Give someone recipes and they can cook those dishes; give them techniques and they can cook anything to their heart’s content. That’s the formula Samin Nosrat’s first book follows. It doesn’t dictate ingredients or certain heats, rather informing, explaining and demonstrating what these different elements do when it comes to creating food. Nosrat learnt to cook under famed Chez Panisse restaurateur Alice Waters, and was taught to write by Cooked author Michael Pollan, so it’s no surprise that this is such an interesting and addictive read. The book follows a cooking model Nosrat formulated over years spent under Waters at Chez Panisse. Urged by Pollan to share her knowledge, this book is the result. Whimsically illustrated and excellently written, it’s a great start to a wonderful life of cooking for anyone who absorbs its words and puts them into action.