Explains how cooking works and how to organize your steps in order to prepare elegant meals quickly and less effortlessly to obtain the exact results you want. Presents gourmet recipes for serving 4 or 16 delicous repasts. Basic procedures are illustrated with 200 step-by-step photographs. Features 16 pages of color photos showing various presentations of finished dishes. Over 600 recipes for all kinds of menu items serve as practical examples of the food types and cooking methods discussed. Also includes an appendix of recipes for basic sauces and other recipe ingredients.