Whether you are a newcomer to cooking, or an experienced cook, you need to know how to make the most of what's available - both in your kitchen and on the supermarket shelves - as well as how to follow recipes successfully. This new book from the chefs of Le Cordon Bleu, the legendary cooking academy, covers an extensive range of familiar and exotic ingredients and the most effective ways of preparing and cooking them. It demonstrates all the tools and techniques necessary, and gives excellent buying advice. There's a wide range of useful charts and tables detailing cooking times and methods, yield to serving ratios and volume equivalents plus sidebars that provide nutritional and storing information. Hundreds of specially taken photographs serve as a visual pictorial glossary that will inspire readers to make the most of what the world has to offer.