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Retro Cooking with the King of Bling

NPR
Published May 5, 2007 at 6:14 PM CDT
Liberace cooks in his Hollywood Hills home, 1969-70. Twenty years after his death, more than 80 of the pianist's favorite recipes have been gathered into a retro cookbook.
Liberace cooks in his Hollywood Hills home, 1969-70. Twenty years after his death, more than 80 of the pianist's favorite recipes have been gathered into a retro cookbook.

The book for kitchy cooks has arrived.

Liberace — the rhinestone-studded pianist who was known for his candelabra, charisma and dazzle — was also a chef whose recipes were as over-the-top as his clothes. He loved to cook for his friends and his mother, and at one point even owned a restaurant.

Now, 20 years after his death, authors Michael and Karan Feder have compiled more than 80 of his favorite recipes in their new book Joy of Liberace: Retro Recipes from America's Kitschiest Kitchen.

Many of the dishes are the same ones "Mr. Showmanship" himself featured on 'The Liberace Show' in the '50s and '60s. There's the bejeweled Angel Bling Cake Pie, as well as Celery Victor/Victoria and Flamboyant Flambe of Sirloin, among others.

The blinged-out culinary classics are enough to have cooks laughing all the way to the Las Vegas buffet table.

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