Course Overview

Who has time to cook after work? You will, with these quick-and-easy recipes that are all gourmet, and no delivery tip. In The Everyday Gourmet: Making Great Meals in Less Time, award-winning Chef-Instructor Bill Briwa of the prestigious Culinary Institute of America gets you off the fast-food treadmill. Learn tips, techniques, recipes, and simple ingredients to keep on hand for quick, healthy meals that will delight your family and friends. These six innovative and practical lessons, filmed on location at the CIA’s Greystone campus in Napa Valley, are your chance to learn the time-saving secrets of chefs so you can make tasty and rewarding dishes—from appetizers to main courses to desserts—whenever you’re strapped for time.

Course Lessons

1. Into the Mind of a Chef

Discover that the secret to making great meals in less time lies in thinking like a chef. You’ll learn several techniques for turning out restaurant-quality food without all the stress, including a braised osso buco that almost cooks itself and a risotto that requires only 20 minutes of your undivided attention.

Duration: 36 min

2. Launching the Day

Take the hassle out of making what’s undoubtedly the most important meal of the day. Chef Briwa shows you different recipes and ideas for putting together a quick and well-rounded breakfast, including a basic muffin recipe, whole-grain cereal with fruit and nuts, and traditional Chinese fried rice, just right for breakfast.

Duration: 30 min

3. One Fresh Thing

Learn how to cook with what’s on hand in your house and elevate it with a simple fresh ingredient or two. By cooking with canned beans, jarred pesto, leftover bread, “planned overs,” and more, you’ll create dishes ranging from a hearty frittata to a fresh take on minestrone soup.

Duration: 33 min

4. Evolution of a Quick Dish

Focus on making—and adding your own personal touches to—a basic chowder recipe, a classic quick and filling meal. As Chef Briwa takes you step by step through this dish, he demonstrates how to make your chowders special using everything from chorizo to fish to corn.

Duration: 32 min

5. What Makes a Meal?

Even simple dishes that don’t take much time can be well-rounded, unforgettable meals. Discover how to transform items as simple as cheese, grapes, tomatoes, cauliflower, and endives into multilayered, complete meals that will excite your palate and show off your kitchen skills.

Duration: 34 min

6. A Chef Entertains

How can you make cooking for others more enjoyable? Break down the menu for a dinner party into manageable tasks. Find out how to remove the stress from a multicourse meal for a group featuring several appetizers, a bread salad, steak with chimichurri sauce, plank-roasted salmon, and a surprisingly simple dessert.

Duration: 34 min