I don’t use cook books, but I do own “Borago: Coming from the South” by Rodolfo Guzman and I think it’s an exceptional cook book and then some, although it would be very difficult for me to make most of the dishes in the the book.
Sunday Suppers at Lucques- I have loved everything I have made from this book
Zuni Cafe Cookbook
The River Cottage Meat Book
The Food Lab- Kenji Alt Lopez
Marcella Cucina
Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking - by Marcella Hazan
Bouchon - by Thomas Keller
Joy of Cooking - by Rombauer, Becker and Becker
The New Best Recipe - by Cook’s Illustrated editors
Le Bernardin- by Eric Ripert & Maguy Le Coze
Like many of the other comments, I don’t use these books regularly, but this is the list of books that have had the biggest impact on me tweaking my homecooking over time:
French Laundry - Thomas Keller
Momofuku- David Chang
Franklin Barbecue- Aaron Franklin
Les Halles - Bourdain
Every Grain of Rice - Fuschia Dunlop ** must have for appreciation of Sichaun cooking
More Recent cookbooks I’ve enjoyed
On Vegetables - Jeremy Fox
Smoke and Pickles - Ed Lee
Shaya - Alon Shaya
Manresa - Haha just kidding, Kinch’s recipes make the French Laundry stuff seem like a kids’ cookbook
I have lots of overlap with Suzanne (I’ll have to check those on her list that I don’t know) -
Zuni Cafe
Food Lab
Marcella Cucina
China Moon - Barbara Tropp
Frog Commissary - Steve Poses, Anne Clarke et al (a Philadelphia classic that started me cooking)
Tough question… I’d say:
Fire in My Belly - Kevin Gillespie (fun mix of classic southern with modern dishes. We use the tomato sauce recipe all summer long - we usually can 50 jars of sauce
Le Bernardin - Rippert - went on a pesco vegetarian diet at one point and probably used this book 100 times in 6 months
Toro Bravo - Liz Crain, etc - great Spanish cookbook - my go-to Paella recipe
Cooking in the Moment - Andrea Reusing - great local chef (Chapel Hill, NC) and based on my beloved Carrboro Farmers market
Smoke it Like a Pro - Eric Mitchell - I use this all the time with my Big Green Egg!
It’s tough to narrow down to 5 and I appreciate the offerings so far. I clearly need to look into The Food Lab. I too gain inspiration from these books rather than strictly following the recipes.
I really don’t go to books very often these days, and there are only a few I open with any regularity:
All About Braising/All About Roasting - Molly Stevens
Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking - Marcella Hazan
Cook’s Illustrated Cookbook: 2,000 Recipes from 20 Years…
Meathead: The Science of Great Barbecue and Grilling - Meathead Goldwyn and Greg Blonder
The San Luis Obispo Farmers’ Market Cookbook (a handful of particular recipes)
Since my wife and one of my daughters have started baking more recently, so the most-used ones in our house are probably:
The Secrets of Baking: Simple Techniques for Sophisticated Desserts - Sherry Yard
The Great British Bake Off Big Book of Baking
We have started a bit of a cookbook collection and probably have over 100 at this point. Some of our favs that come to mind are Tender by Nigel Slater, Made in Italy by Giorgio Locatelli, Dinner at the Long Table by Andrew Tarlow and Twelve Recipes by Cal Peternell. Recently picked up the Night + Market book by Kris Yenbamroong that I’m having fun with. Like others we tend to read them more for inspiration than to follow a specific recipe.