Winslet's Cookery Lessons on Tv Show Set

Kate Winslet improved her skills in the kitchen while shooting new TV show Mildred Pierce - she received chicken-chopping lessons from celebrity chef Tom Colicchio.

The Titanic actress takes the title role in the upcoming Hbo drama, playing a young mother in the 1930s who opens up a bakery to earn extra cash.

Producers drafted in famed cook Colicchio to teach Winslet an authenticretro technique for cutting up meat - and she was delighted to learn newculinary skills.

Winslet tells GrubStreet.com, "I cook anyway, so I was very fortunate with that. I was working with the culinary experts, and they just could see that I'm obviously used to being in the kitchen. And that definitely did help, I have to say, especially when I had to do things quite swiftly and deftly in the kitchen and make it look as though she had been doing itfor years. "(Colicchio) really actually came up with a particular way of portioning up the chicken that isn't really done so much these days, so it didn't look too contemporary.

We didn't want it to look like I had been taught by a culinary expert, and Tom was very good at being aware of that, and how important that was for the character". And Winslet has continued using her new-found skills in her kitchen at home. She adds, "I never buy chicken in pieces anymore, I always buy a whole chicken.

I'm like, I know how to do this!"