World's best cookbooks

[zennenn]

A New Way to Cook, Sally Schneider

Lidia's Italian Table, Lidia Bastianich

Alice Medrich's Cookies and Brownies

[Mayhaw Man]

Joeie's mention of River Road in interesting in that it is a Junior League Book. There are many of these types of books in the US and I have found that a couple of them are superior. River Road being one of them and Southern Sideboards and the Cotton COuntry Collection being the other two. They are all great overviews of Southern Cooking at it's best.

As far as the question the thread raises:

Craig Claiborne's New York Times Cookbook

The Silver Palate Cookbook

Cotton Country Collection

The Way to Cook-Julia Child

Martha Stewart's Pies and Tarts (really, it is a great book, no kidding )

[mklynch]

I own hundreds of cookbooks and you know, for a great basic book to start off with, take a look at "The Joy of Cooking"

For more depth - "Cookwise" by Shirley Corriher

I slept with "On Food and Cooking" for a couple months (before I met my husband)

[waldorf]

At this point of time, I have an especial fondness for...

Junior Charity League of Monroe. the COTTON COUNTRY Collection. 1972.

Biba Caggiono.Trattoria Cooking. Macmillan,1992.

Judy Rodgers. The Zuni Cafe Cookbook.Norton,2002.

Lynne Rossetto Kasper. The Splendid Table.William Morrow, 1992.

[chezlamere]

I have a wall full of cookbooks, but the one that is the most beaten up one (besides the community cookbook that the ladies from this area published about 20 yrs ago and is only available at the local book store, ) has to be Looney Spoons-there's two volumes. I always give it as gifts for beginner cooks just leaving home or bridal showers. Has some really good low fat stuff, highly recommend it. Probably only available in Canada though

[tim olivett]

If you want an easily accessable book on the science of cooking, it is hands down Howard Hillman's Kitchen Science (actually seeing this post had me do a search and I saw that there's a "New Kitchen Science". It's $10.50 from Amazon. That one book has probably taught me more about the hows and whys of everyday cooking than anything else I own and it doesn't go way too far like McGee it just gives you the basics (and then some) and moves on. I always recommend it to my cooks.

Now for cookbooks, come on guys! Larousse? Fun to leaf through but ... Now in my house I've got cookbooks on the bookshelf, cooks by the sofa, even some in the magazine rack in the bathroom but their is my "permanent collection" that's on the window sill by my bed. These are the books I look at the most, the ones I fall asleep dreaming of fall's mushrooms, summer's tomatoes and corn, all the time foie gras, oysters and truffles.

All right here are ten essential books for anyone interested in the last twenty years of great food in the United States and beyond. (they are not ordered in any particular way - just to help me keep count so I don't keep listing books.

1. How about French Laundry by Thomas Keller -the most definitive restaurant cookbook of the last 10 years. No steps, techniques or ingredients are held back to be able to recreate the food of this chef who finally came into his own with a little restaurant in California wine country that was heard around the world. Welcome back to NYC Chef!

2.David Burke's "Cooking with David Burke of the Park Avenue Cafe" always winning recipes from a true (underappreciated) innovater, the first (and to my knowledge only) winner of the French MOF.

3.Someone mentioned Patricia Wells, "Simply French, Patricia Wells introduces the cuisine of Joel Robuchon". If you're gonna buy one cookbook buy this one. Great for the beginner and something I always return to.

4.Marco Pierre White's "Wild Food from Land & Sea". All of Marco's books are the same 60 or so basics repeated over and over in different combinations so why not get the one that has them all conveniently located in the index of "basics" which is longer than the recipes of the dishes in the book (I have the rest of his books anyway). Plus you should always have at least one cookbook that calls an eggplant an "aubergine" (Hint-He's British).

5.The Gotham Bar & Grill Cookbook by Alfred Portale. One of the most influential chefs in New York and the world. Helped popularize "tall food" and in his first book gives you step by step photos of how to do it at home. Alfred never sacrificed flavor for aesthetics and his food is well steeped in the classics with all the light modern touches he brought back from France to NY in the mid-eighties.

6.The Campanile cookbook by Mark Peel and Nancy Silverton. This husband and wife team met working for Wolfgang Puck's Spago in LA and went on two open the wildly succesful La Brea Bakery and it's sister restaurant Campanile. They offer a robust yet light take on handmade Italian cuisine that any serious lover of Italian food shouldn't wait to get.

7.The Elements of Taste by Gray Kunz. Seems more complicated than it is. Look closely at any single element of the recipes, a sauce, a topping, a vegetable and you'll find that it's a familiar item taken to a whole other level and dimension of flavor. One of the most creative chef's in the business whose combinations never shock you or even surprise you, while being new they suddenly seem familiar since they make so much sense.

8.Chez Panisse "COOKING" BY PAUL BERTOLLI. There are many Chez Panisse books and they're all great but this one stands out. The introductions to chapters discuss history, techniques, science, philosophy, poetry and true love for the hands on, homemade foodstuffs from Italy. Learn to make vinegars, sauerkraut, dried salamis and proscuitto, can vegetables, make pasta in a way that makes it all a seem not the least bit daunting but as reasonable things for anyone to do, in fact things that have been done for generations. I just ordered his 2nd book that was published last November over ten years after this book and that will probably make it to my bedside.

Uh oh only two more to go....

9.Flavors of France by Alain Ducasse. Allright, just to show you I'm being honest about the difficulty level of these restaurant cookbooks; this one's hard. But hey, do you always cook from every book you have. Sometimes I'll read a recipe by Ducasse, and just sit there, drifting off into the ether dreaming of his poems to food. They're poems to the essence of a dish however daunting and complicated. His combinations are classic yet individual, this is a man who spares no expense, holds nothing back. If it's at it's best with $400 worth of truffles then that's how he says you should do it (and you should, at least once a year).

10. I'm not even going to put number 10. I'd hate to have to choose one of the other. If you love food, keep buying books (also for a cookbook addict like me, never underestimate your local library, especially the main branch. I've been constantly surprised by the selection of recent releases and high quality not to mention expensive ($50 and up) cookbooks).

There is something great that happens when you continue to read even if you don't cook any of the recipes. All those associations start swimming around in your head and eventually you develop an instinct for flavor combinations and approaches to products that transcend recipes. One of my favorite ways to have a dinner party is have everybody bring one product (a vegetable, a piec of meat, a starch) and to make dinner from a spontaneous collection of ingredients based on your ability to draw on as many ways as possible to draw out flavor from anything. Also, beware the new El Bulli book & cd rom, $250 of the absolute cutting edge of cuisine today. Could be the Escoffier of the twenty first century.

PS. Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything" is always at the ready with a recipe for "everything".

Edited January 4, 2004 by tim olivett (log)

[misgabi]

"The Cook's Companion" - Stephanie Alexander

"How to be a Domestic Goddess" - Nigella Lawson (for baking)

and I love the "Marie Clare" cookbooks for quick ideas

[Bickery]

WHEW! Those are a lot of replies already...i'll try to compose a list of it soon....

[marthapook]

If you want an easily accessable book on the science of cooking, it is hands down Howard Hillman's Kitchen Science (actually seeing this post had me do a search and I saw that there's a "New Kitchen Science".  It's $10.50 from Amazon.  That one book has probably taught me more about the hows and whys of everyday cooking than anything else I own and it doesn't go way too far like McGee it just gives you the basics (and then some) and moves on.  I always recommend it to my cooks.

1. How about French Laundry by Thomas Keller -the most definitive restaurant cookbook of the last 10 years.  No steps, techniques or ingredients are held back to be able to recreate the food of this chef who finally came into his own with a little restaurant in California wine country that was heard around the world.  Welcome back to NYC Chef!

4.Marco Pierre White's "Wild Food from Land & Sea".  All of Marco's books are the same 60 or so basics repeated over and over in different combinations so why not get the one that has them all conveniently located in the index of "basics" which is longer than the recipes of the dishes in the book (I have the rest of his books anyway).  Plus you should always have at least one cookbook that calls an eggplant an "aubergine" (Hint-He's British).

7.The Elements of Taste by Gray Kunz.  Seems more complicated than it is.  Look closely at any single element of the recipes, a sauce, a topping, a vegetable and you'll find that it's a familiar item taken to a whole other level and dimension of flavor.  One of the most creative chef's in the business whose combinations never shock you or even surprise you, while being new they suddenly seem familiar since they make so much sense. 

Tim - long time no speak - check your e-mail

thanks for the info on Howard Hillman's Kitchen Science - i've been stuck on McGee for years....

in re's to your picks, i agree w/ pretty much all of em but have a few comments - if you please.....

1) welcome back, indeed

4) you should have at least one of his

7) glad we agree - hey want your's autographed???

To this list I would like to add - any Culinaria

[Mabelline]

Bickery, welcome! One last suggestion- as a student, make use of those libraries. And when a cookbook sucks you in so completely that you don't want to take it back, you know you've found a keeper, and then you can get it from Amazon.com.That'll save a bucket of bucks in the long run.

[Busboy]

I do not like green eggs and ham! I do not like it, Sam-I-Am!

(No, I've never read the cookbook. How do you make the eggs green? Cilantro sauce?)

Every Halloween my mom used to put blue food coloring in scrambled eggs, turning them green.

You can get the green ham from the back of my fridge.

[Busboy]

Patricia Well's "Bistro Cuisine" is a great guide to basic French cooking -- almost a primer and, I think, perfect for a 21-year-old student. Inexpensive recipes and solid techniques that you'll use again and again.

Maybe I missed it but nobody seems to have mentioned Keller and "The French Laundry Cookbook." At one level the book may be so complicated that it's unusable -- I've never tried to cook more than 2 Keller dishes in the same day (same week!). But there is incredible basic advice on things like stock, braising, the difference between a "baton" and a "mirepoix", and it promotes an overall approach to cooking that can't be learned too young or too early. I learn something important every time I try a new recipe from that book.

[stevea]

In addition to many of the fine books mentioned, I also value highly:

Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian

Trattoria by Patricia Wells

[fresco]

Don't think anyone has mentioned it on this thread, but Richard Olney's Simple French Food does present a quite unique perspective on cooking.

[bankchef]

I find that I don't buy cookbooks anymore...just food lit. Just to hear the prep of different food, how its grown, what so and so's mother did with these ingredients is far more interesting. There are cookbooks I need and some that I thought I needed but hate (I really dislike Professional Chef...on the other hand the Le Cordon Blue textbook is fantastic).

If I had to say a couple cookbooks that I love the most I'd say The Kitchen Sessions (Charlie Trotter) or a book I have called the Complete French Cooking Course. When I go to Portland I check out the used cookbooks and food lit books and try to find something there...

[DaleJ]

A friend gave me Ada Boni's "Italian Regional Cooking" about thirty years ago. I don't cook from it very often, but its very comprehensive and has beautiful photos.

[GG Mora]

Since I turn to cookbooks mostly for technique and not for specific recipes, per se, I have to cast a vote for Anne Willan's "La Varenne Pratique". If you have your wits about you, you can get a pretty thorough culinary education from this one book. I learned enough from it to be able to hop into a professional kitchen -- albeit a small one far from the madding crowd, but French and hectic nonetheless. LVP is an excellent reference for the serious cook.

[jayt90]

There are many good recommendations here, but no mention of Elizabeth David, who wrote a fine series of superbly researched books on both sides of the Mediterranean, plus France and the U.K. My series of E.D.'s Penguins are badly stained, and broken now, and sadly out of print. But if I ever find 'French Provincial Cooking' or Mediterranean Cooking' or 'French Country Cooking', I''ll be very happy!

[sammy]

My two go to books are:

Zuni Cafe Cookbook by Judy Rodgers

and

Thrill of the Grill by Chris Schlesinger and John Willoughby

Although I regularly cook from several others, I find myself most often going to the two mentioned above as I view most of their recipes with confidence. To me, that says a lot about a cookbook.

[deiger]

Hello,

I'm new to these forums as well (my good friend and step-SIL Elyse tuned me in).

I'm not a food professional, but love to cook and also have a wall of cookbooks. My favorites off the top of my head:

- Anything by Jacques Pepin (I find his recipes never fail me; a beginner will enjoy the Cooking with Claudine series)

- Julia Child's Way to Cook

- Chez Panisse Vegetables

- The Cake Bible (Rose Levy Berenbaum)

and i love to collect regional cookbooks as well and ones from my travels

good reading!

diane

[Eric_Malson]

There are many good recommendations here, but no mention of Elizabeth David, who wrote a fine series of superbly researched books on both sides of the Mediterranean, plus France and the U.K. My series of E.D.'s Penguins are badly stained, and broken now, and sadly out of print.  But if I ever find 'French Provincial Cooking' or Mediterranean Cooking' or 'French Country Cooking', I''ll be very happy!

Hear, hear re the goddess of food writing, Elizabeth David! I have almost all of her books (although somehow, I never felt the need to own Spices, Salt and Aromatics in the English Kitchen or English Bread and Yeast Cookery), and if I had to pick a "favorite cookbook" on my shelf, it would probably be her French Provincial Cooking. I find myself going back to her Italian Food quite often, too, even though one doesn't normally associate her necessarily with Italian cooking (that book is still relatively easy to find in a glossy, almost coffee-table format with lots of pictures).

Being a Spanish food fanatic, I also love anything by Penelope Casas, especially The Foods and Wines of Spain. The book on Catalan cooking by Colman Andrews previously mentioned in this thread is also a winner.

The other cookbook I use a LOT may seem odd, but it's clear, concise, and every recipe I've tried has turned out spectacularly and has the "taste of authenticity": it is The Hungarian Cookbook by Susan Derecskey (out of print, but Amazon lists some as being still available).

Perhaps this is the place to plug a couple of other books: for those of you that are somewhat daunted by the prospect of just getting in the kitchen and cooking something (even though this is a food-lover's site, I know that not everyone here loves to cook!), the "60-Minute Gourmet" books by Pierre Franey have loads of basic techniques explained in the simplest and clearest possible way, and the recipes have the added advantage of (stating the obvious once again!) requiring no more than an hour to prepare.

A quick check of my book sources shows that French Provincial Cooking is in print with a new preface by Julia Child, and there are still some copies around through Amazon (and abebooks.com) of the handy collection Elizabeth David Classics, which consists of Mediterranean Food, French Country Cooking, and Summer Cooking together in one volume. Almost unbelievably, Amazon says that most of her books are actually still in print (for quite a while this was definitely not the case, and I'm not quite sure I do believe Amazon on this one).

[megaira]

chezlamere - Loony Spoons and the sequal Crazy Plates can both be had through Amazon.com down here.

:)

My recommendation is not for a book itself:

bargain hunt.

You sound like you're just getting revved up. You have no idea the size of the monkey that's just landed on your back. Think Fay Wray. You'll never shake it

Unless you're just stinking rich and it doesn't matter, the object of the game is to feed the monkey without breaking the bank... luckily, there's amazon.com (discount+no tax+no shipping=woohoo!), used bookstores, half.com, halfpricebooks.com, family to pilfer, thrift stores to check... sometimes Marshalls and TJ Max have a couple great cookbooks stashed in with the mediocre.

I tend to use the library to research my purchases before hand as well, then just make a list and set about aquiring each thing on it as cheap as I can, in as new condition as possible.

I went into Sur La Table for the first time (today) and when I saw their cookbook section, I felt like the fat kid in Willy Wonka, confronted with the river of chocolate. I think I stood there oogling cookbooks for half an hour with glazed cake donut eyes. I'm not sure what I like better, the food or the cookbooks, actually.

Happy Hunting!

[oraklet]

for technique:

anne willan, "la varenne pratique"

jacques pepin, "complete techniques"

for inspiration (the tables are amazing):

page & dornenburg, "culinary artistry"

for straight-forward daily recipes (that are really not recipes but guidelines):

nigel slater, "appetite"

[Carlovski]

I'd second the Nigel Slater shout.

I also love Dear Francesca by Mary Contini, as enjoyable to read as it is to cook from.

Anything by Simon Hopkinson is worth reading too.

More specialised ones which I have become obsessed with recently are

Sichuan Cooking - Fuchsia Dunlop

Thai Food - David Thompson

Moro - The Cookbook

[Huevos del Toro]

I tend to flit from book to book, depending on my mood or if I'm doing something that's specific to either a region or an ingredient. However, I have a series of cookbooks called Best of the Best of (state). Barbara Moseley and Gwen McKee, Associate Editor and Editor-In-Chief respectfully, are delights to work with. I started my collection soon after they formed Quail Ridge Press. I think they must have covered every state by now.

The attraction of these books is that, not only are they state specific, the recipes are gleaned from sources such as church cookbooks, Junior League cookbooks, etc. They are winnowed down until only the very best remain. Great home cooking that's been tried, tweaked and refined.

I know I must sound like I'm shilling but I just love these books. I love my others too but the Best of the Best series covers such a wide range of dishes you can do darned near anything with only one book. Texas and Louisiana actually have two books apiece.