Cooks Essentials: the Essential Guide to Being a Great Cook

Your Essential Guide to Being a Great Cook brings together everything you need to transform your kitchen skills and confidence. We've carefully curated expert advice on nutrition, essential techniques, entertaining tips, and must-have equipment so you can focus on creating delicious meals. Cooks Essentials is here to help.

Try our 5 free tools including the Recipe Unit Converter, Ingredient Substituter, Cooking Time Calculator, Kitchen Equipment Guide and Meal Planner to get instant personalised help.

Most Read

What is a Balanced Meal?

A balanced meal includes all the major food groups, and you don't need them at every meal to eat well overall.

Chef Show Offs - Tricks to Learn

Learn simple chef tricks like spun sugar that make ordinary desserts look restaurant-quality and impress your dinner guests.

Caring for Your Cooking Equipment

Keep your cooking equipment in good shape so it lasts for years and stays a pleasure to use.

Building Up a Good Spice Rack

Stock your spice rack with fresh, affordable basics to add bold flavour to everyday ingredients without extra calories.

Browse Topics

Free Cooking Tools Basic Skills Case Studies Essential Steps to Good Nutrition Essential Entertaining Slow Cookers Building Block Recipes Essential Equipment Housekeeping Essentials

Latest Articles and Tools

Recipe Unit Converter

Convert between metric and imperial measurements, cups and grams, or oven temperatures. Takes 10 seconds.

Ingredient Substituter

Find out what to use when you are missing an ingredient. Get practical alternatives in seconds.

Five Things You Didn't Know You Could Make in a Slow Cooker

Your slow cooker can make way more than stews, try mango chutney, lemon curd, and other surprising dishes.

Slow Cooker Puddings

Make Christmas pudding, sticky toffee pudding and even cheesecake in your slow cooker with these simple recipes.

The Perfect Slow Cooker Stew

Slow cooker stews taste better when you vary your herbs, spices, meat and veg instead of making the same recipe over and over.

I Brought My Cooking Into the 21st Century: A Case Study

How one woman ditched her outdated kitchen habits and rediscovered her love of cooking with modern techniques and tools.

Which Vitamins Do What for Your Body?

A quick guide to what different vitamins do in your body and where to find them in food.

Homemade Food With No Special Equipment

Make fresh bread by hand using just basic ingredients and simple techniques, no fancy equipment needed.

How I Set Up a Newly Weds' Kitchen: A Case Study

A midwife shares how she tackled setting up her first proper kitchen after marriage, starting from scratch with no cooking experience.

Drying Seasonal Ingredients

Dry mushrooms, chillies and herbs at home to enjoy seasonal ingredients year-round.

Preserving and Bottling Your Produce

Turn your garden harvest into homemade jams and preserves with simple sterilising and sealing techniques.

Creating a Window Sill Garden

Grow fresh herbs year-round on your window sill with easy-to-care-for plants that add flavor and fragrance to your kitchen.

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Your Essential Guide to Being a Great Cook...