This comprehensive, practical, and heavily illustrated reference offers the essential building blocks and recipes for working with chocolate in the home kitchen. This cooking school in book form opens with 100 fundamental step-by-step techniques: chocolate basics (tempering, ganaches, and pralines), candy fillings, decorations, doughs, creams and mousses, ice cream and sorbet, sauces, and bakers secrets (marbling, faultless cake, crusts, and beating egg whites). Each method is explained in text and photographs; fourteen are further clarified on the accompanying ninety-minute DVD. Organized into nine sections, more than 100 recipes are then simplified for the home cook: Classics (Black Forest cake, Sachertorte, profiteroles, molten chocolate cake), Tarts (chocolate-pear, nut-caramel), Snacks (macaroons, waffles, brownies, choco-ginger churros), Frozen Desserts, Special Occasions (dark chocolate fondue, hazelnut-praline Yule log), and Candy (truffles, lollipops, coconut bars). Each recipe is graded with a three-star rating so the home chef can gauge its complexity and gradually expand their baking abilities through experience.