DEAR DAME EVELYN , –A friend of mine moved to Europe recently to be with someone, and the movers somehow lost her box of cookbooks. Her birthday is coming up, and while I know I can't replace a whole box of cookbooks (I'm not even sure which ones she had), I'd like to send her one she would really be able to use. But there are so many of them! I have no idea. If you could only have one cookbook, which one would it be? Or am I going about this all wrong? Should I buy her a subscription to a food magazine like Gourmet instead? There are so many of those too! Help.

Choosy

Europa,

First, Dame Evelyn would like to commend you on your thoughtfulness. So many gifts we give others are things we really wish someone would give us. These are the gifts that gather purgatorial dust in closets. It is, sadly, the rare gift that the recipient actually wants and can use. It sounds as if yours will be one of those rare gifts.

Now then: Dame Evelyn certainly knows what you mean when you note, not quite approvingly, the surfeit of food-related publications – books and magazines – that clutter our times. Dame Evelyn's own bookshelf groans under the weight of many a handsome volume that has never even been opened. The late Sir Evelyn, in fact, used to make the occasional threatening noises about "cleaning up" those shelves; fortunately he was dissuaded by yours truly from rash action.

So the world of cookbooks and food magazines is too much with us. And yet, in a happy paradox, there is an answer to your question. The answer is, in Dame Evelyn's view, The New Joy of Cooking, by Irma S. Rombauer and a cast of ... quite a few others. When in doubt, Dame Evelyn turns to this hefty but somehow friendly volume and has yet to be disappointed. The book is so resplendent with recipes that it's always possible to find one of simple elegance that meets the needs of the moment. As for Gourmet or something along those lines, Dame Evelyn says don't bother, unless you are transfixed by Rolex advertisements and articles about sun-drenched holidays in Tuscany or Provence.

Sunnily, E. G.-S.