The Everyday Gourmet: Rediscovering the Lost Art of Cooking [repost]

There’s a strong sense of pride and accomplishment that comes from cooking your own meals; from taking ingredients and combining them to create eye-catching and mouth-watering dishes that can please you and your family and friends. The only problem: For many of us, cooking looks so complex and frustrating that it doesn’t seem worth our time.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. In fact, all it takes to build confidence in the kitchen is a firm grasp of the basic concepts, methods, and techniques used every day by chefs. While cookbooks are pretty to look at and cooking shows are certainly entertaining, neither of them truly teaches the lost art of cooking; neither of them truly demonstrates the fundamentals and step-by-step strategies that go into creating a wide range of dishes.

With just a bit of education, you can master how to cook and forget about being anxious in the kitchen. You’ll be able to

transform everyday ingredients into restaurant-quality dishes,
create delicious meals for both casual weekday dinners and large holiday celebrations,
learn how to work with unique tastes and ingredients to expand your palate,
avoid spending money on expensive meals or unhealthy fast food, and
rediscover the joy of cooking and eating.

Of course, it’s rare to find a truly gifted chef who can actually show you how to cook; who can engage your mind to think about food in new ways. Now, The Great Courses has joined forces with the prestigious Culinary Institute of America to give you just that. The Everyday Gourmet: Rediscovering the Lost Art of Cooking is a course of 24 highly visual and instructional lessons in which you’ll learn about and build all the foundational culinary skills you need to turn out delicious and impressive meals. Filmed on location at the CIA’s Greystone campus in Napa Valley, California, and delivered by Chef Bill Briwa—one of the CIA’s experienced instructors and a chef with more than 35 years of professional experience—these lessons show you how to cook and evaluate dishes, from starters and main courses to desserts and vegetarian meals. They also offer a master chef’s insight into tips, tricks, and secrets that will elevate any dish you make from good to great.

Lectures:

1 Cooking—Ingredients, Technique, and Flavor
2 Your Most Essential Tool—Knives
3 More Essential Tools—From Pots to Shears
4 Sauté—Dry-Heat Cooking with Fat
5 Roasting—Dry-Heat Cooking without Fat
6 Frying—Dry-Heat Cooking with Fat
7 From Poach to Steam—Moist-Heat Cooking
8 Braising and Stewing—Combination Cooking
9 Grilling and Broiling—Dry-Heat Cooking without Fat
10 Stocks and Broths—The Foundation
11 The Stir-Fry Dance—Dry-Heat Cooking with Fat
12 Herbs and Spices—Flavor on Demand
13 Sauces—From Beurre Blanc to Béchamel
14 Grains and Legumes—Cooking for Great Flavor
15 Salads from the Cold Kitchen
16 Eggs—From the Classic to the Contemporary
17 Soups from around the World
18 From Fettuccine to Orecchiette—Fresh and Dry Pastas
19 Meat—From Spatchcocked Chicken to Brined Pork Chops
20 Seafood—From Market to Plate
21 Vegetables in Glorious Variety
22 A Few Great Desserts for Grown-Ups
23 Thirst—The New Frontier of Flavor
24 Crafting a Meal, Engaging the Senses