BASIC TIPS TO THE CHEF 1. It may actually be easier to prepare a glamorous dish (foreign name and all), than the run-of-the-mill dishes you've been eating all your life. 2. Read all the way through a recipe first; check to be sure ingredients are at hand. You will save time and achieve better results if you understand, in general terms, what you are going to do before you start to do it. 3. Never try to make more than one unfamiliar recipe for the same meal! A wise chef never tries a new recipe when there is "company," either. Always get the recipe under your belt at least once before you attempt to produce it with eclat for strangers. 4. Accurate measurements are essential; accurate timing is essential. Never hesitate to make your personal penciled comments next to the recipe; the annotated cookbook is a chefs most valuable possession. 5. Gourmet cookery requires the best quality in ingredient. Please, no substitutions 1 Real butter, real cream, the freshest mushrooms, the best olive oil . . . all are essential for a gourmet dish. 6. When there are 4 or 6 people for dinner, the chef dic tates the schedule: Finish the drinks, wash the hands, and sit down! But for more than 6 people (even if they will be formally seated at the table), it's wise to plan a main dish that can only improve with overcooking! 7. Wipe meats, poultry and fish on paper toweling, rather than washing—and never season before cooking, as this toughens the flesh. Seasonings go into sauces, or should be added at the end of the plain-cooking. 8. Spaghetti sauces, curries and stews are easy ways to use up leftovers—the easiest things to stretch for unexpected guests—and the simplest things to prepare when the cook wants to enjoy the fun as well as set a distinguished meal on the table. GO-TOGETHERS AND SUBSTITUTES 1. Any recipe requiring: green pepper, scallions, celery,mushrooms, tomatoes or parsley, may be amplified or extended by adding an equal amount of any of the others. 2. Shrimp, crab, scallops and lobsters respond to a rich sauce of cream, white wine and mushrooms, plus a dash of nutmeg—or thin tart lemon-butter-parsley sauces . . . but oysters, clams and mussels prefer the thin sauce. 3. Salted or corned meats are exclusive and do not combine happily with anything but chicken and eggs. All other plain-cooked meats and poultry can be teamed for a chefs salad, a potluck curry, sliced meat platter, or creamed in patty shells. 4. In a dire emergency, chicken creamed or curried can be stretched by a tin of white meat tuna. Cut the oil with lemon juice, douse in cold water, and slice into neat pieces. 5. Yoghurt and sour cream are interchangeable—although the flavor will be slightly different in the final dish. 6. Use condensed cream soups for a quick white sauce: MBT soup packets are quicker to use than pressed bouillon or consommé cubes. Dilute cream soups 30% to 40% when used as a sauce. For dishes with plenty of cooking liquid, sprinkle powders directly into hot liquid and stir gently until dissolved.