Learn to Cook

Learn to Cook brings together books designed to teach, whether you are standing at the stove for the first time or have been cooking for twenty years and want to understand why things work.

The difference between following a recipe and knowing how to cook lies in the principles. Salt, fat, acid and heat explain more about why a dish works than any collection of recipes ever could. Ratios can be learnt and then applied everywhere, such as bread being five parts flour to three parts water, or a vinaigrette being three to one, regardless of what you put in it.

The basic level is about technique. How to actually chop an onion, why the pan should be hot before anything goes into it, when to add salt and what to do when something is starting to go wrong.

The next level is about why. What happens chemically when food browns, why emulsions split and how to test your way towards an answer instead of guessing.

And at the top is the professional method. Stocks and sauces, sous vide cooking, mise en place and the systematic approach that allows a restaurant kitchen to deliver the same result every night.

There are books here for all three stages, and most people who start with the first sooner or later find themselves at the second.