Comments: The title and book cover give the wrong impression – this is not a book of chocolate-for-breakfast recipes, it is a book of fancy, elegant breakfast menus (including recipes), where one or more dishes includes some chocolate. There are quite a few chocolate recipes, but certainly fewer than half of the recipes in the book.

The other recipes are not to be sneezed at, however. These are lovely recipes that competent cooks will love to serve to family and guests, as they are at the Oak Knoll Inn.

Menus are organized by holiday, region, or special occasion: France, Morocco, the 4th of July, Italy, Mexico, Valentine's Day, Asia, Spain, the US, spring, etc. Most of the recipes clearly will take time, often in multiple steps, and while a couple are made lighter in calories and fat through the bounty of California produce, if you're looking to fit these recipes into some kind of weight-loss program, you'll be disappointed or fooling yourself.

Finally, in a nod to innkeeping, which the author has been doing for more than 15 years, she offers a small section on how to buy and make the perfect bed. If eating and sleeping are among our few absolute necessities, the author says, we should do them very well!