The Cook's Handbook

Cookbooks teem with recipes which languish untried for want of sufficient expertise. THE COOK'S HANDBOOK is the master key to the untasted treasures in your recipe collection.

Says author Prue Leith, "How often has the inexperienced cook come to a full stop on 'one boned chicken' or 'one cupful of onions, sweated'? Not every poulterer or butcher will bone the chicken for you, and if you don't know your sweated onions, you're lost."

Like the books designed to instruct the professional chef and caterer in their crafts, THE COOK'S HANDBOOK supplies the scientific, artistic and philosophical basis to make you maitre in your own cuisine.

Underlying the minutiae of ingredients and instructions in recipe books are patterns of flavours and methods which make the most of foods. THE COOK'S HANDBOOK assembles these like culinary blueprints from which you may confidently improvise.

Cookbooks inevitably focus on the finished dish, losing sight of the joys to be had along the way. Prue Leith imparts these to her readers—the rhythms of skilful preparation; fresh carrots transformed into heaps of red- gold matchsticks: a splendid knife wielded with confidence.

THE COOK'S HANDBOOK embraces the whole experience of cooking, and provides the structure and perspective from which the adventurous cook may be inspired to create.