If you have ever been stumped by a recipe, ever needed to substitute an ingredient you don't have for one you did, or want to learn how to prepare differnt fresh ingredients, seafood and produce, Essentials of Cooking is for you.
Easy to use on your PC or television, Essentials of Cooking requires no prior cooking experience yet has something for even the most seasoned home cook.
Product details
Package Dimensions
:
9.6 x 7.8 x 1.5 inches; 8 ounces
Director
:
Don Magnoli
Media Format
:
Box set, Special Edition, NTSC, Color
Run time
:
4 hours
Release date
:
March 21, 2005
Actors
:
Chef Instructors of Culinard Culinary Institute
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
No depth at all. Really lame. There are many much better options. For example, get a DVD by Jacques Pepin or Julia Child -- these have 10,000 times more content than this item. And its style reminds me of a WWII vintage military training film. Computerwise, it is behind the times by 20 years. A total waste of my money.
I bought this DVD with the intention of learning how to cook different types of foods. This comes on 3 DVD's and covers a wide range of cooking skills ranging from knife skills and vegetable preparation, to specific cooking techniques.
This is really educational and can be a drop boring at some points if you are looking for the Razzle-Dazzle that comes with a Food Network show. The chefs don't have that 'dynamic' power to draw in an audience. But they are smart and are patient to show the audience every step in cooking.
Definitely a MUST if you want to increase your knowledge about preparing different foods.
For me, this product was definitely worth the money. I agree that this program isn't "flashy" - but that's not really what I was looking for. Most cooking shows and DVDs are recipe based, which is fine... unless you lack the fundamentals of cooking. "Essentials of Cooking" provides just that: the BASICS.
The program is extremely thorough, and taught me so many things that I wished I had learned from my Mom. For example, the DVD portion provides step-by-step instructions and video demonstrations for basic knife skills, stove & oven cooking techniques (how to saute, fry, bake, etc), buying and preparation guides for produce, meat, seafood, and poultry. I've already experienced several "aha" moments during the video demos - and haven't even gotten to the CD-rom resources yet!
Bottom line: If you already know the basics, look elsewhere. But if you want to learn (or re-learn) the fundamentals, get this program.
This video is great for someone with NO foundation in cooking...like me. It gives you techniques more so than recipes. Most cooking dvds are recipe based. This DVD gives you the basics of cooking (which you need before you can take on recipes). If you are a total novice I recommend this dvd.
