The Culinary Institute of America

Every restaurateur will tell you there's tremendous satisfaction in preparing great food for their customers. But at the end of the day, serving exceptional food is not enough. In today's competitive food service industry, it's more important than ever to effectively manage costs.

All chefs can benefit from improving their skills and increasing their production—and in this DVD, you'll learn 30 fundamental culinary techniques guaranteed to help you do both. Basic Kitchen Preparation brings you both traditional and contemporary methods straight from the classrooms and kitchens of the CIA.

Moist-heat techniques—steaming, cooking foods en papillote, shallow poaching, deep poaching, and simmering-rely on liquid and/or water vapor as the cooking medium. Braising and Stewing are often thought of as peasant dishes because they frequently call for less tender (and less expensive) main ingredients than do other techniques. Monitoring cooking temperatures and times vigilantly and determining doneness accurately are key to a mastery of moist-heat methods.