What’s your favorite? (Larry Crowe/Associated Press) Over at the Bitten blog, food writer Mark Bittman needs your advice. He’s putting together a list of the best cookbooks ever.
Ten years ago, he wrote his own list called “Fifty Cookbooks I’d Rather Not Live Without.” A lot has happened to food and cooking in a decade, and Mark wants to update the list.
Can you help? Post your suggestions below for your favorite cookbooks of all time. Depending on how insightful or clever your post, Mark may consider tapping you to help review cookbooks for his section.
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Instead of more cook books, I recommend more food and bathroom scales.
— MARK KLEIN, M.D.The Joy of Cooking must stay on. I rarely use the recipes as written, but I often refer to it for technique/ingredient advice.
Cook’s Illustrated Best Recipes also deserves a place in the general category, IMHO. A little too fussy and complicated sometimes, but I’ve never gone wrong with a recipe and, again, it’s great for the information it provides you about the technique and science of cooking.
And for the regional/chef cookbook category, I nominate Giada DeLaurentis’s Everyday Italian. Again, I’ve never gone wrong with her recipes. I don’t vouch for their authenticity, mind you, but they always go over well and aren’t too difficult.
— AnneSI don’t know what I’d do without “Moosewood Cooks at Home”. I’m not a vegetarian, but the recipes and the helpful guide at the back helped shift my fear and inability in cooking to a genuine love and interest in preparing meals. I’m glad I stole the book off my Mom’s shelf when I went off to grad school!
— EmerAlice Waters, The Art of Simple Food. It’s an amazing cookbook.
— Alissa K.“Vegetarian Planet” by Didi Emmons. A ton of recipes, and I have yet to find one I don’t like. Unique flavors, never bland, and very inventive and creative recipes blending flavors from all around the world. If I could have only one cookbook for the rest of my life, it would be this one, no contest.
— TaraSara Foster FRESH EVERY DAY
— AmyAlice Waters “The Art of Simple Food” (2007) and “Eating Well Serves Two” published by Eating Well magazine in 2006 are two of my favorites. Modesty may prevent you from including “How to Cook Everything - Quick Cooking,” but I would be lost without it.
— Kathleen MordiniI have two cookbooks that I return to again and again. Neither of them, however, is particularly recent, though they’ve both been updated.
— AnnaThe first, which is not at all surprising, is the Joy of Cooking. When I began cooking, it was a reliable, varied source for information. Over the years, I have returned to it countless times, and it remains the one cookbook that I don’t think I could live without.
The other cookbook that I find incredibly helpful is the original Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen. It helped me to think about food in a new way, and - along with the rest of the Moosewood series - invite me to vary my routine and emphasize fresh, creative flavors.
Both of these cookbooks seem to have become standards by which others are measured, which speaks to their quality and timeless relevance.
Nigel Slater’s “Appetite”
— b.n. wrightMark’s cookbook, “How to Cook Everything” is my cooking bible. I buy it for everyone. It’s by far the most comprehensive, easy to follow and informative cookbook I have come across. And anything I make from it’s recipes is always delicious. I feel it’s taught me to be a better cook as well - it gives enough background and teaches the basics so you can go off and create your own recipes.
— Aimee Lagos“Sober Celebrations” written by Liz Scott, is the most well written and aestethically pleasing cookbook of all time! Check it out on Amazon or Barnes and Noble.com. This book is the second in a series published by Cleveland Clinic.
Chef Liz lives nearby and actually catered our sober wedding on Nov. 3, 2007…all of our guests gave rave reviews and everyone was happy to drive home sober;-)
— Erin KellyMary Land’s Louisiana Cookery, Illustrated by Morris Henry Hobbs, Louisiana State University Press, 1954. You will find such regional recipes such as Possum Dressing a la Gowanlovh and Broilrd Oysters a L’absinthe.
Lyn LeJeune- rebuilding the public libraries of New Orleas at http://www.beatitudesinneworleans.blogspot.com
— Lyn LeJeuneSimple French Food, by Richard Olney. Perhaps one of the greatest gookbooks ever written.
Honey from a Weed, Patience Grey. One of the most enjoyable food books I’ve ever read. Might make you want to try dandelion greens this spring.
Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, Marcella Hazen. Best Italian book I know of.
Baking Illustrated, Editors of Cooks Magazine, best all-around baking book, helps you understand the process so that you can adapt it yourself.
Arabesque, Claudia Roden, accessable and delicious Middle-Eastern cooking.
The Art of Simple Food, Alice Waters, A masterwork of technique and basic recipies for anyone interersted in delicious, wholesome, homecooked food.
— Rebecca ZicarelliBaking Illustrated from Cook’s Illustrated has every basic recipe one might need to keep a family in baked goods. Also, Rick Bayless’s Mexican Kitchen has authentic, healthy Mexican food that always delights!
— EmmieAs a vegetarian, I’d rather not live without:
The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking, Yamuna Devi
Vegetarian Planet, Didi Emmonds
The New Basics, Rosso & Lukins (the lists of flavor pairings for each vegetable are indispensable)
— Domo ArrigatoIndispensible, accessible, always accurate, never complex, very well written (unusually so for cookbooks — and I’m a published novelist), engaging local color:
Elizabeth David - FRENCH PROVINCIAL COOKING + ITALIAN FOOD.
We’ve lived in Europe for 30 years & these 2 books have not been surpassed by either local or English-language cookbooks. These 2 books have made us cooks.
— R.H.WeberI couldn’t live without Nigel Slater’s Real Food. The pictures alone make me want to spend hours in the kitchen.
— Elizabeth V.Meet Us in the Kitchen - the junior league of saint louis
— Michelle MerglerHow to Cook Everything Vegetarian - Bittman
Joy of Cooking
3 cookbooks I can’t live without -
Gourmet Cookbook - ed. Ruth Reichl
Great for classic recipes that I return to again and again
All New Best Recipe: All-New Edition with 1,000 Recipes, ed. Cooks Illustrated Magazine
Excellent for everything from basics to complex dishes. Includes detailed explanations of why particular techniques and ingredients are used.
The New Making of a Cook: The Art, Techniques, and Science of Good Cooking, Madeleine Kamman
— jcg11201Reads like a culinary textbook, very instructive/didactic; comprehensive selection of recipes.
the cook book that set me on the road to cooking is the 1st marcella hazan’s “the classic italian cookbook”. the recipes are simple but mostly great and easy for a beginner. i have polished my cooking skills over the years (even andre soltner tells me i am a good chef) but this cook book is still one of the corner stone cook books in my library
— allan goldsteinallan goldstein
Mark’s cookbook…can’t live without it!
— Allyson Hall“The Abs Diet: 6-Minute Meals for Six-Pack Abs,” by David Zinczenko, Rodale Books, 2006.
— bobSunday Suppers at Lucques! The recipes aren’t always simple or fast, but they rely heavily on fresh, seasonal ingredients and they’re adaptable (I make substitutions all the time, mostly little tweaks to cut saturated fat). Also, the book is gorgeous, recipes are grouped by season, and everything is presented in a multi-course form, so the question “what do I serve with this?” is moot!
— Halliefor everyday cooking, marvin woods’ _low country cooking_ is my favorite. the recipes capture flavors of my youth (although i grew up in philly, my ancestors come from south carolina).
i also recommend marcella hazan’s _essentials of classic italian cooking_.
please share the list of suggestions when it’s done, and thank you.
lbw
— lucas b wilsonHarold McGee’s On Food and Cooking!
— mimi