Master Chef Louis P. De Gouy presents outstanding recipes for almost every soup you could want ― more than seven hundred in all. Many are thick or thin, others hot or cold, taking hours to prepare or just minutes. They include soups that are perfect preludes for a feast, and inexpensive yet rich and hearty options that are meals in themselves. At the same time, the author teaches basic principles of successful preparation and offers many alternate recipes, giving cooks a wide range of flexibility. After an opening chapter explaining basic stocks and other fundamentals, Chef De Gouy introduces sixty-one different hot consommés; sixty-five chilled and jellied consommés and soups; seventy-six flavored by beer, fruit, nuts, or wine; one hundred and six cream soups; thirty-three bisques; one hundred chowders; and many others, including a special section of one hundred and seventeen easy-to-make recipes from combinations of various canned soups. Soups from many cultures and using almost every ingredient include chilled bortsch and vichyssoise, dark beer and bread soup, clam bisque, codfish chowder, Philadelphia pepper pot, and hundreds of others. [back flap] One of the world's great cooks, Louis P. De Gouy (1876–1947) apprenticed under his father, Jean H. De Gouy, Esquire of Cuisine at the courts of Austria and Belgium, and under the great Maître Escoffier. He served as Master Chef and Chef Steward in France, England, Spain, the United States, and many other countries. Best known for his 30-year career at New York City's Waldorf Astoria, Chef De Gouy was a founder of Gourmet magazine and the author of 16 cookbooks, including The Pie Book.