cool article in the sunday chron on food porn
"Lust for the gastronomic--from Zola to cookbooks--is nothing new, but maybe it's time to shelve it"

Christina, would you agree with him that "Few people leafing through that ultimate volume of chef porn, the unspeakably lush, jaw-droppingly beautiful "French Laundry Cookbook," would ever attempt to re-create its recipes?" Or, assuming that few people ever cook anything at all from serious and beatiful cookbooks, do you think that the recipes are too hard for the home cook?

Depends on what sort of homecook you are. the daring and confident can pick out recipes and modify them. The texas two steppers who need a recipe that begins "turn on the oven" may not be so happy. I just modified a squash soup recipe from charlie trotter's book and I was delighted.

You should check out this site