Please recommend some cookbooks (or websites, YT etc)

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My go to for breakfast: The Breakfast Book- by Marion Cunningham. This is a classic, no fancy pictures, just great recipes.

The Union Square Cookbook, another classic.

My newest and has a great backstory The Gaijin Cookbook by Ivan Orkin and Chris Ying. Our only Japanese cookbook and I know nothing about this cuisine but the whole family has enjoyed making and eating the recipes.
 
The French laundry cookbook in my opinion is the best foundation of information for a beginner cook. There’s advanced techniques in it as well, but the 101 stuff is all there.
Nose to Tail by Ferguson Henderson is a book that all meat eaters should read with an open mind. IMO one of the most important cookbooks written.
 
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DamageInc said:
I always recommend Chef John of Food Wishes for beginner cooks.
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I second that recommendation. Most of his recipes are are not overly complex, and he takes a very down to-to-earth and pragmatic approach. The videos are well presented and edited, and you can see the techniques clearly.

Definitely a good resource for branching out into other cuisines without having to buy specialist regional cookbooks, or getting overwhelmed by extravagant and complex techniques or elaborate presentation.
 
Bourdain - Les Halles cookbook, great beginner French book. Simple and slightly sarcastic

New Spanish Table

Jerusalem-ottolenghi

Shaya

Zahav

King Solomon’s table

Salt, fat, Acid, Heat

Harumi at home

The flavor Bible

And most surprisingly, Jamie Oliver’s meals in minutes. This one is a whole meal prep format. All the steps like a professional cook going back and forth on everything from dessert to sides to main. Each sequential step has you dancing around the kitchen for 60-90 min and at the end, you have the entire meal completed. Excellent for time management in the kitchen. Have your favorite playlist on and it’s lots of fun!
 
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I'll reccomend to books by Australian based authors.

1. The whole fish cookbook by Josh niland.
2. Meat; the ultimate companion by Anthony Puharich
 
Ken Forkish, Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast -- for your daily bread
Naomi Pommeroy, Taste and Technique
Ottolenghi ... take your pick. I like "Sweet"
The Zuni Cafe Cookbook
Marcella Hazan, The Essentials of Italian Classic Cooking
 
Another worthwhile cookbook for the developing cook is David Tanis's Market Cooking. It is organized by vegetable ingredient and the recipes are generally both simple and (IMO) good. Despite the vegetable focus it isn't a vegetarian cookbook as many of the recipes use meat.
 
If you're into real Italian food i.e. not pizza, pasta, lasagne ********, then there's a very good book:

Cucina Rustica
 
My recomendation is a little different since lots of great ones have already been mentioned. You Suck at Cooking. Its a little trendy and hipsterish, goes over basics, doesnt take itself too seriously and encourages expermentation. I got it for my sister and she loves it.
 
If you love to cook Pizza in WoodFired Pizza Ovens , you should check ilfornino.com "Recipes". ilFornino Recipes are my favorites Recipes.
 
Just adding to the other (excellent) recommendations:

Youtube:
My Name is Andong
Peaceful cuisine
Alex French guy cooking
Jamie Oliver/Gordon Ramsey
Anything Jacques Pepin
Two greedy Italians

Books:
Japanese Farm Food- Nancy Singleton Hachisu (only cookbook I bought 3x)
Washoko- Elizabeth Andoh

I haven't found any really good Chinese cookbooks (although "All under Heaven" is probably the best that I've seen. Ditto for good Italian cookbooks.

I'm not sure if that's because Chinese and Italian cooking seems to go by feel, sensitivity to ingredients, and instinct? Or maybe I need to learn to read the respective languages more?

Anyways, I forgot how I missed this forum!
 
mlau said:
I haven't found any really good Chinese cookbooks (although "All under Heaven" is probably the best that I've seen. Ditto for good Italian cookbooks.
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A decent YouTube channel for Chinese recipes is Souped Up Recipes. I've made quite a few of her dishes and they all turned out really nice.
 
The Classic Food of Northern Italy by Anna del Conte is a mega classsic, really good book.
Italian Food by Elizabeth David is also really very good and authentic - slightly shows it ages in a few places, but gets the fundamentals down really well. These two are a great start in "proper" Italian food.

Chinese, lots of regional variants but Fuschia Dunlop has an outstanding Sichuan cookery book (been updated recently). Yan Kit-So Classic Food of China (out of print but worth looking for a secondhand version) also gives a really broad appreciation for Chinese cuisine, as well as lots of authentic varied and excellent recipes.
 
If you want good basic cooking, America's Test Kitchen, Betty Crocker, Good Housekeeping. I've got the old Frugal Gourmet books that have some great recipes. For websites, I second Serious Eats. For Asian, Woks of Life.
 
podzap said:
If you're into real Italian food i.e. not pizza, pasta, lasagne ********, then there's a very good book:

Cucina Rustica
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I picked this up on this recommendation. I've been cooking from it the last few days and it's been a total hit, many thanks!
 
My favorite Chinese cooking books in English from my private collection.

Chinese Gastronomy by Hsiang Ju LIN and Tsuifeng LIN. Out of print but can be found on Amazon for a hefty price.
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Life is a Banquet by Belinda Wong. She grew up in a rich family, became a lawyer, and later owned a gourmet ingredient shop which is no longer around. After writing 9 Chinese books with recipes which showed people how to cook with ingredients from her shop, this is her first English book. It starts off telling you about her background then mainly gourmet recipes suited for Chinese banquets. Sadly the book is long out of print and I have no idea where to find another copy. I will quote a recipe from it for educational purposes.
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For Cantonese style cooking, I recommend a set of books by Steve Lee called Grandpa's Kitchen 1-3. The author is a well known retired HK martial arts movie star whose love of cooking led to a Hong Kong TV cooking show series. Later on he wrote this bestselling bilingual Chinese-English set of cookbooks which is now with many printings.
ISBN 978-962-14-6400-2
ISBN 978-962-14-6730-0
ISBN 978-962-14-7056-0
I think you can get it in the US through yesasia.com
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Phoenix Claws and Jade Trees by Kian Lam Kho
I think of it as a modern take on Chinese Gastronomy. Available on Amazon.
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tchan001 said:
My favorite Chinese cooking books in English from my private collection.

Chinese Gastronomy by Hsiang Ju LIN and Tsuifeng LIN. Out of print but can be found on Amazon for a hefty price.
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Life is a Banquet by Belinda Wong. She grew up in a rich family, became a lawyer, and later owned a gourmet ingredient shop which is no longer around. After writing 9 Chinese books with recipes which showed people how to cook with ingredients from her shop, this is her first English book. It starts off telling you about her background then mainly gourmet recipes suited for Chinese banquets. Sadly the book is long out of print and I have no idea where to find another copy. I will quote a recipe from it for educational purposes.
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For Cantonese style cooking, I recommend a set of books by Steve Lee called Grandpa's Kitchen 1-3. The author is a well known retired HK martial arts movie star whose love of cooking led to a Hong Kong TV cooking show series. Later on he wrote this bestselling bilingual Chinese-English set of cookbooks which is now with many printings.
ISBN 978-962-14-6400-2
ISBN 978-962-14-6730-0
ISBN 978-962-14-7056-0
I think you can get it in the US through yesasia.com
View attachment 82202
View attachment 82203
View attachment 82204

Phoenix Claws and Jade Trees by Kian Lam Kho
I think of it as a modern take on Chinese Gastronomy. Available on Amazon.
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Great excerpt from the Belinda Wong book; you’re preaching to the choir here!

Thanks TC, fun post to read
 
I'm still a beginner cook but I've checked out Joy of cooking, and America's test kitchen from the library. Both have been helpful.
Also thewoksoflife.com for Chinese food.
 
I'm not sure a separate thread is warranted so I'm bumping this one with a recent YouTube discovery that is really, really good. Chef Jean-Pierre has a small channel that hadn't had any new content since 2012, but recently he started it up again. The guy is absolutely hilarious and his techniques, teaching methods, etc are spectacular. I've been binge watching them for the past two days, and there's some excellent tips sprinkled in pretty much every video. He's opinionated, but very casual and funny. Makes for good watching.

The guy has the funniest accent, sounding both French and Italian and/or Cajun at the same time. I think I'll be making his Tomato Tart recipe soon.

https://www.youtube.com/chefjeanpierre/videos
 
Famima said:
I picked this up on this recommendation. I've been cooking from it the last few days and it's been a total hit, many thanks!
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Sorry I missed your response and glad you liked the book. I bought this book back in 1996 (when I already had 20 years experience with experimental cooking) and have tried lots and lots of stuff from it. I may not make too many of the recipes verbatim any more but the book itself has sharpened my game immensely over the years in terms of just being able to create amazing Italian food right off the top of my head.
 
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