Cooking

In an era of outfitted home kitchens and food fascination, it's no wonder home cooks who never learned the fundamentals of the kitchen are intimidated. Twenty years ago, James Peterson could relate, and so he taught himself by cooking his way through professional kitchens and stacks of books, logging the lessons of his kitchen education one by one. Now one of the country's most revered cooking teachers, Peterson provides the confidence-building instructions home cooks need to teach themselves to cook consistently with ease and success. COOKING is the only all-in-one instructional that details the techniques that cooks really need to master, teaches all the basic recipes, and includes hundreds of photos that illuminate and inspire.

   • Cooking authority James Peterson's definitive, all-inclusive learn-to-cook cookbook.
   • 600 hard-working recipes everyone should know how to make-from the perfect roasted chicken to bouillabaisse and apple pie.
   • 1,500 instructional photos, showing exactly how recipes are made, teach food-literate novices to cook with confidence and more advanced cooks to expand their repertoire.
   • James Peterson has more than 1 million cookbooks in print.

In an era of outfitted home kitchens and food fascination, it's no wonder home cooks who never learned the fundamentals of the kitchen are intimidated. Twenty years ago, James Peterson could relate, and so he taught himself by cooking his way through professional kitchens and stacks of books, logging the lessons of his kitchen education one by one. Now one of the country's most revered cooking teachers, Peterson provides the confidence-building instructions home cooks need to teach themselves to cook consistently with ease and success.

COOKING is the only all-in-one instructional that details the techniques that cooks really need to master, teaches all the basic recipes, and includes hundreds of photos that illuminate and inspire.

Cooking authority James Peterson's definitive, all-inclusive learn-to-cook cookbook.
600 hard-working recipes everyone should know how to make-from the perfect roasted chicken to bouillabaisse and apple pie.
1,500 instructional photos, showing exactly how recipes are made, teach food-literate novices to cook with confidence and more advanced cooks to expand their repertoire.
James Peterson has more than 1 million cookbooks in print.

Publishers Weekly

Peterson's masterful survey of kitchen skills is a refreshing dose of tradition for anyone weary of quick-and-simple recipe books. The substantial volume is replete with step-by-step color photos, often 10 to 15 per recipe or process, that show the stages of a steak's doneness or how to make napoleons. The immense store of "recipes to learn by" is arranged partly by course and partly by main ingredient, with each section proceeding through many of his 10 basic techniques. Peterson is careful to include a range of dishes for every skill level, and cooks with any amount of experience will appreciate the numerous boxes that highlight preparation tips and tricks. Dominated by recipes like Fish Meunière and Boeuf à la Bourguignonne and with a prodigious chapter on sauces, the book feels like an old-fashioned French culinary education slightly updated with some nominally international dishes (Lamb Korma, Chiles Rellenos with Tomatillo Sauce), an attribute that may turn off some modern-minded cooks, but will reward those keen to absorb Peterson's deep knowledge of food and well-honed explanations for how best to prepare it. Color photos not seen by PW. (Oct.)

JAMES PETERSON is an award-winning cookbook writer and cooking teacher, whose career began as a young cook in Paris. In the mid-eighties, he was a partner and cook at the Greenwich Village restaurant Le Petit Robert. A cooking teacher for over two decades, teaching at Peter Kump's New York Cooking School and at the French Culinary Institute, he is the author of 13 books, including Sauces, which was his first book and the 1991 James Beard Cookbook of the Year. A self-taught food photographer, James creates the photography for his own books as well as for others' projects. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.