354 pp.)

In this, her fourth cookbook, Wolfert assembles a personal collection of recipes, gathered from her travels and friends, then often refined in her own kitchen. “It represents my culinary world, mostly but not exclusively Mediterranean-based, defined, as always, by my taste, my palate.”

When Wolfert develops recipes, she claims to “always look for ways to create what I call the Big Taste.” By that, she means “dishes that leave their flavor with me, whose tastes and aromas I will never forget. This doesn’t mean that they have to be fussy or elaborate.”

Along with big taste, the author also likes dishes that have real polish. “Every step in the recipe works toward the final result; every nuance has a meaning, and in the end, something sophisticated happens: The dish tastes clean and fresh,” writes Wolfert.

A full range of recipes are included in the book--with plenty of the dark, earthy food, sturdy, homey dishes she prefers. “Though many of these recipes may look long,” Wolfert says, “that does not necessarily mean that they are difficult. I sometimes write expansively in order that the instructions be as precise as possible--especially when I want to share a new technique.

“Many of the dishes here can be prepared long in advance of a dinner because this is the way I like to prepare food myself, completing as many steps as possible long before the meal so that cooking is relaxing and I am not harried before I eat.”

The final criteria Wolfert used in making her selections for this book was dishes about which a story could be told. It might be why or by whom a particular dish is cooked, or relate to something about the place where it is served. If these stories make dishes come alive and inspire people to cook them for themselves, she feels she will have achieved her goal in writing this book.