This comprehensive, authoritative presentation includes more than 500 techniques and 160 recipes, demonstrated by master chef Jacques Pepin in 2,000 of step-by-step photographs. A comprehensive culinary course on every aspect of classic cooking, from the basics (how to sharpen a knife or peel an onion), to the practical (how to properly bone a chicken), to the whimsical (how to make decorative swans and flowers out of fruits and vegetables), to the complex (how to lard a pheasant pate and encase it in a decorative crust of breading, or how to break down a saddle of lamb).