5 cookbooks I reference constantly to answer this question.
I wouldn’t say that there are any cookbooks that are treated like
you big with us, and all chefs use them.
There are definitely a lot of cookbooks that chefs have in common,
but food is so expensive.
It really depends on what you’re wanting to cook.
I have so many more cookbooks than this,
but these are the five I’m using the most frequently right now.
Flour and water if you want to do pasta.
If you want to learn pasta,
this book is phenomenal.
And it has both recipes where you make your own pasta dough
and recipes where you can buy boxed pasta.
The recipes are simple and easy to understand,
but this is one of the best pasta restaurants in the nation,
for sure.
And it is literally their recipes that they use the restaurant,
and it is so good. Last Thanksgiving,
we decided to do all pasta meal instead of Thanksgiving food,
and it was a fantastic decision,
and we used recipes from this book,
and we will be doing the same this year.
Dappled. Nicole Rucker is a friend.
She’s pastry chef in L A. She is the pie queen and a phenomenal chef,
and these recipes are so fantastic.
If you love pie, this is a great,
great grab. Her pie dough is definitely my favorite pie dough to make,
for sure. Um,
but there’s some other recipes in here,
like brioche dough,
all Of these recipes are so well tested,
they will turn out perfect for you every time.
Now, this guy,
this is like an anthology to me.
This is Cheryl Day’s Treasury of Southern Baking.
And, you know,
I grew up in Tennessee,
so Southern Baking feels very much like what baking is to me.
And these recipes are. I would say they’re more advanced.
Like, she does not dumb anything down,
but if you pay attention, go slow,
do exactly what she says, it will turn out well for you.
Don’t be intimidated. But it is literally.
I mean, everything is in here.
It’s so thick. This is my first stop for referencing
when I think of something I wanna make
or learn to make for the first time.
Nopalito. If you’re interested in Mexican food,
highly recommend this book. Nopalito.
I used to work at a restaurant in San Francisco called Nopa,
and Nopalito was their sister restaurant.
The food here is so good. The restaurant still around?
If you’re in San Francisco,
definitely check it out. But these recipes are perfect.
They come out, turn out every time.
They’re exact, taste exactly like the restaurant.
They’re so, so, so,
so good.
And you will learn so much about Mexican cooking through this cookbook
for sure. Last but not least,
I talk about this book all the time.
We use this book so much, both sati and I.
This is hoppers. It’s a restaurant in London.
It is Indian. Food.
Specifically Sri Lankan slash south Indian food.
There’s some Tamil food in here.
My husband’s from Tamil Nadu.
This is fantastic.
I can’t even explain how incredible the recipes turn out.
We’ve never even eaten at this restaurant,
and I’m dying to now because the recipes are so good and so perfect,
and they’re really easy.
The only hard part is sourcing the right ingredients.
And I highly recommend
just finding a place that sells Indian ingredients near you.
You’ll be so impressed by what you’re able to make. It is so good.
These are my current top five.
I love all of these so much.
If you’re looking for a specific type of cookbook,
uh, let me know in the comments,
and I’ll tell you what I recommend for that.
Um, otherwise,
this is just like a general.
And I have a shelf in my shop my. With, um,
cookbooks that I love and use, um,
and believe in.
So if you want more, uh,
you can go there, too.