But Carucci realized that being a restaurant chef wasn't what she wanted. It was too repetitious, the hours were too long, and there was too little time off. So she worked for a time as dean at her old cooking school, then, in 1991, she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

She rethought her priorities.

"I'd love to teach home cooks what we're teaching at the academy, demystifying the secrets," she said. She and her husband bought a house, and her husband remodeled the kitchen so she could teach there.

After starting with children's classes, she expanded to classes offered by corporations to their employees to build team spirit and cooperation. She taught classes in how to prepare paella or Thanksgiving turkey. In 2002, the International Association of Culinary Professionals honored her as teacher of the year.

A year ago, she was asked to be the Julia Child curator of food arts at the American Center for Wine Food & the Arts in Napa, Calif. The center, called COPIA, brings together cooks, wine growers and the public for programs that include cooking demonstrations, tastings, movies, exhibits and a restaurant.

Carucci brings her 20 years of experience to her book, "Cooking School Secrets for Real World Cooks" (Chronicle Books, $22.95), which includes new techniques such as brining, new ingredients and miscellaneous information to help the cook, such as the correct internal temperatures for cooking meat.

What distinguishes the book is its ample display of "secrets" - hints and tips about ingredients, equipment and techniques. The information comes from questions posed by her array of 116 home cooks, who tested all her recipes.

The recipes include the familiar - potato salad and grandmother Guglietta's stuffed manicotti - as well as the unusual: turkey mole, with chocolate, cumin and coriander, and grilled leg of lamb with muhammara, a sauce made from walnuts, red peppers and pomegranate molasses.

Carucci deliberately did not use photographs, which frequently set an impossibly high visual standard. Instead, drawings show how to skin a fish fillet or chop scallions. "I didn't want to emphasize the look of the food, but how to make it," Carucci said.

The book contains menus appropriate for each season and for special occasions. A chart in the front of each chapter shows which recipes can be made quickly, which are vegetarian and which can be prepared ahead of time.

If Carucci has a signature dish, it is this main-dish salad with Stilton cheese, roasted chicken and hazelnuts. "Hands down, this is consistently mentioned as the students' favorite recipe in my Roasting Techniques classes," she writes in her book, from which the recipe is reprinted.

Baby Greens, Roasted Chicken, Stilton and Hazelnuts with Raspberry Vinaigrette

Raspberry Vinaigrette:

• 1 large shallot
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon fine, freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup raspberry vinegar
• 1 to 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 2/3 cup toasted walnut oil

• Homemade roasted chicken or a purchased rotisserie chicken
• 1 pound mixed baby salad greens, rinsed and spun dry
• 1 small red onion, very thinly sliced
• 1/2 pound Red Flame or other red seedless grapes, halved
• 3/4 cup hazelnuts, toasted and skinned, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 pound Stilton cheese, crumbled

To prepare the salad: Remove the skin and bones from the chicken and shred the meat by hand into large bite-sized pieces. You should have 3 to 4 cups shredded chicken. In a very large bowl, toss the chicken with about half of the vinaigrette. Add half of the greens, all of the red onions and most of the remaining vinaigrette and toss well. Toss in the remaining greens, the grapes and all but about 3 tablespoons of the hazelnuts. Taste a piece of lettuce and add more dressing, salt, and pepper, if necessary. Add the Stilton and toss to combine. Divide the salad evenly among plates and garnish with reserved hazelnuts. Serves 4 to 6 as a main course or 12 as a first course.