Cooking for Friends

Prue Leith is Sunday Express cookery correspondent, runs her own cookery school, has her own catering company, owns a much-recommended restaurant, and even has her own farm in Oxfordshire. Who better then to write this clear, helpful and necessary guide. Necessary because, however used you are to cooking, having friends round for dinner is still a bit different. You're cooking for more people than usual. The occasion is probably a little more formal than usual. Of course you want your guests to enjoy the meal but you want to enjoy it yourself.

So here's how. Each main section – Cheap, Not So Cheap and Simply Extravagant – covers a selection of starters, main courses and puddings. Some of the recipes are simple, some rather more complicated. So you can pick, mix and balance between and within sections to produce a meal that suits your guests' tastes, your pocket and the time you have for preparation and cooking.

Ingredients range from the standard exotic. There is even advice on selecting the wine. All in all, Cooking for Friends is the complete cookery guide to the dinner party.