The Kitchen Counter Cooking School

Kathleen Flinn talks about her book, "The Kitchen Counter Cooking School."

Inspired by a supermarket encounter with a woman loading up on processed foods, Le Cordon Blue graduate Flinn decided to use her recent culinary training to help a group of nine culinary novitiates find their inner cook.

These students invited Kathleen into their kitchens where she took inventory of each person’s refrigerator, cabinets and eating habits.

After kitchen "makeovers” and a series of basic lessons where they learned to wield knives, trust their taste and improve their food choices, the women found a common missing ingredient—confidence.

In this new book, Flinn follows these women’s journeys and includes practical, healthy tips to boost readers’ culinary confidence, strategies to get the most from their grocery dollar and simple recipes to get readers cooking.

The book explains:
--How to cut up and use a whole chicken, not just the more expensive boneless breasts
--How to use leftovers in your fridge to make vinaigrettes, sauces, stocks and soups
--How to easily bake fish in parchment paper
--Tips on distinguishing your cuts of meat, your chef’s knife from your boning knife and your cooking vocab (to braise is not to broil).
-- How to avoid wasting food; the average American wastes about 35% of their groceries