The Great Cook: Essential Techniques and Inspired Flavors to Make Every Dish Better

by Cooking Light

Learn how to cook more than 100 classic, all-time favorite dishes-and learn how to cook them perfectly . This cooking course in a book will show you how to confidently turn out a pie with a flaky, tender crust, make homemade pasta, and master a wow-the-crowd Coq Au Vin.

Chef and culinary instructor James Briscione guides readers through 36 in-depth, recipe-oriented Roast chicken. Seafood. Layer Cakes. Each lesson is detailed with instructive photos of every step, and variation recipes will help build on newly acquired skills. Briscione also shares essential tips from professional kitchens that home cooks can use to make each dish even better. It's like getting a private, personal lesson from a culinary expert in the comfort of your own home. More than 500 stunning color photographs and 105 essential, easy-to-follow recipes makes this an invaluable kitchen companion for anyone who loves to cook-or wants to learn how.

Genres: Cookbooks, Food

368 pages, Hardcover

First published October 8, 2013

About the author

Cooking Light is an American food and lifestyle magazine founded in 1987. Each month, the magazine includes approximately 100 original recipes as well as editorial content covering food trends, fitness tips, and other culinary and health-related news.

Reviews

[Kym · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although this is a Cooking Light cookbook, the recipes are not really "light." Instead, this is a book full of lessons for cooking basic dishes, followed by variations on that dish. The lessons are solid and the variations are fresh. It seems to be heavy in the cooking of France and Northern Europe with a smattering of Thai and Asian thrown in.

Yay, for the layout! Recipe on one side and photo facing. There are a few recipes which break my don't flip the page rule, but not many. Even the recipes which are only one page have a thumbnail photo. I appreciate those.

For those looking to move beyond the beginner stage of cooking, this is a lovely book.

[Tabitha Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

It has some good pointers and, I assume, good recipes, but I haven’t tried any of them yet.