"The wildly popular basics course at Berkeley's famed Kitchen on Fire! culinary school teaches students ultimate confidence in the kitchen. In this new book, Chefs Olivier Said and MikeC. combine their many years of experience cooking in professional kitchens and classrooms to present all the basic techniques necessary to create great food-complete with full-color illustrations and step-by-step photos throughout. You'll explore the underlying methodology and alchemy of cooking, from ingredients to prep to heat. You'll get all the skills to navigate your kitchen with ease and the knowledge to put that cookbook back on the shelf and create your own recipes with whatever ingredients you have on hand. Beginners will find the information easy to digest, and seasoned cooks will discover the secrets of professional chefs-such as the rarely discussed importance of surface area and density in gauging cooking time. Blending the precision of a professional culinary textbook with the authors' fun and irreverent attitudes, Kitchen on Fire! makes it easy for anyone to cook like a chef"--