During a recent cooking session arranged to highlight her brand-new cookbook, Molly Stevens did not cook from the book.

Instead, she walked into Louissa Rozendaal's small Burlington apartment kitchen and headed for the fridge.

"My favorite kind of cooking is just opening up the fridge and seeing what we have," Stevens said. "I love repurposing leftovers, too. But you can't really write a cookbook based on either of those."

Stevens, 59, a longtime Williston resident, is a cooking instructor, food writer and cookbook author. Earlier in her career, she worked at the famed École de Cuisine La Varenne in Paris, at the French Culinary Institute in New York City (now the International Culinary Center) and at the New England Culinary Institute in Montpelier. Bon Appétit and the International Association of Culinary Professionals have both named her cooking teacher of the year.

Each of Stevens' previous cookbooks, All About Braising: The Art of Uncomplicated Cooking (2004) and All About Roasting: A New Approach to a Classic Art (2011), won prestigious James Beard Foundation and International Association of Culinary Professionals awards. Her latest, All About Dinner: Simple Meals, Expert Advice, hit bookstores on November 5.

Rozendaal, the daughter of a good friend of the author's, had offered up her kitchen and fridge for a demonstration of Stevens' approach to cooking and teaching. The 22-year-old Starksboro native recently graduated from college in Colorado and works for a Burlington after-school program.

These days, Stevens teaches mostly one-off classes while traveling the country to promote her cookbooks, such as recent events at Stonewall Kitchen Cooking School in York, Maine, and Milk Street Cooking School in Boston. Unfortunately for Vermonters, she does little teaching in her state of residence.

The next best thing to taking a class with Stevens is to pore over one of her books, which offer impeccably written and thoroughly tested recipes along with sensible tips and bigger-picture cooking advice, all delivered in her signature warm and humble tone.

On a recent Monday afternoon, Rozendaal got the best of both worlds. Stevens brought her a copy of All About Dinner and provided an impromptu hands-on cooking lesson that touched on key points from her new cookbook, even as that book remained unopened on the counter.

The new book has a more general purview than Stevens' two previous All About cookbooks, which the author considers both a strength and a bit of a marketing challenge. The single-technique volumes had clear hooks; this one, in the broader "meal" category, competes with a plethora of books, magazines and online resources to which people turn to meet their daily cooking needs. "I couldn't have sold this book if it was my first," Stevens conceded.

Despite an abundance of free online recipes, cookbook sales remain strong, she added. "If you know what you want to make, like onion soup, you google," Stevens said, "but if you're looking for real inspiration, for something besides what you're making for dinner that night, you'll flip through a cookbook."

All About Dinner is not a five-ingredients-or-fewer, get-dinner-on-the-table-in-30-minutes kind of cookbook; it is more like a several-months-long cooking course in book form. This book will not only help you make dinner, it will make you a better cook.

On top of a wide range of recipes, including variations and templates that empower cooks to use on-hand ingredients, Stevens shares foundational techniques and concepts, such as how salt and acid can bring a dish to its full potential.

Even the humblest of staples merit her close attention. While cooking through the book, this reporter acceded to Stevens' urging to cook "a good pot of beans" from scratch: I set two pots simmering simultaneously. I ate a small bowl of each type warm from the stove, liberally drizzled with good olive oil, and felt nourished to my core. Over the next week or so, I used the beans in Stevens' satisfyingly simple crusty-topped bean, tomato and sausage gratin and in her grain bowl recipe. I also deployed them in fresh hummus and tossed some with pasta.

"My editor wanted to cut the beans, but I pushed back," Stevens admitted. "This book is not about fireworks. It's not about high-wire-act cooking. I wanted to write a book that represents the way I cook, the way I eat."

After the fridge investigation in Rozendaal's kitchen revealed a variety of fresh vegetables, Stevens asked her, "What do you like to cook?" This is the starting point highlighted in her book's introductory list of "15 Habits of Highly Effective Cooks." Habit No. 1: "Cook what you love to eat."

Rozendaal really likes vegetables, she said, and added, "I have red lentils, and I'd love to do something with them. I don't really know how to cook them."

With those two building blocks, Stevens suggested a vegetable-and-lentil soup. "Oh, that's good," Rozendaal said. "I never make soup. I like to make a couple big meals for the week so I can have leftovers."

No stock was on hand. But, as Stevens notes in her book, while stock adds a savoriness, water allows good flavors to shine more brightly. "With vegetables this fresh, water will be fine," Stevens assured her student. "We'll add that Parmesan rind from the fridge and a couple of the anchovies I brought to give it some umami, that savory edge."

All About Dinner's "Scratch Basics" chapter includes a recipe for Parmesan broth, which makes great use of rinds. The anchovies, Stevens explained, would melt into the soup and bring flavor without fishiness. "You won't even taste it," she promised.

The cooking lesson continued with some basic knife skills as the pair worked together to get carrots, onions and garlic into the soup pot with a generous glug of extra-virgin olive oil and a good sprinkle of coarse salt.

"I always add a little bit of salt at the start," Stevens said. "It's like inviting the kind of person to a party who gets everyone talking. The salt draws out the moisture so flavors can start to mingle." (Habit No. 7: "Salt early and salt often.") "We're not only cooking the vegetables but infusing the olive oil with all that flavor," she added. (Habit No. 8: "Take advantage of fat's ability to carry flavor.")

The anchovies and a couple sprigs of fresh rosemary and thyme from Rozendaal's herb garden went in next, along with some smoked paprika that Stevens had brought fresh from the store. (Habit No. 10: "Make sure your spices are fresh.") The warm smokiness "is almost like fake meat flavor," Stevens said. "It also gives it a nice color."

Breaking up cauliflower florets, she continued, "We'll use the leaves and stems, too. Just wash them well and chop them like you would kale stems. I hate to waste anything. If I can use it, I use it." As she writes in the book: "You paid for the entire head, why not make the most of it?"

"Oh, I've never done that," Rozendaal said with appreciation, pausing to breathe in the aromas filling her tiny kitchen. "This smells so good!"

Cauliflower, stems and all, headed into the pot along with a cup of rinsed red lentils and several cups of water, plus the Parmesan rind. Stevens gave it all a stir and adjusted the heat to simmer.

"I think we'll make a little toast to serve with it and maybe a relish with olives, scallions and preserved lemon?" she suggested, pulling out a couple items she had brought. Preserved lemons, Stevens detailed, are just whole lemons cured with salt. "You can easily make your own; they just take a few weeks," she said, cutting a morsel for Rozendaal to try. (Habit No. 5: "Taste, and keep tasting.")

In a small bowl, Stevens stirred together minced scallions, preserved lemon, chopped green olives, olive oil, a little salt and freshly squeezed lemon juice. "Lemon juice or vinegar are both good ways to pop up flavor at the end," she said. (Habit No. 9: "Don't overlook acid.")

The two cooks hovered over the pot, tasting. "It's pretty good," Stevens said, sounding a little surprised. "I'm always surprised," she conceded with a chuckle. "We'll let it sit for a few minutes so the flavors meld while we make the toasts. I like to let everything sit for a bit before serving." (Habit No. 13: "Don't rush hot food to the table.")

"I don't have a toaster," Rozendaal said ruefully. Stevens proposed using the oven, though it took longer than expected to get the broiler element hot enough. (Habit No. 11: "Get to know your stovetop and oven.")

Eventually, however, the toasts, drizzled with olive oil and rubbed with a garlic clove, perched on bowls of soup crowned with the olive and lemon relish, to which Stevens had added a pinch of Korean chile pepper flakes.

"Mmmmm," Rozendaal enthused through a mouthful. "That is amazing. I didn't know you could make a soup with just water, and I really liked those simple tricks like the garlic toast and the relish that take a meal up [to] the next level." One of her biggest takeaways, the young woman added, "is that you don't always need to go to the store. You can cook just using what you have. I'm so inspired."

"Write that down," Stevens joked to this reporter. "That's my favorite thing: inspiring people to cook. I know cooking can be a chore, but it can be so fun and relaxing. If there's any way I can make it less stressful, that makes me happy."

(Habit No. 15: "Relax. It's just dinner.")