Based on Jason’s thread, I thought it would be nice to have a listing of everyone’s favorite cookbooks by category. Here are some of my favorites right now:
Restaurant Cookbooks:
Sunday Suppers at Lucques
French Laundry
Bouchon
Italian
Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan
Rogers Gray Italian Country Cooking
Everyday/Reference Cookbooks
The Complete America’s Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook
The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters
New Classic Family Dinners by Mark Peel
Does anyone have a good Indian cookbook (preferaby South Indian/Tamil)?
I love:
All About Braising: The Art of Uncomplicated Cooking - Molly Stevens (great for fall/winter dishes)
How to Cook Everything - Mark Bittman (I like to use his recipes as a jumping off point for my own)
I also like Donna Hay’s line of cookbooks. Her recipes are fast and easy and that’s often what I want.
Until about 4 years ago, about 80% of what I cooked was Indian. My favorite Indian cookbooks are:
Classic Indian Cooking by Sahni - great general book like Hazan for Italian or Childs for French, skewed toward the northwest, “Moghul” cuisine Classic Indian Vegetarian and Grain Cooking by Sahni - more in depth on all veg, grains, and dhal so there are more southern dishes Dakshin: Vegetarian Cuisine from South India by Padmanabhan - mostly southeastern, Tamil dishes The Healthy Cuisine of India by Kirchner - Bengali and, therefore, lots of fish and seafood recipes Tandoor by Rai - all tandoori cooking, great source for understanding tandoor marinades
I’ve always enjoyed using:
Anne Willan, The Complete Guide to Cookery.
It doesn’t have a lot of recipes, but instead explains the principles of cooking and how various basic techniques hand together when creating various classic dishes.
I have a super good general guide to Indian Cooking, but will have to get it back from my Indian ngbr for the precise title. It covers the entire continent, but is certainly very good for Tamil and Andra cooking as that is what we try to do exclusively.
Bread:
Beard on Bread by James Beard: There are issues (e.g. use of salt) but it has some of my favorite bread recipes. Everyone should have Jane Grigson’s Walnut Bread at least once before they die.
The Breads of France by Bernard Clayton: Step by step recipes for home baked versions of the breads of great French boulangers, including Poilaine and Goldenberg of Paris and M. David of Honfleur.
Also, Clayton’s Complete Book of Breads is a great starting point for anyone who wants to learn how to make bread.
Cake:
Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum. Good recipes and great on the fundamentals.
German:
The German Cookbook by Mimi Sheraton. Look no further for a great Sauerbraten recipe.
Italian:
Classic Italian Cookbook by Marcella Hazan. I doubt this is a revelation to anyone, but it hasn’t been mentioned yet…
I’m also a big fan of Maida Heatter’s dessert cookbooks.
In addition to the Indian cookbooks above by region:
Chinese Sichuan Cookery by Dunlop - aka Land of Plenty. Great book. Spent an unplanned year in temporary housing with our stuff in storage. This book, a wok, and a rice cooker to kept us sane.
Western Mediterranean Molto Italiano by Batali - an American chef’s take on general Italian food, classics tweaked in ways that appeal to me Italian Grill by Batali - way more interesting than steaks and burgers Sweet Myrtle and Bitter Honey by Farris - extremely up to date and accessible look about Sardinian food by a Sardinian chef who is successful in the U.S. A Provencal Table by Olney - classic Provencal cuisine that scratches the occasional itch The Foods and Wines of Spain by Casas - benchmark Spanish cookbook but recipes a bit dated ¡Delicioso! by Casas - regional cut at Spanish food One Pot Spanish by Casas - new, updated, more efficient recipes
Eastern Mediterranean Recipes & Remembrances from an Eastern Mediterranean Kitchen by Uvezian - hands down the best traditional Middle Eastern/Lebanese cookbook, imo Saha by Malouf - a successful Aussie chef’s take on Lebanese and Syrian food plus some of his own creations in the style Classical Turkish Cooking by Algar - great book that covers Turkish cuisine including all those kababs The Food and Wine of Greece by Kochilas - another benchmark book How to Roast a Lamb by Psilakis - a successful American chef’s take on general Greek food plus some of his own creations, great section on game
Cal-Ital Pasta Fresca by La Place & Kleiman - awesome source for simple pasta sauces that can be pulled together in about the time it takes to boil the water and cook the pasta
Desserts Seasonal Fruit Desserts by Madison - self-explanitory
lots of great topic cookbooks by James McNair–books on rice, chicken, salmon, soups, potatoes, etc.
it was a great series till Williams-Sonoma booted him and started their own similar series.
alan
My favorite is probably The Food I Love by Neil Perry (the Rockpool) chef/owner. He is as big on the “whys” as the “hows.”
I cook a lot of fish, and Rick Moonan’s Fish: Without a Doubt, has now passed Mark Bittman’s Fish as my first look fish cookbook.
While Modernist Cuisine might not be a practical, everyday cookbook, the spiral bound volume of receipes and charts is absolutely indispensible to me.
Simply French: Patricia Wells Presents the Cuisine of Joel Robuchon - I love this book. And I like Patricia Wells’s other books, for that matter.
Anthony Bourdain’s Les Halles Cookbook is terrific. It is completely in his voice - which is a hoot - but is as practically instructional as could be.
If you need great steakhouse recipes - generally one doesn’t, but it is easy to forget the creamed spinach proportions - The Palm Restaurant Cookbook is surprisingly sound.
When I can’t decide what to do with a vegetable in the CSA box, I tend to turn to Alice Waters. Although Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison should be on everyone’s shelf - vegetarian or otherwise. It is a Joy of Cooking for vegetables.
I have a lot of Southern cookbooks. Of late, I think the Lee Brothers really nailed it with their first. I’m a sucker for Nathalie Dupree’s New Southern Cooking. John Martin Taylor & Damon Lee Fowler have written stand-outs. Edna Lewis and Scott Peacock’s The Gift of Southern Cooking is wonderful.
A lot of my favorites have already been listed, but a big +1 to:
Dakshin (South Indian Vegetarian)
Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison
Anything by Julie Sahni
Others:
Tapas by Joe Andres
Catalan Cuisine by Coleman Andrews
The Foods of Spain by Teresa Barrenechea
How to Cook Everything and How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman (great all purpose books)
Little Foods of the Mediterranean by Clifford Wright
Ask me tomorrow and you might get a somewhat different list.
Bernie Clayton’s Soups and Stews is also wonderful. I knew him (he passed away last year) and was a great guy. I also agree with Classic Italian by Marcella Hazan, too.
Her Invitation to Indian Cooking was my first Indian cookbook and has of some my favorite recipes. There is a very simple but delicious potato and tomato soup that was the first Indian food I cooked.
Funny thing about Jaffrey and Sahni is that they had to learn how to cook after leaving India. Girls in wealthy families have cooks growing up.
I took an intensive 2 1/2 day class Julie Sahni does for 4 or 5 students at her NYC apartment years ago so I got to know her a bit. She was an urban planner, learned how to cook after moving to the U.S., and made a successful career out of it with books, teaching, and food-oriented travel to India but her mom was still asking her when she was going to stop the nonsense and “get a job”.
She also announced at the end of the class that because Indian cooking is so local and we now had great knowledge about cooking from all over the country we would be highly sought-after servants in India… so I’ve got that going for me.
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