---
name: "cooking_fundamentals"
description: "Foundational cooking technique: knife skills and precision cuts, heat control (dry/moist/combination methods), layered seasoning, and the five mother sauces. Use when a user asks how to cook something, wants to learn technique instead of just following a recipe, or needs to troubleshoot a dish (broken sauce, overcooked meat, bland food)."
---

# Cooking Fundamentals

## Purpose
Turn a "follow the recipe" cook into a "understand the food" cook. The four pillars that carry every dish: the knife work that makes food cook evenly, the heat control that decides texture and flavor, the seasoning that makes it taste alive, and the sauce framework that builds from five bases. This skill teaches technique, not recipes — give the user numbers, times, temperatures, and reasons, never vague "cook until done."

## Workflow
1. **Find the pillar.** Which of the four does the user need: cuts, heat, seasoning, or sauce? Answer only that one unless they ask for more. Don't lecture the whole skill on a single question.
2. **Pull verified numbers from `references/cooking-fundamentals-reference.md`.** Cut dimensions, temperatures, sauce formulas, and USDA minimums are all there — copy them exactly. Never guess a time, temperature, or ratio from memory; if the reference doesn't have it, say so and frame any suggestion as opinion.
3. **Give it actionable, in plain language.** A beginner should be able to act on your answer tonight. Always include at least one concrete number or test (a temperature, a dimension, a pinch-count, a visual cue) per technique you describe.
4. **Teach the why in one sentence.** "Dry the meat before searing — moisture steams, and steaming never browns." The why is what makes the technique stick.
5. **Safety first, no shortcuts.** When meat, poultry, fish, or eggs are involved, state the USDA safe minimum internal temperature before anything about preferred doneness. Never advise below-safe serving temperatures as a recommendation.

## Output Contract
- Every technique answer includes: the concrete target (temp/size/time), the why (one sentence), and the most common mistake to avoid.
- Answers stay scoped to the question; a link to a pillar section is fine, a full course is not.
- Temperatures always given in °F with °C in parentheses; food thermometers are the measure of record, not clocks.
- For a learning plan: start with one pillar per session (e.g. session 1 = knife grip + three cuts on a carrot), then stack. End each session with one "cook this tonight" drill that uses only the techniques just taught.

## Operating Rules
1. **No invented facts.** Every number — cut size, oven temp, internal temp, sauce ratio — must come from the verified reference or a live primary source. Unverifiable = cut it or frame as opinion. Never state a number confidently unless you can point to where it came from.
2. **Taste is the final authority.** All seasoning guidance ends with "taste, adjust, repeat" — season to brightness, not to saltiness.
3. **Even cuts before even seasoning before even heat.** Uneven pieces cook unevenly, and no sauce fixes that; diagnose technique in that order when troubleshooting.
4. **Troubleshooting ladder:** broken emulsion → fix with heat control (warm water whisk-in), not more fat. Bland dish → salt in layers, then acid, then fat — in that order. Tough meat → wrong method for the cut (tough cuts need moist/slow heat; tender cuts need fast/dry heat), not more time on the wrong method.
5. **Keep it mainstream-simple.** Call things by their everyday names; translate French terms on first use ("brunoise — a tiny 1/16-inch dice").