Techniques

Cooking techniques

Preparing fruit and vegetables

1. Chopping chillies

   Skill level: Easy

2. De-seeding tomatoes

   Skill level: Easy

3. Grating lemon zest

   Skill level: Easy

4. Learning to chop: dicing an onion

   Skill level: Intermediate

5. Learning to chop: finely chopping celery

   Skill level: Easy

6. Learning to chop: slicing an onion

   Skill level: Easy

7. Learning to chop: the 'chiffonade' or shredding technique

   Skill level: Intermediate

8. Learning to chop: the 'julienne' technique

   Skill level: Intermediate

9. Preparing artichoke hearts

   Skill level: Intermediate

10. Segmenting citrus fruit

    Skill level: Intermediate

11. Skinning peppers

    Skill level: Easy

12. Skinning tomatoes

    Skill level: Easy

13. Toasting and skinning hazelnuts

    Skill level: Easy

14. Zesting citrus fruit

    Skill level: Easy

Meat, poultry and eggs

1. Browning meat

   Skill level: Easy

2. Carving a cooked chicken into serving portions

   Skill level: Easy

3. De-boning and butterflying a leg of lamb

   Skill level: Advanced

4. How to carve roast pork

   Skill level: Easy

5. How to poach an egg

   Skill level: Intermediate

6. Jointing chicken

   Skill level: Advanced

7. Preparing and cleaning chicken livers

   Skill level: Easy

8. Scoring skin

   Skill level: Easy

9. Searing meat

   Skill level: Easy

10. Separating eggs

    Skill level: Easy

11. Spatchcocking chicken and poultry

    Skill level: Intermediate

12. Testing whether turkey, chicken and poultry are cooked

    Skill level: Easy

13. Whisking egg whites

    Skill level: Easy

Fish and shellfish

1. Butterflying prawns

   Skill level: Intermediate

2. Choosing cooked lobster

   Skill level: Easy

3. Cleaning and de-bearding mussels

   Skill level: Easy

4. Cleaning and preparing squid

   Skill level: Intermediate

5. Filleting and skinning flatfish

   Skill level: Intermediate

6. How to fillet round fish (mackerel, trout, etc.)

   Skill level: Intermediate

7. Peeling prawns

   Skill level: Easy

8. Removing the meat from cooked lobster

   Skill level: Advanced

9. Scaling, gutting and cleaning a round fish

   Skill level: Intermediate

Pasta

1. Making pasta dough by hand

   Skill level: Intermediate

2. Rolling pasta using a pasta machine

   Skill level: Intermediate

Desserts, baking and pastry

1. Breaking chocolate

   Skill level: Easy

2. Caramelising sugar with a blow torch

   Skill level: Intermediate

3. Chaffing scone dough

   Skill level: Easy

4. Covering a pie with a pastry lid

   Skill level: Easy

5. Creaming butter by hand

   Skill level: Easy

6. Crimping the edge of a pasty

   Skill level: Easy

7. Decorating a cake with chocolate transfer sheets

   Skill level: Intermediate

8. Folding

   Skill level: Easy

9. Glazing with egg wash

   Skill level: Easy

10. Greasing and lining cake tins

    Skill level: Easy

11. How to assemble a tiered wedding cake

    Skill level: Advanced

12. How to cover a cake with fondant icing

    Skill level: Intermediate

13. How to ice a cake with buttercream

    Skill level: Easy

14. How to ice a cake with royal icing

    Skill level: Intermediate

15. How to ice cupcakes

    Skill level: Easy

16. How to marzipan a fruit cake

    Skill level: Intermediate

17. Icing a cake with chocolate ganache

    Skill level: Easy

18. Kneading bread

    Skill level: Easy

19. Kneading bread with oil

    Skill level: Easy

20. Knocking back

    Skill level: Easy

21. Lining a tart tin with pastry

    Skill level: Intermediate

22. Lining a tart tin: preparing the pastry case for shrinkage

    Skill level: Easy

23. Lining a tart tin: trimming the pastry

    Skill level: Easy

24. Lining a tart with a cartouche (baking blind)

    Skill level: Intermediate

25. Making choux pastry

    Skill level: Intermediate

26. Melting chocolate

    Skill level: Easy

27. Preparing ramekins to cook soufflés

    Skill level: Easy

28. Removing cakes from a cake tin

    Skill level: Easy

29. Removing vanilla seeds from pod

    Skill level: Easy

30. Rolling out pastry

    Skill level: Easy

31. Rubbing in

    Skill level: Easy

32. Shaping a loaf of bread

    Skill level: Easy

33. Steaming a pudding

    Skill level: Intermediate

34. Testing to see if a cake is cooked

    Skill level: Easy

35. Using a food processor to pulse ingredients

    Skill level: Easy

36. Using fresh yeast

    Skill level: Easy

37. Using piping bags

    Skill level: Intermediate

38. Whipping cream by hand

    Skill level: Easy

39. Working with filo pastry

    Skill level: Easy

40. Wrapping a pudding for steaming

    Skill level: Intermediate

Sauces, pastes and condiments

1. De-glazing pan gravy

   Skill level: Easy

2. Making herb butter

   Skill level: Easy

3. Skimming stock

   Skill level: Easy

4. Thickening a roux to make béchamel sauce

   Skill level: Easy

5. Thickening gravy using beurre manié

   Skill level: Easy