Reviewer: Marty Martindale

In Kitchen Secrets Revealed, find delicious recipes, mysteries explained, powers defined and seeming coincidences made predictable. Can you tell whether a recipe will work before you cook it? You can if you really know what's cooking," Shirley explains.

Shirley O. Corriher, national and international speaker, food scientist, food writer, accomplished chef and culinary food sleuth, solving problems for large corporations, food editors, and test-kitchen chefs. However, if it takes comical antics to get her scientific points across, Shirley does this, too! Frequently a guest expert on Alton (Good Eats) Brown’s shows, food veterans, Shirley and Alton, both share the same presentation goal -– science so you can handle it.

Kitchen Secrets Revealed, a compact disk, is efficient and easily accessed for later use. The opening screen, the table of contents, covers her gambit from Dairy to Poultry, Vegetables to Shellfish with plenty of stops in between. Some of what Shirley covers:

She will tell you how to boil shrimp to that "perfect stage" just by looking. She’ll also get you to preserve the shrimp boil’s spicy flavoring while still stopping the cooking instantly.

When it comes to fruit, she explains the bad company some keep, also how to avoid the bitter tastes in mangoes.

If you "Zen" her chicken just right, it will be cooked perfectly, no guessing involved.

What is the hot part of a chile pepper? Shirley explains, while she makes some delicious chile oil for broccoli.

She explains the "bad blood" between fresh lemon and bright green asparagus. How do your carrots prefer to be treated? Most all veggies are very fussy.

Feel Arborio rice is complicated and more particularly yours is not creamy enough? Refine your method and learn a secret ingredient to add at the very end.

Cookies crumble, become crunchy or cake-like. Learn the tricks of "gluten good." vs. "gluten bad." She makes it easy!

Shirley O. Corriher’s also a contributing editor for "Fine Cooking" magazine. Her award-winning cookbook, "Cookwise: The Secrets of Cooking Revealed," has sold over 180,000 copies. Corriher also writes a column for the "Loss Angeles Times Syndicate" and selected "Cooking School Teacher of the Year" by Bon Appetite Magazine. In 1998 she won the James Beard Award for Food reference and Techniques.

Shirley’s home base is Atlanta, Georgia with husband and manager, Arch.