My primary intent was to capture and organize recipes for only a select group of foods where the recipes are definitely "best of breed," so this book is not a general cookbook at all, yet the variety of different foods is rich. It is currently 1246 pages long. All told there are only 461 recipes, far less in number than any general cookbook where the number of recipes can be 1000 and up. Yet each of the recipes in this book offer you the very best recipe I could find, obtain from other people, create or modify to become the very best over many years.

So, this book is an eclectic collection of my favorite recipes for a variety of types of food representing many different cuisines. Some of the recipes are originally from other people I’ve known, cookbooks, restaurants and the Internet. I have personally created and/or improved some of the recipes. Overall, most of the recipes were developed by me and/or by a few other relatives and friends based on improvements to what we found and tried from other sources. I have intentionally excluded a number of my recipes for common foods that most people know how to make well. Conversely, I have included a few recipes for special foods I have yet to try because I sense they are excellent. As I perfect recipes I modify Food Nirvana. Know that overall my focus is on excellent foods that many people do not know how to make well, or not at all.

Let’s say you are planning to entertain and you want to figure out a dynamite menu to thrill your guests. Well, this is the book you go to when that is your goal. Just a brief scan of the index will provide just what you need in ideas, so you will arrive at your goal quickly and with certainty. Even better, you will know that each item you select and make will get many compliments, and the recipes in this book tell you everything you need to get and do for guaranteed success.