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 culinary professional alike have at their fingertips over 700 illustrated cooking techniques in a clear, easy-to-follow format. Top chefs from Le Cordon Bleu, the world's most famous culinary institute, have a compiled a unique reference guide to an unsurpassed range of ingredients and techniques from all over the world. Here you will not only find demonstrated the essential techniques practised for centuries by culinary experts but all the professional secrets and expert tricks of the trade engaged in by chefs celebrated today. Having mastered the techniques, not only will you be able to create the best-loved dishes of plain home cooking but all the classic recipes from France, Italy and Asia. To inspire your culinary adventures, the book also includes dozens of Le Cordon Bleu's signature recipes.