All successful cooking - from the simplest to the most complex - depends on the careful selection and correct preparation of ingredients. Now, for the first time, the home cook and the culinary professional alike have at their fingertips over seven hundred illustrated cooking techniques in a clear and easy-to-follow format. Essential preparation and cooking skills, professional secrets, expert tricks of the trade, favorite recipes, and stunning finished dishes are shown in over two thousand original full-color photographs and explained in concise, informative text.