L.A. Son: My Life, My City, My Food


Roy Choi - 2013
    Son takes us through the neighborhoods and streets most tourists never see, from the hidden casinos where gamblers slurp fragrant bowls of pho to Downtown's Jewelry District, where a ten-year-old Choi wolfed down Jewish deli classics between diamond deliveries; from the kitchen of his parents' Korean restaurant and his mother's pungent kimchi to the boulevards of East L.A. and the best taquerias in the country, to, at last, the curbside view from one of his emblematic Kogi taco trucks, where people from all walks of life line up for a revolutionary meal.Filled with over 85 inspired recipes that meld the overlapping traditions and flavors of L.A.—including Korean fried chicken, tempura potato pancakes, homemade chorizo, and Kimchi and Pork Belly Stuffed Pupusas—L.A. Son embodies the sense of invention, resourcefulness, and hybrid attitude of the city from which it takes its name, as it tells the transporting, unlikely story of how a Korean American kid went from lowriding in the streets of L.A. to becoming an acclaimed chef.

Hot Sauce!: Techniques for Making Signature Hot Sauces, with 32 Recipes to Get You Started; Includes 60 Recipes for Using Your Hot Sauces


Jennifer Trainer Thompson - 2012
    Try making chowders, tacos, ribs, salads, seafood, and more. There are even recipes for scorching cocktails, like Daiquiri Diablo and Slow-Burn Martinis Author Jennifer Trainer Thompson, recognized as a leader in the spicy foods movement for her cookbooks and four hot sauce posters, has talked about hot sauce on hundreds of talk shows, including "Live with Regis" and "Good Morning America." She has traveled her own personal "Trail of Flame," speaking at conventions and in the media about hot foods, and serving as guest chef at Hot Nights at restaurants in Boston, Philadelphia, and the Berkshires.

The Little Paris Kitchen


Rachel Khoo - 2012
    Six years later, she still lives and works in Paris, cooking up a selection of classic French dishes from all over the country and giving them a fresh makeover with her own modern twists. From a Croque Madame muffin and the classic Boeuf bourguignon, to a deliciously fragrant Provencal lavender and lemon roast chicken, Rachel celebrates the culinary landscape of France as it is today and shows how simple these dishes are.The 120 recipes in the book range from easy, everyday dishes like Omelette Pipérade, to summer picnics by the Seine and afternoon 'goûter' (snacks), to meals with friends and delicious desserts including classics like Crème brulee and Tarte tatin. It's a book that celebrates the very best of French home-cooking in a modern and accessible way. Real French food is no longer something only served in fancy restaurants; Rachel will show how you can add a little French culinary touch to your everyday life at home, no matter where you are in the world, or how big your kitchen is!

Sauces: Classical and Contemporary Sauce Making


James Peterson - 1991
    This revised and updated edition on sauces includes a 32-page insert with 100 colour photographs, new chapters on Asian sauces and pasta sauces, a section on wine and sauce pairing, and expanded sections on lighter, healthier sauces, such as infused oils and chutneys.

Kansha: Celebrating Japan's Vegan and Vegetarian Traditions


Elizabeth Andoh - 2010
    The spirit of kansha, deeply rooted in Buddhist philosophy and practice, encourages all cooks to prepare nutritionally sound and aesthetically satisfying meals that avoid waste, conserve energy, and preserve our natural resources. In these pages, with kansha as credo, Japan culinary authority Elizabeth Andoh offers more than 100 carefully crafted vegan recipes. She has culled classics from shōjin ryōri, or Buddhist temple cuisine (Creamy Sesame Pudding, Glazed Eel Look-Alike); gathered essentials of macrobiotic cooking (Toasted Hand-Pressed Brown Rice with Hijiki, Robust Miso); selected dishes rooted in history (Skillet-Scrambled Tofu with Leafy Greens, Pungent Pickles); and included inventive modern fare (Eggplant Sushi, Tōfu-Tōfu Burgers).  Andoh invites you to practice kansha in your own cooking, and she delights in demonstrating how “nothing goes to waste in the kansha kitchen.” In one especially satisfying example, she transforms each part of a single daikon—from the tapered tip to the tuft of greens, including the peels that most cooks would simply compost—into an array of wholesome, flavorful dishes. Decades of living immersed in Japanese culture and years of culinary training have given Andoh a unique platform from which to teach. She shares her deep knowledge of the cuisine in the two-part A Guide to the Kansha Kitchen. In the first section, she explains basic cutting techniques, cooking methods, and equipment that will help you enhance flavor, eliminate waste, and speed meal preparation. In the second, Andoh demystifies ingredients that are staples in Japanese pantries, but may be new to you; they will boost your kitchen repertoire—vegan or omnivore—to new heights.  Stunning images by award-winning photographer Leigh Beisch complete Kansha, a pioneering volume sure to inspire as it instructs.

Dinner: A Love Story: It All Begins at the Family Table


Jenny Rosenstrach - 2012
    Even when they work long days. Even when their kids' schedules pull them in eighteen different directions. They are not superhuman. They are not from another planet.With simple strategies and common sense, Jenny figured out how to break down dinner—the food, the timing, the anxiety, from prep to cleanup—so that her family could enjoy good food, time to unwind, and simply be together.Using the same straight-up, inspiring voice that readers of her award-winning blog, Dinner: A Love Story, have come to count on, Jenny never judges and never preaches. Every meal she dishes up is a real meal, one that has been cooked and eaten and enjoyed at least a half dozen times by someone in Jenny's house. With inspiration and game plans for any home cook at any level, Dinner: A Love Story is as much for the novice who doesn't know where to start as it is for the gourmand who doesn't know how to start over when she finds herself feeding an intractable toddler or for the person who never thought about home-cooked meals until he or she became a parent. This book is, in fact, for anyone interested in learning how to make a meal to be shared with someone they love, and about how so many good, happy things happen when we do.

Rosa's Thai Cafe: The Cookbook


Saiphin Moore - 2015
    Born in the East. Raised in the East End. In keeping with its contemporary twist on authentic Thai cuisine (sometimes based on western ingredients), Rosa's Thai Cafe celebrates traditional Thai cooking techniques and features over 100 recipes, including dishes from the menu at Rosa's as well as family favourites and regional dishes from founder Saiphin Moore's regular trips back home. Recipes range from the aromatic Beef Massaman Curry to the Soft Shell Crab Salad, Larb Spring Rolls, homemade Sriracha Sauce and Mangoes with Sticky Rice.

Climbing the Mango Trees: A Memoir of a Childhood in India


Madhur Jaffrey - 2005
    Madhur (meaning "sweet as honey") Jaffrey grew up in a large family compound where her grandfather often presided over dinners at which forty or more members of his extended family would savor together the wonderfully flavorful dishes that were forever imprinted on Madhur's palate. Climbing mango trees in the orchard, armed with a mixture of salt, pepper, ground chilies, and roasted cumin; picnicking in the Himalayan foothills on meatballs stuffed with raisins and mint and tucked into freshly fried "poori"s; sampling the heady flavors in the lunch boxes of Muslim friends; sneaking tastes of exotic street fare—these are the food memories Madhur Jaffrey draws on as a way of telling her story. Independent, sensitive, and ever curious, as a young girl she loved uncovering her family's many-layered history, and she was deeply affected by their personal trials and by the devastating consequences of Partition, which ripped their world apart. "Climbing the Mango Trees" is both an enormously appealing account of an unusual childhood and a testament to the power of food to evoke memory. And, at the end, this treasure of a book contains a secret ingredient—more than thirty family recipes recovered from Madhur's childhood, which she now shares with us.

The Physiology of Taste: Or, Meditations on Transcendental Gastronomy


Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin - 1825
    Brillat-Savarin (1783-1833) made famous the aphorism, "Tell me what you eat, and I'll tell you who you are." He believed that food defines a nation.

Indian for Everyone: The Home Cook's Guide to Traditional Favorites


Anupy Singla - 2014
    --Publishers Weekly, starred reviewOnly have room for one go-to book for Indian home cooking on your shelf? This is it. --BooklistIndian for Everyone is the third book by Anupy Singla, by far her most stunning and comprehensive offering yet. Singla is America's favorite authority on Indian home cooking, and her expertise with delicious, healthful recipes has endeared her to fans everywhere. This new book opens up the true simplicity and flavor of Indian food for anyone, regardless of dietary restrictions or familiarity.Singla's recipes feature popular favorites, regional specialties, and--unlike any other Indian cookbook--alternative preparation styles for every recipe. Included are quick-and-easy adaptations for making a meal vegetarian, vegan, or gluten-free, or even in the slow cooker. Beginners appreciate the book's step-by-step instructions, while veteran home cooks now have a reference point for family favorites, including little-known instructions and standard cook times.With deeply personal, detailed stories behind these recipes, readers see how healthy cooking connected Singla's family through many generations and disparate cultural heritages. More than the next great Indian cookbook, this is the next great American cookbook -- sure to become a staple of every family's collection.

Authentic Mexican: Regional Cooking from the Heart of Mexico


Rick Bayless - 1987
    We've fallen in love with the great Mexican combination of rich, earthy flavors and casual, festive dining. But we don't begin to imagine how sumptuous and varied the cooking of Mexico really is.After ten years of loving exploration, Rick Bayless, together with his wife, Deann, gave us Authentic Mexican, this now classic, easy-to-use compendium of our southern neighbor's cooking.This all-embracing cookbook offers the full range of dishes, from poultry, meat, fish, rice, beans, and vegetables to eggs, snacks made of corn masa, tacos, turnovers, enchiladas and their relatives, tamales, and moles, ending with desserts, sweets, and beverages. There are irresistible finger foods such as Yucatecan marinated shrimp tacos and crispy cheese-filled masa turnovers; spicy corn chowder and chorizo sausage with melted cheese will start off a special dinner; you will find mole poblano, charcoal-grilled pork in red-chile adobo, and marinated fish steamed in banana leaves for those times when you want to celebrate; and exotic ice creams, caramel custards, and pies to top off any meal. There's even a section devoted to refreshing coolers, rich chocolate drinks, and a variety of tequila-laced cocktails.The master recipes feature all the pointers you'll need for re-creating genuine Mexican textures and flavors in a North American kitchen. Menu suggestions and timing and advance-preparation tips make these dishes perfectly convenient for today's working families. And traditional and contemporary variations accompany each recipe, allowing the cook to substitute and be creative.Rick and Deann Bayless traveled more than thirty-five thousand miles investigating the six distinct regions of Mexico and learning to prepare what they found. From town to town, recipe by recipe, they personally introduce you to Mexico's cooks, their kitchens, their markets, and their feasts.If, like the rest of us, you have a growing love for Mexican food, the reliable recipes in this book and the caring, personal presentation by Rick and Deann Bayless will provide meal after meal of pure pleasure for your family and friends.

Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen


Julie Powell - 2005
    She needs something to break the monotony of her life, and she invents a deranged assignment. She will take her mother's dog-eared copy of Julia Child's 1961 classic Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and she will cook all 524 recipes. In the span of one year. At first she thinks it will be easy. But as she moves from the simple Potage Parmentier (potato soup) into the more complicated realm of aspics and crépes, she realizes there’s more to Mastering the Art of French Cooking than meets the eye. With Julia’s stern warble always in her ear, Julie haunts the local butcher, buying kidneys and sweetbreads. She sends her husband on late-night runs for yet more butter and rarely serves dinner before midnight. She discovers how to mold the perfect Orange Bavarian, the trick to extracting marrow from bone, and the intense pleasure of eating liver. And somewhere along the line she realizes she has turned her kitchen into a miracle of creation and cuisine. She has eclipsed her life’s ordinariness through spectacular humor, hysteria, and perseverance.

Le répertoire de la cuisine


Louis Saulnier - 1960
    The Repertoire, as it is commonly known, is a shorthand guide to the cuisine of the master. This edition includes a special insert with introductory remarks from distinguished chef Jacques Pepin; the late George Lang, renowned food consultant; as well as Saulnier himself. Concise and incredibly comprehensive, it is the final word on the recipes, terminology, and techniques that make up classic French cookingYou won't find big glossy photos; meticulous lists of ingredients and instructions; or details about measurements, temperature and the like here. The Repertoire is a handy, highly portable, quick reference for those who are already well versed in the classic techniques.Here, professional chefs, restaurateurs, hotel proprietors, heads of wait staff, and anyone else who is passionate and knowledgeable about fine dining will find a definitive catalog of French culinary terms along with more than 6000 recipes, each briefly listed on just a few detailed lines. Inside, twelve convenient sections cover: Fundamental elements of cookeryGarnishes and SaucesHors d'oeuvreSoupsEggsFishEntrees--meat supplies such as livers, kidneys, and heartsEntrees--meat, game, and poultrySaladsVegetables and PastasSweetsSavouriesIt is certain to be a cherished volume for new chefs and a fitting replacement for anyone who has lovingly worn out their old edition.EXCERPTSAmong the innumerable books on cookery, a few are directed to the experts and the greatest number to the nonprofessional. As a source of reference, Le Repertoire de La Cuisine, is precious to both. For serious students of cookery, it's a handy guide that is extremely complete, reliable, and easy to understand.-- Jaques Pepin, Le Repertoire de La CuisineA priest in Nigeria will have very little in common with another priest from Guam, except their common faith in God and in the Bible. I venture to say the Repertoire has been and will continue to be the common bible for the cognoscenti of cooking. -- George Lang, Le Repertoire de La Cuisine

Simple Cake: All You Need to Keep Your Friends and Family in Cake [A Baking Book]


Odette Williams - 2019
    All of these recipes and more are within your reach in Simple Cake, a love letter from Brooklyn apron and bakeware designer Odette Williams to her favorite treat. With easy recipes and inventive decorating ideas, Williams gives you recipes for 10 base cakes, 15 toppings, and endless decorating ideas to yield a treat--such as Milk & Honey Cake, Coconut Cake, Summer Berry Pavlova, and Chocolatey Chocolate Cake--for any occasion. Williams also addresses the fundamentals for getting cakes just right, with foolproof recipes that can be cranked out whenever the urge strikes. Gorgeous photography, along with Williams's warm and heartfelt writing, elevate this book into something truly special.

Mastering My Mistakes in the Kitchen: Learning to Cook with 65 Great Chefs and Over 100 Delicious Recipes


Dana Cowin - 2014
    Now, in this cookbook confessional, the vaunted “first lady of food” finally comes clean about her many meal mishaps. With the help of friends—all-star chefs, including David Chang, Jacques Pépin and Tom Colicchio and many others—Cowin takes on 100 recipes dear to her heart. Ideal dishes for the home cook, each recipe has a high “yum” factor, a few key ingredients, and a simple trick that makes them special. With every dish, she attains a critical new skill, learning invaluable lessons along the way from the hero chefs who help her discover exactly where she goes wrong.Hilarious and heartwarming, encouraging and instructional, Mastering My Mistakes in the Kitchen showcases Cowin’s plentiful cooking mistakes, inspiring anyone who loves a good meal but fears its preparation. Featuring gorgeous full color photography, it is an intimate, hands-on cooking guide from a fellow foodie and amateur home chef, designed to help even the biggest kitchen phobics overcome their reluctance, with delicious results.