Enjoy fast, free delivery, exclusive deals, and award-winning movies & TV shows with Prime
Try Prime and start saving today with fast, free delivery

Kindle
$5.99

Available instantly

Paperback
$18.57

$18.57 with 7 percent savings

List Price: $19.99

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns

FREE delivery Monday, March 24 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35

Or fastest delivery Sunday, March 23. Order within 6 hrs 12 mins

Only 1 left in stock - order soon.

$$18.57 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Ships from

Amazon

Sold by

5 Star Resellers

Returns

30-day refund/replacement

Payment

Secure transaction

Add a gift receipt for easy returns

$11.50

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns

Used book in good and clean conditions. Pages and cover are intact. Limited notes marks and highlighting may be present. May show signs of normal shelf wear and bends on edges. Item may be missing CDs or access codes. May include library marks. Ships directly from Amazon. Used book in good and clean conditions. Pages and cover are intact. Limited notes marks and highlighting may be present. May show signs of normal shelf wear and bends on edges. Item may be missing CDs or access codes. May include library marks. Ships directly from Amazon. See less

FREE delivery Monday, March 24 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35

Or Prime members get FREE delivery Saturday, March 22. Order within 6 hrs 12 mins.

Only 1 left in stock - order soon.

$$18.57 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.

Enhancements you chose aren't available for this seller. Details

${cardName} not available for the seller you chose

${cardName} unavailable for quantities greater than ${maxQuantity}.

Sold by ZBK Books and Fulfilled by Amazon.

Other sellers on Amazon

New & Used (49) from $6.98 & FREE Shipping

Image Unavailable

Image not available for
Color:

To view this video download Flash Player

Follow the author

Hugh Acheson

Follow

How to Cook: Building Blocks and 100 Simple Recipes for a Lifetime of Meals: A Cookbook Paperback – October 20, 2020

by Hugh Acheson (Author)

4.7 92 ratings

See all formats and editions

{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$18.57","priceAmount":18.57,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"18","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"57","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"In3a8ZWK3JWVl4GABxMbkKXkY54K8%2Fjsp36ygvTiVwEkdAazI62be2QhDbrVsPgHhTdDgtLF4%2B6blIuus0DabqAAfvZP%2FTqkNTON1TYR0ho9oGx8x4n3uwbY1ByYpTMvpJWVs6c9BVXhDgwcDOwrGE9ZIp%2FVNSuo0Wlf9fAihBUZOj%2Bvix169haO3wsrnm1l","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$11.50","priceAmount":11.50,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"11","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"50","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"In3a8ZWK3JWVl4GABxMbkKXkY54K8%2FjsmmNbC6MXpBO%2FnrfeNnNaYuMyyFIhnIAsAACptlRwm4Uy5FsDqjzBrkYvojJkRyaJG2wJAnm6SRVcb5WTsbSWLpUHq5FfHTSsubKUNDx2JJpnfOD2pwWY%2FwpoDJutGdLHhHjRIuX9P0%2FgjOrexy6fc4STBDpYR%2B2K","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

An empowering collection of 100 delicious, practical recipes that will teach young adults and kitchen novices how to cook for themselves—from a James Beard Award–winning chef and author.

“A master class on nourishing yourself.”—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

IACP AWARD WINNER • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST COOKBOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION AND WIRED

Acclaimed chef, TV star, and dedicated father Hugh Acheson taught his teenage daughters that cooking is an essential life skill. But he also knew that people don’t need to know how to cook like a chef to feed themselves and their friends. Really, they only need to learn a handful of skills to enjoy a lifetime of cooking.

So, in How to Cook, Hugh distills the cooking lessons that everyone should master into twenty-five basic building blocks: easy-to-grasp recipes that can turn anyone, young or old, into a confident home cook. Each of these recipes teaches a fundamental skill, such as roasting or whisking together a classic vinaigrette, and each stands alone as a stellar back-pocket basic. After laying the groundwork, How to Cook then offers recipes that expand on these foundations, whether it’s remixing the flavors of one of the basic recipes, or combining a couple of them, to show you how you can produce a lifetime’s worth of dishes.

How to Cook is the book Hugh is going to give his kids when they leave home, knowing that with these 100 recipes, they’ll be prepared to feed themselves for the rest of their lives.

From the Publisher

Cooking, How to Cook, recipes, cookbooks, cooking books, cooking gifts

WARNING: California’s Proposition 65

Editorial Reviews

Review

“A master class on nourishing yourself.”—Atlanta Journal-Constitution

About the Author

Hugh Acheson is the chef/partner of the restaurants Five & Ten, Empire State South, and By George in Athens and Atlanta, Georgia. He is winner of two James Beard Awards for Best Chef Southeast and Best American Cookbook, has been featured in numerous food and wine publications, and has appeared on Bravo’s Top Chef as a judge. Hugh is the author of The Broad Fork, A New Turn in the South, Pick a Pickle, The Chef and the Slow Cooker, and Sous Vide.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

What this book is all about

My daughters, Beatrice and Clementine, are well into their teens. I don’t think of myself as an overbearing parent, but I wrote that list for them sooner than I want to admit. Growing up the kids of a professional chef, they have been surrounded by good food their whole lives; when I think about them leaving home and living on their own, I want them to feel that they should still be surrounded by good food. I don’t expect them to cook like I do, but I do want to make sure they have the basics to be able to feed themselves, their friends, and eventually their own loved ones good, delicious, simple meals. And so I wrote this book, so that you can, too, whether you’re leaving home as a teenager, or making your own home, or starting your own family.

What follows is a really simple concept. There are a few ways to cook. One is to read recipes and stress about following them to the letter. Another is to dive into a kitchen and absorb everything, until you can make a bisque, brioche, or baked ziti without ever opening a cookbook.

What I think is the most approachable way to go about it is somewhere in the middle. There should be some very basic things that you know how to make almost from memory. I’m talking about a classic vinaigrette that you can use to dress salads, but also tweak to use as a sauce for roasted vegetables or meats or fish. Or how to cook pasta. Or a perfect grilled cheese, or how to roast a chicken or stir together a simple, flavor-packed herb sauce you can put on anything. Don’t worry, there are no tests; you don’t really have to memorize any recipes. But I want you to get comfortable making these very basic things, so that you can tweak them, add to or subtract from them, or mix and match them with stuff you have in your fridge, so you can make a meal anytime. Envision a Lego set of cooking skills; once you have those building blocks at hand, cooking becomes a skill you have forever.

So the first part of this book is dedicated to twenty-five building blocks that will anchor your world of cooking and give you the ability to build a system of nourishment. As a professional cook, I rely on core ideas of food to create dishes and menus, and there is no reason you shouldn’t do the same.

I’ve chosen the recipes for the building blocks not just because they’re great to make and eat and are flexible in how you use them, but also because in learning to make them, you will learn techniques you can apply to other foods. Learning how to sear a steak, for instance, will give you the same tools you need for searing pork chops or chicken breasts; roasting broccoli will teach you how to roast cauliflower or asparagus.

After those initial building blocks, there are seventy-five more recipes for you to use your new skills . . . or to use the leftovers of what you’ve already made. In fact, you might want to make some of the building blocks on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon and keep them in your fridgeto cook with through the week. I want you to think of leftovers not as “leftovers,” but as great ingredients that you can turn into new meals.

And with that, you’ll be able to cook anytime, forever.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Clarkson Potter (October 20, 2020)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 224 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1984822306
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1984822307
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.64 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.45 x 0.72 x 10.02 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #378,213 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #150 in Cooking with Kids (Books)
- #549 in Cooking Encyclopedias
- #558 in Cooking, Food & Wine Reference (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.7 92 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Videos

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload your video

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Hugh Acheson

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Hugh Acheson is the chef/partner of the Georgia restaurants 5 & 10 and The National located in Athens, Empire State South in Atlanta, and The Florence in Savannah. Born and raised in Ottawa, Canada Hugh started cooking at a young age and decided to make it his career after taking a very long time to realize that academics weren't his thing. At age 15, he began working in restaurants after school and learning as much as possible.

Today, Acheson's experience includes working under Chef Rob MacDonald where he learned stylized French cuisine, wine, and etiquette at the renowned Henri Burger restaurant in Ottawa, and in San Francisco as the chef de cuisine with Chef Mike Fennelly at Mecca, and later as opening sous chef with famed Chef Gary Danko at Chef Danko's namesake restaurant, where he found a love of the simple, pure and disciplined, which guided him when opening his own restaurants in the years to follow.

Hugh's cookbook titled A New Turn in the South: Southern Flavors Reinvented for Your Kitchen published by Clarkson Potter, hit the bookshelves on October 18th, 2011 and won the award for Best Cookbook in the field of "American Cooking" by the James Beard Foundation in 2012. With inviting and surprising photography full of Hugh's personality, and pages layered with his own quirky writing and sketches, Hugh invites you into his community and his very creative world of food, and to add new favorites to your repertoire.

His second book, Pick a Pickle: 50 recipes for Pickles, Relishes, and Fermented Snacks, is a pickling swatchbook and handy kitchen reference guide.

Hugh's third book, The Broad Fork: Recipes for the Wide World of Vegetables and Fruits published by Clarkson Potter, is due out in May of 2015. It's a vegetable-centric look at cooking through the seasons.

Acheson's fresh approach to Southern food has earned him a great deal of recognition including Food & Wine's Best New Chef in 2002 and winner for Best Chef Southeast by the James Beard Foundation in 2012. In 2010 Hugh competed on Bravo's Top Chef Masters: Season 3. He currently serves as a judge on Top Chef.

Customer reviews

92 global ratings

How customer reviews and ratings work

Review this product

Write a customer review

Reviews with images

See all photos

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews. Please reload the page.

beerose
Great for young adults going off to college and for teaching your kids how to cook!
Reviewed in the United States on February 11, 2024
Verified Purchase

If you know someone going off to college, get them this book. If you are trying to teach your kids how to cook meals, this will help you remember what the basics are that they need to know.

This cookbook was written by a chef who was teaching his kids how to cook so he thought out what he needed them to know for basics. I've tended to teach how to do specific meals, but I think this skills approach makes more sense since everyone has different tastes.

He covers:
Clarified butter
Baked sweet potatoes
Grilled Cheese
Pasta (including ramen at one point)
Rice
A roasted chicken
Poached Eggs
Salads
Beans and peas
Burgers
Sauteed mushrooms
Pan-roasted fish
Steak
Roasted vegetables
Slow-roasted vegetables
Slaw
Sofrito
Slow-roasted roy-garlic tofu
Tomato sauce
Polenta and grits
Soups (Purees: Soups and Beyond)
Four (and a half) go-to super simple sauces

Each one has alternatives listed too in case the ingredients don't appeal for the original skill recipe. After that part of the book, there are recipes to fancy up all the skills that have been learned. For example, there's a chicken and dumplings recipe, fried rice with pork and kimchi, louisiana-style dirty rice, spaghetti with basil pesto, spinach salad with pear, pecans, and blue cheese, shrimp po boys, and loads of other delicious recipes. They all build on the skills taught earlier in the book.

Also included are explanations of herbs, spices, salt and how to use them, what pots, pan, and utensils you need, and how to use a knife.

I have kids who are very, very picky in what they eat so teaching them to cook has so far been very spotty (more baking goodies than meals). It's been difficult trying to figure out how to teach them basics while getting the to actually eat. The way this book is set up with skills being taught more in the beginning with basics like pasta and rice, I have a better chance of at least getting my kids to learn basic cooking skill. I'm hoping that they will actually see this as a reference and experiment to find the type of food they will eat.

I've been cooking for years and found information in this that will help me branch out my cooking and new recipes that I want to try.

I really wish I'd had a book like this that was concise (not like the old encyclopedic books I did have) when I went off to college. The only thing missing from this book was the idea of cooking food ahead if you are living alone or with only one other person, but since he was writing this for his kids at home, why would he cover that? That's the only thing I would add if you give this to someone moving out on their own for the first time.

Wonderful cookbook! Honestly, this cookbook reminded me of Alton Brown's Good Eats in that you learn good skills that you can then apply broadly in a manageable bite. And coming from me (a great lover of that show and books), that's as good as it gets.

Read more

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Report
Myra G
Great for teaching the kids how to cook
Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2021
Verified Purchase
We are using this book to step through cooking techniques with our kids and it is great! It includes lots of tips and recipes that we can share with them as they prepare for life and cooking outside of our home.

Read more

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

Report
Lillian A.
Great book !
Reviewed in the United States on September 14, 2021
Verified Purchase
Great book for beginners & good for those who already know how to cook.

Read more

Helpful

Report
brenda campbell
All the basics
Reviewed in the United States on September 1, 2021
Verified Purchase
Great ideas

Read more

Helpful

Report
Jeff Puckett
How to cook, not how to follow a recipe
Reviewed in the United States on November 1, 2020
I received this as a gift. Following recipes has been my covid hobby, and the more complicated the better. Braising. Curries. Tikka masala. Shepherds pie completely from scratch. Bring it.

So now I can follow a more complicated recipe and I have a few techniques. This book fills in the biggest gap I’ve had in “learning to cook,” the building blocks of the basics. The first section briefly touches on basics to always keep on hand and knife skills. In my favorite section, Hugh Acheson lists 25 building blocks for how to cook. Simple techniques on how to cook rice, make a simple tomato sauce, a vinaigrette, and how to pan roast salmon. He takes the time to explain why these essentials are important and includes reminders of how often you will use these basics over and over again.

The rest of the recipes are great and are basically practice on the building blocks and how to experiment with them. They are reminders of why those building blocks are important. A Thai catfish dish will use three I just mentioned - you can pan roast the catfish just like the salmon, and use the tomato sauce and rice.

I feel the net result of making the recipes in this book won’t be knowing I can follow recipes. Instead it will be knowing why those recipes work and how I can use them elsewhere. I’ve already started marking mine up with ideas. Highly recommended.

Read more

27 people found this helpful

Helpful

Report
Kris
Buy this book for all the teens and young adults in your life
Reviewed in the United States on July 21, 2022
This book treats cooking as the basic skill that it is, but not as drudgery (which it shouldn’t be).

Read more

Helpful

Report
Rita N
Strictly on the condition of the book
Reviewed in the United States on September 27, 2024
Verified Purchase
This book arrived with oil all over it like it’s been previously used. I purchased it thinking it would be in new condition.

Read more

Rita N

Strictly on the condition of the book

Reviewed in the United States on September 27, 2024
This book arrived with oil all over it like it’s been previously used. I purchased it thinking it would be in new condition.

Images in this review

Helpful

Report
MFBid
Not great
Reviewed in the United States on December 31, 2020
Verified Purchase
This cookbook wasn’t really a how too and I don’t really love the recipes.

Read more

Helpful

Report

Top reviews from other countries

Ina
Enjoyable Read
Reviewed in Canada on August 5, 2024
Verified Purchase

I have a massive library but it's hard to give away books these days so I mostly buy KIndle now. I hesitate about buying KIndle cookbooks but this one is well suited to KIndle. It is more about technique though it suggests ways to use the techniques. I enjoyed reading it - that's why I'm doing this review.

Read more
Report

See more reviews

Amazon Prime includes:

Follow the author

How to Cook: Building Blocks and 100 Simple Recipes for a Lifetime of Meals: A Cookbook Paperback – October 20, 2020

Purchase options and add-ons

Frequently bought together

Frequently purchased items with fast delivery

From the Publisher

Editorial Reviews

Review

About the Author

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Product details

Videos

About the author

Hugh Acheson

Customer reviews

Review this product

Images in this review

Reviews with images

Strictly on the condition of the book

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews. Please reload the page.

Strictly on the condition of the book

Images in this review

Top reviews from other countries

4.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable Read

Enjoyable Read