Comments: If you've ever thought, "Wow!, I wish I had a Finnish-Greek-Cypriot-South African-Italian cookbook to turn to when I need a recipe (possibly mixed in with recipes from a few other cultures)," the wait is over!

Tessa Kiros – born in London to a Finnish mother and a Greek-Cypriot father, grew up in South Africa, has worked in restaurants in Mexico, Australia, Greece and Britain, and now lives in Italy – claims these as "a world of family recipes."

As with most heritage recipes, there is no fear of butter, cream, salt, or other ingredients that cause some people to shake in their boots. But it is all used in search of flavor, and flavor is a keynote of this book. The amount of garlic in some of the Greek recipes may be more scary than the cream used elsewhere. The salad that is little more than parsley and whole lemon sections may daunt others. In general, the South African recipes are the tamest of the bunch; the Finnish are exotic primarily in the use of many native ingredients.

With so many beautiful photos, it would be great to have one of the Hasselback Potatoes, because it is not 100% clear how they should be cut, even though we know they are supposed to look like "Persian shutters."

Nonetheless, most recipes look completely manageable – in fact, most look wonderful. It would be a happy person who was fed regularly from these recipes.

Cloudberries, for those who didn't know, grow only in the far north, and look like amber-colored raspberries, to which they are related. They are so sour, they are not eaten on their own, but make an excellent jam. Interestingly, none of the recipes in Falling Cloudberries includes cloudberries.