Reddit mentions of Martha Stewart's Cooking School: Lessons and Recipes for the Home Cook: A Cookbook

This is going to be the opposite of what you want to hear. But, you asked for it and I respect that. I think that there's no substitute for going about this old school and traditionally. The good news is that you can mostly do this for yourself, by yourself.

If you're disinclined (due to time or for another reason) to enroll in a culinary program get yourself either The Professional Chef or Martha Stewart's Cooking School

I know what you're thinking, "Martha Stewart? What am I? A housewife from Iowa?" Fuck that. I've been fortunate to have met and worked with Martha Stewart she's smart enough to know what she doesn't know and that particular book was actually written by a CIA alum and very closely follows the first year or so that you'd get in a program like that. It starts with knife work and then moves on to stocks and sauces. This particular book has actually been criticized as being too advance for people who have no idea what they're doing so, despite appearances, it may be perfect for you. If you want to feel more pro and go a little deeper, get the CIA text but know that it's more or less the same info and frankly, the pictures in the MSO book are really great. Plus, it looks like Amazon has them used for $6 bucks.

These resources will show you HOW to do what you want and they follow a specific, traditional track for a reason. Each thing that you learn builds on the next. You learn how to use your knife. Then, you practice your knife work while you make stocks. Then, you start to learn sauces in which to use your stocks. Etc. Etc. Etc. Almost like building flavors... It's all part of the discipline and you'll take that attention to detail into the kitchen with you and THAT'S what makes great food.

Then, get either Culinary Artistry or The Flavor Bible (Both by Page and Dornenburg. Also consider Ruhlman's Ratio (a colleague of mine won "Chopped" because she memorized all the dessert ratios in that book) and Segnit's Flavor Thesaurus. These will give you the "where" on building flavors and help you to start to express yourself creatively as you start to get your mechanics and fundamentals down.

Now, I know you want the fancy science stuff so that you can throw around smarty pants things about pH and phase transitions and heat transfer. So...go get Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking THAT is the bible. When the people who run the Ferran Adria class at Harvard have a question, it's not Myhrvold that they call up, it's Harold McGee. While Modernist Cuisine always has a long, exciting complicated solution to a problem I didn't even know I had, when I really want to know what the fuck is going on, I consult McGee and you will too, once you dig in.

Another one to consider which does a great job is the America's Test Kitchen Science of Good Cooking this will give you the fundamental "why's" or what's happening in practical situations and provides useful examples to see it for yourself.

Honestly, if someone came to me and asked if they should get MC or McGee and The Science of Good Cooking and could only pick one and never have the other, I'd recommend the McGee / ATK combo everyday of the week and twice on Tuesdays.

Good luck, dude. Go tear it up!

I have two books that I'm finding quite helpful for learning techniques. http://www.amazon.com/Martha-Stewarts-Cooking-School-Lessons/dp/0307396444 This one I recently bought and its pretty amazing. And this one http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41BbiuM0IcL.jpg is the one I grew up with that has a ton of help for classic foods.

I actually used the Martha Stewart book last night to learn how to roast veggies to attempt to make a veggie soup. And it tasted pretty good for once!

You know? The one that drop me out of rush was Martha Stewart's Cooking School, being a culinary student this book helped me A LOT - like...big time. I actually kind of stole it from the first Chef I ever worked with (he later told me that it was a present from him,but never actually realized he didn't told me it was for me)

I really like Martha Stewart's Cooking School. It covers just about every kind of food and each way to prepare it, plus has tips on techniques and equipment.

I was about to list out all my favorite resources, the ones where, looking back, I can point to as being the bedrock of all the cooking knowledge I've cobbled together over the years, and I noticed they have one thing in common: PBS. The cooking shows that air on PBS (and their companion materials) are just awesome. They're not gimmicky, they don't have puppets or catch phrases, but they're reliable. There are other great sources of food knowledge, but if somebody's on PBS, you know they're the real deal.

If I had to learn it all over again starting today, here's what I'd be looking at, in rough order:

Martha Stewart's Cooking School

Martha's got a great new show and companion book to go along with it. The reason I'd start here is because it's structured the way you want it: an emphasis on technique, with clear goals for each lesson. Just about every one of your topics listed above is covered in here, and the recipes are almost secondary. Like, a show or chapter will be about braising, not about boeuf bourguignon. Pretty heavy emphasis on French and European cuisine, but some nice forays into other cuisines, too. Covers all the basics: equipment, stocks, sauces, cuts of meat. Lots of good reference sections, too, like charts on cooking techniques for different rices and grains.

It's mostly pretty traditional stuff. No "hacks" or "science", but she will occasionally throw in some neat updates to a traditional technique. In particular, her hollandaise method is the best I've ever come across. Almost completely traditional, double-boiler and all, but she uses whole butter instead of clarified. Really easy and probably tastes better, too.

Incidentally, most of the substance of the show probably comes from editorial director for food at Martha Stewart Living, Sarah Carey, who happens to have an awesome YouTube channel.

Julia Child

Julia needs no introduction. She made French cuisine accessible to us servantless American cooks half a century ago, and I don't think anyone has done it better since. You'll want to watch every episode of The French Chef you can get your hands on, and also grab a copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

You could start with Julia, but her show seems to focus on the recipe first, followed by the technique. So Julia's episode on boeuf bourguignon will be about boeuf bourguignon. She'll teach you all about technique, too, of course, but I think it's easier to start with Martha if you want a run-through of the basics of a technique.

Jacques Pepin

Probably the most talented cook to ever appear on television. The man elevates mincing an onion to an art form. Probably the best shows of his are Essential Pepin, Fast Food My Way, and Julia and Jacques Cooking at home (which used to be on Hulu, if you have that).

Every show he'll cook through a bunch of recipes, and he'll make these off-the-cuff comments on why he's doing what he's doing. How to peel a carrot. How to puree garlic with a chef's knife. Adding a splash of water to a covered skillet to steam the contents from the top while cooking them from below.

There's also a lot of his older stuff on YouTube that will show particular techniques: parting and deboning a chicken, preparing an omelet, and so on. He's remarkably consistent, so if you just watch enough of his stuff you'll get the spiel on every topic eventually.

Jacques does have a compilation of technique, but frankly I think Martha's is better. The photography in Jacques' book is pretty poor, and he devotes an awful lot of space to techniques that have probably been out of fashion for forty years. That said, there's a lot that's still useful in there, so it's worth at least checking out from the library.

(By the way, while you're at it, you should read My Life in France and The Apprentice, Julia's and Jacques autobiographies, respectively.)

There's a lot more to learn, but if you start with Jacques, Julia, and Martha, you'll have a rock-solid foundation upon which to build. Once you've got the basics down, my favorite new-fangled cooking resources are Serious Eats and ChefSteps.

Happy cooking!

Although I don't like Martha Stewart, her Cooking School book is a great reference tool. The book has a lot of photos and goes through many basic techniques...but some of the recipes do get rather complicated (don't be discouraged). A large portion of the book is dedicated to meat preparation and cooking methods which I've found very helpful in the past. Even with the in-depth recipes, I think the book is worth the money and something you'll refer to if you decide to buy it.

I own Martha Stewart's Cooking School: Lessons and Recipes for the Home Cook and found it to be very easy to read and informative. I may have to pick up her baking book as well.