Techniques, tips and the knowledge behind the recipes. Good cooking is mostly about understanding a handful of principles — and then applying them confidently.
Start here: how to learn to cook
Nobody learns to cook from a single recipe. You learn it from a handful of principles that turn up in every dish — and once they click, you stop following recipes and start reading them. If you are beginning, or beginning again, this is the order I would take:
- Heat — why the pan must be hot, why the oven lies, and what a sear actually is. Understanding heat →
- Salt and seasoning — the difference between bland and good is usually one pinch, added at the right time. How to season food →
- Knives — one good knife, held properly, and the few cuts you will use every single day. Knife skills →
- Stock — the bones of a proper soup, sauce or risotto, and much easier than its reputation. Proper stock →
- Sauces — the five French mother sauces, and how every sauce you have ever loved descends from one of them. The five mother sauces →
- Spice — how to toast, bloom and balance spices so a curry tastes like a curry. How to use spices →
Work through those six and you will understand ninety per cent of what is happening in any recipe on this site. Everything below adds to the toolkit — pasta, bread, steak, roasting times, the store cupboard.
Browse guides by topic
Start with a hub to explore a whole subject at once, or scroll on for the full list of guides.
How to sear the perfect steak — crust, doneness and resting
Choosing your cut, getting the pan right, doneness temperatures and the butter-baste finish.
Read the guide →Roasting times & temperatures — the joints you cook most
Oven temps, timings by weight and the internal temperatures that tell you it’s done.
Read the guide →Store cupboard essentials — what to always keep in
Stock these and you can always cook something, even with an empty fridge.
Read the guide →Kitchen conversions — cups, grams, gas marks and more
The one chart to bookmark: oven temperatures, weights and cups to grams.
Read the guide →The five French mother sauces
Master these five and you hold the keys to almost every classic sauce in western cuisine.
Read the guide →How to cook pasta properly — a cook’s guide
Salt the water properly, nail the timing, and never rinse. The rules that make all the difference.
Read the guide →Kitchen knives — a cook’s guide
Which knives you actually need, how to keep them sharp, and how to use them safely.
Read the guide →How to make bread at home — a beginner’s guide
From flour to finished loaf — the method, the mistakes to avoid, and why it matters.
Read the guide →Garam masala — a cook’s guide
The spices that go in, why they matter, how to toast and grind them, and the mistakes most home cooks make.
Read the guide →How to use spices — a beginner’s guide
What spices do, how to store them, when to add them, and how to build proper flavour with confidence.
Read the guide →Proper Stock
The bedrock skill that quietly upgrades soups, risottos, gravies and sauces.
Read the guide →How to Season Food
Salt, acid and tasting as you go — the habit that separates good cooks from great.
Read the guide →Understanding Heat
Searing, simmering and resting — how to actually control your hob.
Read the guide →Knife Skills
The grip, the claw and the cuts that make prep faster, safer and tidier.
Read the guide →Choosing Pans
What you actually need on the hob — and what you can happily skip.
Read the guide →