How to Cook : Building Blocks and 100 Simple Recipes for a Lifetime of Meals

An empowering collection of 100 delicious, practical recipes that will teach young adults and kitchen novices how to cook for themselves—from a James Beard Award–winning chef and author.

“A master class on nourishing yourself.”—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

IACP AWARD WINNER • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST COOKBOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION AND WIRED

Acclaimed chef, TV star, and dedicated father Hugh Acheson taught his teenage daughters that cooking is an essential life skill. But he also knew that people don’t need to know how to cook like a chef to feed themselves and their friends. Really, they only need to learn a handful of skills to enjoy a lifetime of cooking.

So, in How to Cook, Hugh distills the cooking lessons that everyone should master into twenty-five basic building blocks: easy-to-grasp recipes that can turn anyone, young or old, into a confident home cook. Each of these recipes teaches a fundamental skill, such as roasting or whisking together a classic vinaigrette, and each stands alone as a stellar back-pocket basic. After laying the groundwork, How to Cook then offers recipes that expand on these foundations, whether it’s remixing the flavors of one of the basic recipes, or combining a couple of them, to show you how you can produce a lifetime’s worth of dishes.

How to Cook is the book Hugh is going to give his kids when they leave home, knowing that with these 100 recipes, they’ll be prepared to feed themselves for the rest of their lives.

Hugh Acheson is the chef/partner of the restaurants Five & Ten, Empire State South, and By George in Athens and Atlanta, Georgia. He is winner of two James Beard Awards for Best Chef Southeast and Best American Cookbook, has been featured in numerous food and wine publications, and has appeared on Bravo’s Top Chef as a judge. Hugh is the author of The Broad Fork, A New Turn in the South, Pick a Pickle, The Chef and the Slow Cooker, and Sous Vide.