A Treasury of Great Recipes: 50th Anniversary Edition

Back in print after many years, this is a remarkable tour of the western world’s great restaurants circa 1965, including legendary and now-vanished establishments such as Fernand Point’s Le Pyramide in France, Gage and Tollner in Brooklyn, and Scandia in Los Angeles. For anyone with an interest in the development of fine dining in the 20th century, it is a valuable resource.

While Vincent Price was most famed as an actor, and to later generations as the narrator of Michael Jackson’s Thriller, he and his wife, a costume designer, were avid gourmands and cooks who enjoyed collecting and serving recipes from extraordinary restaurants.

Nearly seventy places are included here, many with their menu reproduced (ham mousse in a whole Virginia peach cost $1.50 at Manhattan’s The Four Seasons). The Prices were adventurous diners, including restaurants from Mexico City, Oslo, Madrid, pre-hipster Portland, and even Dodger Stadium.

This edition includes a foreword by Wolfgang Puck, who cooked for Vincent Price on numerous occasions, and a preface by Vincent and Mary’s daughter Victoria which places the work in historical and Price family context. Those who recall the deluxe padded binding of the early printings should note that the padding has been omitted from this reprint, but the gold-foil embossed full cloth has been nicely reproduced, though without the original red stamping. Full-page color photographs throughout represent the state-of-the-art of the day.

Hardcover with dust-jacket.