I love cooking shows and cookbooks, but I've learned more by trial and error, and had more fun doing it, by cooking on my own rather than following instructions. Of course, there's nothing like a good instruction when you've cooked yourself into a dead-end.

And Mr. Koppelman, I completely disagree that vegetarian cookbooks are often first about "guilt" and then about "pleasure." I have nearly a dozen vegetarian and vegan cookbooks, and while most do include discussions of the ethics of not eating animals, their primary focus is on the sheer joy of cooking and eating. However, you really should rethink your stance on pork fat. Pigs are more intelligent than dogs, but suffer terrible pain and abuse in the meat industry (hey, what's wrong with a little guilt?).

I find Cook's Illustrated to be really helpful with visualizing too. What with the 'illustrated' and all. And of course like probably half the people posting, I'm working on my own cookbook with a healthy dose of technique.

--IronChuck

You can learn a lot by watching The Food Network. You get to see people chop, saute, braise, poach, etc.

And get some good recipes too!

I already bought a copy of Best Food Writing 2007 for my father. I assume you mean there won't be a 2008 edition? That is unfortunate. My father brought a copy of the 2001 edition with him on a trip around Asia and was absolutely enthralled with the article on "Perfect Rice." One of the more delightful memories I have of that trip was him just not being able to contain his excitement on reading the article.

I have also learned much of what I know about cooking and baking from Alton Brown's program Good Eats on The Food Network. I also have his books "I'm Just Here for the Food" on cooking and "I'm Just Here for More Food" on baking. The books are very good references and compliment the program.

I also highly recommend Chris Kimball's program "America's Test Kitchen" on PBS.

I've never trusted Mark Bittman since he published a bad french bread recipe in the New York Times (he didn't age the french bread in the refrigerator and as a result, it tasted like Safeway french bread). After reading numerous articles by Mr. Bittman in The Times I just don't think that he's very good.

In contrast, Julia Child is wonderful. One of the best all around cookbooks I've seen, which includes recipes and a guide to technique, is Julia Child's The Way To Cook.

The Good Eats show on Food Network is how I learned a lot of what I use in the kitchen. My mom cooked, but not really anything beyond basic skills and she wasn't very experimental. I'm still not awesome with the knife, but at least now I know how to dice an onion properly!

He teaches pretty much everything, how to cook an omelete correctly all the way to classic French coq au vin. He also explains the chemistry behind what's happening, so without a recipe sometimes I know the difference between whats going to happen with my short grain rice versus the long grain.

I have perfected searing all types of meat, to not overcooking shrimp, scallops and lobster. I now can make au jous sauces on the fly. I'm still working on carmelizing onions and mushrooms correctly, but I'll get there!

I've tried using books before, but there really is nothing better than a visual instruction.

When I was married to my first wife, one wedding present that was lovingly used and studied was a copy of James Beard's "Theory and Practive of Cooking". This book even instructed you on the correct way to boil an egg. Recipes were included only to illustrate or practice a technique but these simple recipes had a simple elegance and were delicious foundations for wonderful meals.

The first wife is long gone but I still have and use that wonderful book. I hope it is still in print.

Most of what I've learned about food and cooking technique has come from Alton Brown. Good Eats is definitely available on DVD (or just set up a season pass on your TiVo, they show reruns all the time).

His cookbooks are also great introductions to the basics, with clear illustrations and lots of interesting background information. His book on kitchen gear is also essential - there's so many choices out there now but he has thought about what you need for each piece of equipment and provides criteria that you can use when shopping.

...call it soysauce, spice, curry, grated cheese, anchovies, dough conditioner...whaterver, the secret ingredient is almost always more salt. People respond to more salt the way prospective brides guage love by the size of the diamond and the amount of glitter within, the more the better.

Thomas Keller's wish for a book solely based on technique is one I too share and in fact is the main attraction to a lot of books already out there, if you know how to look beyond the recipe section...most don't...too complex...just gimme a set of instructions...achtung.

In the mean time, hypertension is epidemic and is being treated with high tech drugs instead of simply getting used to using less salt. A unidirectional ratchet geared to push the entire mess off a cliff until someone starts over again...cheers.

Mark Bittman doesn't actually devein shrimp, doesn't think it's necessary. If it's good enough for him...

Another new entry in this same vein is Michael Ruhlman's Elments of Cooking, which has an attendant blog as well.

...there is anything BUT a dearth of videos. The problem is that they are not organized under principles you might call "techniques."

How many hours of Julia Child are out there? I don't know if PBS or the Child estate has released all of them, but there would be a six foot shelf of DVD's (in slim packs, yet) if they were all released. But they are for individual dishes, and they are hardly cross-indexed.

I learned how to chop from Graham Kerr, back when he was still "galloping," which by the way was something mother never knew. She still cut everything with a big old unsharpened butcher knife, and was puzzled when I spent my small amount of reserve cash to buy a chef's chopping knife for her. And she was stunned when she saw me dice an onion (which I still can't do completely; that damned end piece I have to hold never gets chopped right).

What IS needed is a "boot camp" show, illustrating how to chop, how to properly blend cake and cookie doughs, how to cut up a whole chicken, and my big bugaboo, what you do to de-gut shrimp with that plastic thingie. It needs to be on a multi-DVD disk set, with narration and a good printed index, and put out CHEAP. So even after the economy crashes, people can see it (and even our eviscerated public libraries can afford to buy a copy for rental).

Heck, if someone is that devoted to cooking, forego the money (that the big guys won't give you anyway) and put it on Bittorrent so people can get it for free. I'll even loan you my camera if you let me eat the leftovers. Because this idea is so sensible that none of the megacorporations will produce it.