Delia's How To Cook: Book One - Tapa dura

Delia's How to Cook is a simple-to-follow cookery course for people of all ages and abilities.

In this comprehensive book series, Delia returns to the very roots of cooking to look at the techniques and the staple ingredients which underline the best traditions of British cookery. Delia sees it as an answer to an urgent need. There are more recipes than ever on television and yet it seems that many of us have forgotten how to put together a wholesome, nutritious meal that doesn't come from the chill cabinet or ready-made in a packet. Delia is convinced from the questions she receives in her postbag that people are no longer handed down the basics. In a world where people have less time than ever, they feel intimidated by the thought of cooking.

How to Cook: Book One covers the staple ingredients which form the basis of the world's foods: rice, flour, potatoes, pasta and eggs. With her unique powers of communication, Delia removes the fear and mystique from cooking both the simplest and quickest and the more advanced dishes with these essential tools of the trade. Perfect sponge cakes, fail-safe pastry and Delia's guide to the Great British Breakfast rub shoulders with an everlasting souffle and tempura prawns. For the health conscious there are chips that you don't have to fry and Delia's amazing no-fat white sauce. And, if you can't even boil an egg, Delia will show you how to do that as well.

Delia's How to Cook is a complete guide to cookery for the 21st century.

Delia Smith is Britain's bestselling cookery writer, whose books have sold over 21 million copies worldwide. Delia's first job as a cookery writer was for the Daily Mirror in 1969 - numerous phenomenal best sellers and television series followed including Delia Smith's Complete Cookery Course in 1978 and Delia's Christmas, Summer and Winter Collections in the 1990s. Towards the end of the decade Delia commenced work on a new major project - Delia's How to Cook, publishing three separate volumes and the accompanying TV series. The Vegetarian Collection and The Delia Collection followed.

After a five year break concentrating on Norwich City Football Club (where she is a director) and Canary Catering, Delia returned triumphant in 2008 with a new BBC TV series and the fastest selling cookery book of all time 'Delia's How to Cheat at Cooking' - which has sold over 800,000 copies to date. Delia is married to the writer and editor Michael Wynn Jones. They live in Suffolk.