Mediterranean Diet Cookbook Reveals
Nutritional & Culinary Secrets Of Crete

The Mediterranean Diet Cookbook, a May 2003 release from Connecticut-based publisher Ici La Press, reveals the significant nutritional benefits and boundless culinary delights of the healthful cuisine enjoyed for centuries on the island of Crete.

The Mediterranean Diet Cookbook explores the secrets of Crete's traditional cuisine, which seamlessly matches good nutrition with extraordinary gastronomic pleasure. Physician and nutrition specialist Jacques Fricker teams up with chef and health writer Dominique Laty to explain the benefits of the "Mediterranean Diet" and the subtle alchemy it achieves through balanced nutrition and a healthful lifestyle.

Laty has created 70 recipes inspired by the cuisine of Crete that combine ease in preparation with good nutrition and unalloyed delight to the senses. The "Mediterranean Diet" offers a tantalizing array of dishes that take full advantage of richly diverse harvest pleasures--eggplant a la cuillere, a colorful bean salad, and "hot-and-cold figs," to name a few--and the bountiful riches of the sea and farm. The presentation of these dishes provides a visual feast as well, thanks to the lavish photography of Pierre Hussenot and Pierre Cabannes.

"If you want to feel well, if you are looking for simplicity and freshness, the Mediterranean Diet of the island of Crete answers all your expectations," Fricker and Laty observe in the book's introduction. "The diet's principles are simple and constant. These recipes attest that pleasure, well-being and health can go together in a delicious harmony."

Jacques Fricker is a physician specializing in nutrition who is affiliated with Bichet Hospital in Paris. He is the author of several books published in France on nutrition, dietetics and health. Dominique Laty is a specialist on the relationship between health and nutrition, as well as a highly regarded chef. She is the author of several books published in France on foods, lifestyle and well-being.

-- The Mediterranean Diet Cookbook by Jacques Fricker and Dominique Laty, May 2003, $38, 168 pages. Published by Ici La Press, 694 Main Street South, Woodbury CT 06798. ISBN 1-931605-12-2.