The Cook's Book

The foundations, chapter 1

Kitchen School

Before the recipes, a short course in how cooking works. You don't need to read it all at once, and you can cook from the book without it. But the ideas here, about heat and salt, browning and timing, knives and safety, are the ones every good cook uses without thinking. Learn them once, and every recipe gets easier, because you'll understand not just what to do but why. The chapter ends with two reference tables you'll come back to: the internal temperatures for meat and fish, and how long food keeps in the fridge and freezer.

11 lessonsOpen the chapter in the app

  1. How to use this bookEvery recipe in this book is written the same way, so once you know how to read one you can read them all.
  2. The ten tools you actually needYou do not need a drawer full of gadgets.
  3. Knife skillsGood knife skills make cooking faster, safer and better, because evenly cut pieces cook evenly.
  4. HeatMost cooking is controlling heat: how much, how fast, and from which direction.
  5. Seasoning and tasting as you goThe difference between food that tastes fine and food that tastes wonderful is almost always seasoning.
  6. Browning and the Maillard reactionBrowning is flavor.
  7. Mise en place and reading a recipeMise en place is French for "everything in its place." Professional cooks set up every ingredient and tool before they…
  8. The well-stocked pantryA well-chosen pantry means you can make a good dinner on a weeknight without shopping, and most of the recipes in this…
  9. Food safetyFood safety is common sense plus a few numbers.
  10. Internal temperature chartAn instant-read thermometer is the only reliable way to know how done meat and fish are.
  11. Leftovers, freezing and storage timesGood cooks waste little.