In this second volume, the author continues to share his decades of experience with professional tips and trade secrets from restaurants around the world. In addition to dozens of restaurant-tested recipes (each one with highly detailed step-by-step directions), this volume contains a wealth of information on such topics as producing your own dried seasonings from unexpected ingredients, technical aspects of braising, a lot about molecular flavor chemistry, microwave oven physics (and why you should care), mastering the art of cooking perfect steaks (including an original chart that will change how you think about cooking meat), a guide to spices from India and the reasons for toasting spices in different ways, a dozen common food myths debunked, selecting wines for cooking, some interesting food history, and more.