My personal copy is the revised edition, 7th printing from September 1977. Second Helpings, Please! has been continuously in print since the first edition.

While not commonly recognized as a community cookbook due to it's close association with Norene Gilletz (who was the editor) and the lack of recipe attribution, Second Helpings, Please! was a fundraising initiative of the Mount Sinai Chapter #1091 of B'nai B'rith Women of Eastern Canada located in Montreal. A 2024 article about the book from CBC, The story of Second Helpings, the bestselling Canadian cookbook out of Jewish Montreal, includes a picture of Norene Gilletz's personal first edition which is signed by many of the recipe submitters.

The attached article, Beanless Soup Just One Hurdle For Author of New Cookbook written by Anna Stephens, appeared in The Gazette on 15 April 1968.

"Norene Gilletz used to solve her cookery problems by calling her mother in Winnipeg.

'She would be horrified,' recalled the Montreal housewife in an interview recently. 'She would say - you're calling me long distance just for a recipe?'

Nowadays her mother asks her advice because Mrs. Gilletz has spent the last three years collecting and testing recipe for a cookery book.

She is the editor of the 'Second Helpings, Please!' book sponsored by the Mt. Sinai Chapter No. 1091 of the B'nai B'rith Women.

'The chapter wanted a fund raising project that would last,' she explained. 'We decided on a cookery book because we had always been served impressive food in each others' homes, so we collected the recipes from chapter members and their families.'

Mrs. Gilletz was helped by six chapter members acting as associate and assistant editors, and a dietician working as a consultant.

'It is basically a Jewish cookery book with a smattering of everything including Chinese, and it can be used by Jews and non-Jews alike,' she said.

'We have done out best to make it easy to understand for novices in the kitchen as well as interesting for the experienced cook.

'It was hard collecting the recipes,' she recalled. 'The Jewish approach to cooking tends to be vague as far as quantities are concerned. They say 'you want to make a lot - put in a lot, you want to make a little - so put in a little'. I had to repeatedly test some recipes when a cook couldn't remember how much she used.'

Setbacks included a printing time that stretched to five months when it was supposed to take two, and short spells in hospital due to illness for most of the authors.

'We also found the usual mistakes in the final draft, like bean soup with no beans in it and tomato rice with no rice,' she laughed.

'The worst part of all was compiling the cross index,' she continued. 'This put certain versatile foods in more than one section and made them easy to find. However, I started the index many times in the three months it took me to complete, and I cursed every time.'

The publication of the book last week has brought nothing but praise.

'One friend rang and said 'I have ten cook books, and now I have yours they have all been demoted to the basement,' she said. 'And the chapter members tell me my middle name is cookbook.'

Now that it is completed she has the urge to add a section on diets.

'Second Helpings' can be purchased from Mt. Sinai Chapter No. 1091, B'nai B'rith Women, 867 Alexis Nihon Blvd., Montreal 9."