How to Cook Author:Delia Smith Best-selling author Delia Smith presents a simple and enjoyable cooking course for people of all ages and abilities. We live in a time when everyone can buy food products from literally anywhere in the world at the local supermarket, when people can assemble instant suppers from food bars, where on almost every city corner there's a take-out or... more » fast-food chain. But many people have forgotten the joys and simple pleasures of putting together a delicious, nutritious meal on their own. In a busy world where people have less and less time for cooking, many feel intimidated by even the thought of cooking. Delia's How To Cook restores a respect for food in its simplest, purest form, bringing everyone back to the basics skills of cooking. Adapted for the US market, Dorling Kindersley's How To Cook is a combination of two separate volumes Delia published in the UK on the basic art of cooking. In Book One, she starts at the very beginning, explaining in detail the staple ingredients of all cooking -- eggs, flour, potatoes, rice, and pasta. Book Two proceeds through the fundamentals of preparing fish, meat, poultry, fruit, and vegetables. In her typically friendly, accessible style, she guides beginners through the basics that will serve them for a lifetime of cooking. Boiling and poaching an egg, bread and pastry baking, making sauces and cooking all kinds of rice -- these are some of the many techniques she presents that will remove intimidation from the cooking process and inspire total confidence. For those who have already mastered these techniques, who are already accomplished cooks, How To Cook provides a sparkling collection of recipes, incorporating new ideas such as fat-free white sauces, french 'fries' you don't have to fry, and souffles that don't collapse, all presented in Delia's inimitable style.« less