- and beginners alike. Here, the man Julia Child has called "not only a renowned chef, a foremost authority on French cuisine, a great teacher and... truly a master technician" provides easy-to-follow instruction for hundreds of culinary procedures and preparations, including:

Braising Beef Breading Veal Scallopine Carving Poached Salmon Stuffing Sausage Making Chocolate Cigarettes Cleaning and Boning Trout. Cooking and Presenting Lobsters Filling Cream Puffs. Filleting Fish Folding Napkins. Topping Fruit Tarts Making Green Noodles Grilling Poultry Holding the Knife. Using Ladyfingers Lining Cake Pans Making Stock Forming Meringues. Peeling and Seeding Tomatoes. Making Pepper Steak Rolling Pie Dough. Poaching Eggs Preparing Mussels Peeling Onions. Using Fish Stock. Creating Apple Swans Separating Eggs Making Sole Meunière Stuffing Mushrooms Trimming Rack of Lamb Tying a Roast Making Waffled Potatoes • Puréeing Carrots Making a Mousseline Smoking Fish Slicing Potatoes. Trimming and Cooking Meat Braising Chicken Livers Frying Parsley Poaching Salmon Carving Rib Roast Baking Country Bread and Baguettes. Making Fruit Cake Flaming Bananas Glazing Cake with Fondant Seeding a Cucumber. Cleaning Salad Fluting Mushrooms Coating a Cookie Sheet Folding in Ingredients Hard-boiling Eggs Clown-style Making Olive Rabbits. Decorating with Butter Icing a Vodka Bottle Shucking Oysters Peeling and Preparing Green Peppers Braising Lettuce Trussing Poultry and much more.

"This is the book that every aspiring cook should read before picking up a French knife. Concise, informative, indispensable."

-Anthony Bourdain, author of Kitchen Confidential and A Cook's Tour

"A thorough-going study of the skills of the kitchen as interpreted by an extraordinarily talented and skilled French chef. An invaluable book for anyone seriously interested in cooking with class."

-Helen McCully, former food editor, House Beautiful