200 Skills Every Cook Must Have: The Step-by-Step Methods That Will Turn a Good Cook into a Great Cook

200 Skills Every Cook Must Have is an illustrated guide to the most important tips and techniques that are the key to cooking with confidence and consistency. The book explains and illustrates every important technique, from impressive knife skills to perfect pastry, and gives cooks a new level of comfort with tricky dishes like lobster and soufflé.

A simple step-by-step format with full-color photography and clear, easy-to-follow instructions takes kitchen work to the next level. The book is organized like a cooking masterclass that readers can follow in order or flip to a particular skill that needs perfecting.

Ten chapters describe essential tools and equipment, and explain tried-and-tested procedures for consistently preparing a wide range of items perfectly:

• Basics covers how to use and care for basic equipment and knives
• Sauces and Dressings has recipes and methods for key sauces such as classic vinaigrette, mayonnaise, hollandaise and custard
• Preparing and Cooking Fruits and Vegetables covers charring and peeling peppers, caramelizing onions, peeling tomatoes, peeling garlic, grating ginger, salting eggplant, chopping chilies and more
• Preparing and Cooking Meat explains how to cook a steak, carve a chicken, joint a chicken, prep a rack of lamb, and other key skills
• Basic Fish Skills includes opening oysters, poaching, papillote, prepping shrimp, boning and filleting, steaming and cooking lobster
• Pastry and Baking Skills includes cracking and separating eggs, making a soufflé, blind baking, melting chocolate and glazing
• Pasta, Bread, Rice & Noodles includes boiling pasta, rolling fresh pasta dough, basic bread tips, making perfect rice and easy risotto
• Presentation and Plating includes plating tools, decorative plating techniques, slicing and placing, and piping
• Preserving and Storing includes quick pickling, salting, flavored oils, syrups, skimming, and desalting
• Tips for Entertaining covers table-laying, planning, timing and more helpful advice.

For the culinary novice or the experienced amateur, 200 Skills Every Cook Must Have shows how to stew, steam and sauté to success every time. It is the secret ingredient that turns a good cook into a great one.

Clara Paul attended Ballymaloe Cookery School. She runs her own catering company, contributes recipes to various publications, and is head chef at Books For Cooks. She was a regular contributor to Chef Magazine.

Eric Treuillé owns and operates Books For Cooks and is a regular cooking demonstrator. He is the author of Le Cordon Bleu Techniques and Recipes, and several technique and skill-based subject books.