Unlike the BBC 2 French cookery series which this book accompanies, it is arranged by food type, rather than by region, and is the first of two volumes which aim to provide a complete course enabling new cooks to employ any French technique or ingredient with confidence. The book covers salads, hors d'oeuvres, fish, shellfish, poultry, meat and desserts, and contains more than 100 recipes from Provence, Brittany, Burgundy, Auvergne and Limousin, the Atlantic coast and Alsace. The author's other books include Classical French Cooking and The French Family Feast.