I took a 17-year roller coaster ride inside the riotous world of food service, and along with all the ups and downs I learned that "everybody" loves soup. I searched for soup ideas online, in magazines and books, at other restaurants, from food brokers, relatives, friends, and on vacations. But these soups had to be relatively easy to prepare and the ingredients couldn't be hard to find or obscure. These are "BIG BATCH" soup recipes developed for a large gathering, a restaurant or lunch counter business, a firehouse, a benefit or fundraiser operation, a large family or a family reunion. Most of these recipes are uncomplicated and use basic cooking procedures with which you'll be familiar. There are no tricks, no fancy steps and stages, and they rarely require ingredients for which you'll need to go out and search. The soups are marked as meat soups (M), no meat soups or vegetarian (V), and fish and/or shellfish soups (F). There is a large variety of soups included in this collection, for example, rich and creamy vegetarian Yellow Velvet from yellow squash and corn, and thick but basic Portuguese Kale made with lentils and sausage. You'll find the subtle flavors of a West African Peanut Chicken Soup in this book, and it's very easy to make.