Somewhere between memoir, philosophy and a diet book, Culinary Intelligence is a quick and enjoyable read with some good ideas. (I'm a pretty good cook, and I've picked up several new prep ideas - boiling radishes, who knew?). If you're even reasonably food savvy, there will be little new information here, but it's a great motivator for anyone who wants to get more flavor from fewer calories. A minor complaint: all the weight loss stories in the book were about men. Anybody who's ever attended a mixed-gender weight loss group knows that men lose weight *much* more easily than women; very few women could simply cut back on white food, desserts and pizza, and magically drop 40 lbs. Still, if you're eating the kind of food this book advocates, not cheating with junk, and getting reasonable exercise, you probably weigh about what you ought to, whether or not the weight charts think so.