Bill Briwa

We'd all love to create the same wholesome, delicious meals that professional chefs make. But there is one thing that often prevents us from doing so: lack of time. Now, in six innovative and practical lessons, award-winning Chef-Instructor Bill Briwa of the prestigious Culinary Institute of America shows you the same skills, strategies, and tricks that professional chefs use.

A small dish tradition exists all around the Mediterranean. Among the most well known is Spain's tapas, which you'll explore here starting with bartender's chorizo, a dish served flaming in an asador. Take a detailed look at sherry, which is central to tapas culture, and learn how to make other simple small plates.

Olive oil is a defining element of Mediterranean food. In this lecture on the quintessential ingredient, explore its possibilities from the beginning of a meal through the end, with a salt-crusted branzino preparation, a tomato soup, and even a chocolate dessert. Discover how olive oil is made and how its flavor profile evolves.

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 by using everything from chorizo to fish to corn.

Here, Chef Briwa demonstrates dishes that underscore the health benefits of Mediterranean cooking, including fava with tomato-braised capers, a North African salmon tagine, Greek salad over barley rusks, and a date and orange salad that can be enjoyed as mezze or dessert. Get a tutorial on making preserved lemons, which are substituted for vinegar in cultures that forbid alcohol.

What is in herbes de Provence? How do you deal with a fresh artichoke? Find out in this presentation on the cooking of Provence where, unlike the rest of France, olive oil is king. Discover how to prepare a quintessentially Provençal vegetable mélange, an olive tapenade, artichokes barigoule, and lamb featuring those famous herbs.

Make your way to the French Riviera for a lesson on traditional coastal cuisine. Learn how to cook the iconic, elaborate seafood dish known as bouillabaisse and a soup garnish called rouille, in addition to a fresh accompaniment salad that takes its inspiration from the mesclun mixes of days gone by.

See how a typical Sunday dinner in Greece might look, complete with roasted chicken; a horta featuring boiled wild greens, feta, and squash blossoms; and an orzo pasta salad with lentils. But first, learn how to make a simple, five-ingredient soup known as avgolemeno, and a saganaki using Kefalotyri, a unique, non-melting cheese.

Travel to the Eastern Mediterranean, where you'll encounter simple but delicious street food, including falafel, that has its roots in a nomadic way of life; salads featuring labne, a drained yogurt cheese; and a simple purslane salad rich in omega-3. Also, learn how to make a tabbouleh salad with bulgar wheat.

As you move south to the milder weather of central Italy, watch a step-by-step demonstration on making pasta from scratch for a savory pappardelle with ragù Bolognese, along with a salad accompaniment of bitter greens that serves as a digestive, and a simple first course - stracciatelle soup.