Walk into any store specializing in barbecues for sale and one is immediately faced with an astonishing and bewildering display of different models at widely differing prices. How do you choose the one that is right for you?

It helps to know the principal difference between them. The truth is, for all the different shapes and sizes there are basically only two barbecue models; flat bed or kettle.

Balsamic vinegar is the 'wine' of Modena, Italy. It is rich, thick, expensive and marries up beautifully with food such as steak to produce an unusual finish that greatly enhances the look and flavor of the meat.

But be warned. Not all vinegars labeled 'balsamic' are the real thing. In fact, most are decidedly not even though the label may insist they are.

Poaching eggs is a skill that is rapidly disappearing from the kitchens of the world, thanks to those awful patent cookers that produce something with the appearance, and consistency, of a plastic amoeba.

I'm not exaggerating when I say it's a skill. Poaching an egg in such a way that it retains its shape and texture is something that many chefs, let alone home cooks, never quite master.

In the early 1970s one of the first celebrity chefs hit the TV screens of Australia and Great Britain in the form of Graham Kerr, 'The Galloping Gourmet'.

Kerr was a leader in stripping away a lot of the over-complicated cooking methods still being peddled in many cookbooks. His teaching premise was as simple as his recipes - learn a basic method first and everything else will follow.

One of the more shady practices of unscrupulous butchers, including those to be found in many supermarkets, is to label young mutton, also known as hoggett, as 'prime lamb'.

It's not just that there is a difference in flavor, succulence and tenderness, there is also a considerable price difference at market as any struggling sheep farmer will tell you.

Choosing a barbecue means spending money on something that you are going to be using on a fairly regular basis with high expectations for the end result. So it's important to make the right decisions early on in order to avoid disappointments later.

Not All Barbecues are the Same
In fact, if you are relatively new to them, you could be forgiven for thinking that there is a bewildering array of all shapes and sizes, each with its own particular features and, in some cases, eccentricities.

All chefs who go to a western-style catering college, and most butcher's apprentices, are taught to sharpen their knives by swiping the cutting edge several times on a steel towards the hand that is holding that implement. I used to do it that way as well, many years ago.

I also used to teach others the same method until the day I saw someone lay his hand open with a cut needing fourteen stitches.

Why are eggs so important? Because they appear in just about every type of cooking and if you can handle them successfully you can deal with anything the kitchen throws at you.

Just in case you don't believe me, here's a few of the ways in which we use them; cakes, omelets, pancakes, souffles, ice cream, soups, meringues, breakfast, tea, sandwiches, sauces, custard, pastry, desserts, dressings, salads and a whole host of other things we don't even eat.

Boiling meat has largely gone out of fashion, mainly I think because a number of the cuts of meat associated with it are no longer all that popular either.

This is not necessarily a good thing. As a way of cooking meat, boiling is cheaper than roasting and it preserves more of the essential minerals and vitamins, as long as the cooking liquid is used for gravy.