Reddit mentions: The best professional cooking books

I usually only use cookbooks that are also textbooks for culinary art students. The CIA has a textbook that is phenomenal. I used to own a textbook from the western culinary institute in Portland, which is now a cordon bleu school and I dont know what they use. Those books will teach you the basics of fine cooking. Ratio is also a great book because it gives you the tools to create your own recipes using what real culinary professionals use: ratios of basic ingredients to create the desired dish.

But the creme de la creme of culinary arts books is this crazy encyclopedia of ingredients called On food and cooking: the science and lore of the kitchen. It is invaluable. It should not be the first book you buy (if youre a newbie) but it should be your most well thumbed.

For a sauce pan what you want is something with straight sides. Sautee pans have are a good substitute, but often have bases that have too wide a diameter for perfect sauces. Fine saucepots are made of copper for even heat transfer. Stainless steel is also a good substitute. What you have there is something of a hybrid between a skillet and a saucepot. Its more like a chicken fryer or something. At the restaurant we use stainless steel skillets for absolutely everything to order: sauces, fried oysters, what have you. But when you get down to the finest you need to fine a real saucepot: 2-3 qts will do, straight sides, made of copper. teach a man to fish

I dont really know how to teach you the varied tricks and such. It is something that I pick up by listening to the varied cooks and chefs I work with. What I would advise you is to watch cooking shows and read recipes and pay a lot of attention to what they are doing. Half of the things I know I dont know why I do them, just that they produce superior results. Or, consequently I would have a hot pan thrown at me if I did not do them. And I mean these are just ridiculous nuances of cooking. I was reading The Art of French Cooking and learned that you should not mix your egg yolks and sugar too early when making creme brulee because it will produce and inferior cooking and look like it has become curdled. That is a drop in the bucket to perfect creme brulee making, but it is part of the process.

I wish I could be more help, but the best advice I could give you to become the cook you want to be is go to school. Or barring that (it is a ridiculous expense) get a job cooking. Neither of those things are very efficient, but it is the best way to learn those little things.

Glad you're enjoying it. There's a whole world of vegan cooking out there to enjoy. I love to cook and I thought going vegan would put a damper on that but I've found it's been quite the opposite.

I've heard good things about the Forks Over Knives cookbook, but I keep forgetting to pick up a copy. I don't do a ton of baking and mostly do more 'improvisational cooking', so my favorite is http://www.hotforfoodblog.com/ - I really dig their philosophy on food and how they improvise and really get into being imaginative.

I agree that lots of vegan cookbooks are basic. A lot of vegan food (at least in my experience) is pretty simple and quick, and I guess those cookbooks are trying to 'sell' veganism as a convenient thing. Here are some that I think look interesting, but I couldn't tell you if they would match your skill level.

https://www.amazon.com/Vegetarian-Cooking-Academy-California-Culinary/dp/1564260380

https://www.amazon.com/Professional-Vegetarian-Cooking-Kenneth-Bergeron/dp/0471292354

https://www.amazon.com/Vegan-Gourmet-Expanded-2nd-Delicious/dp/0761516263

I'm big on trying to make things from different culinary traditions, so I also like sites like http://veganlovlie.com/ which is Mauritian fusion cuisine (!).

Sites like http://findingvegan.com/ might lead you to some cool blogs. I've definitely gone down that rabbit hole a few times.

Anyway, welcome and good luck and happy cooking. :D

This was probably my best complete bowl I've ever made.

Tonkotsu Broth: Pork neck bones and trotters. Rinsed very well, soaked overnight in the fridge. Blanched the bones twice, each for about 10 minutes. I boiled them on high with the lid on for just under 12 hours, nothing else in the pot. Toward the end I emulsified in some Benton's bacon fat. The long soak plus double blanch yielded the lightest colored milky both I have ever made. Perfectly rich and creamy with just a hint of stickiness.

Shoyu tare: Simmered together green apples, dried chantrelles that were foraged last season, ginger, scallion ends and garlic for about 1.5 hours then hit it with a couple glugs of sake. I let it reduce down by like 75%, strain, then added shoyu and mirin. Green apples have become a staple in any tare I make for pork broth.

Niboshi rishiri dashi: My Dashi game is probably the strongest component of my ramen skills. If you take Dashi seriously, you need to get this book. Flavor and Seasonings: Dashi, Umami and Fermented Foods (The Japanese Culinary Academy's Complete Japanese Cuisine) https://www.amazon.com/dp/4908325049/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_eceBCbA6APMS5 I began by placing 2 sheets of Rishiri kombu in very cold water and placed on my stove as low as it can possibly go. If you have never used Rishiri kombu, do it, the results are spectacular. After about an hour or so, as soon as the water came up to 140°, remove from heat and hit it with about 1/2cup niboshi and 2cups bonito (I shave fresh from my katsubushi block). After about 15 minutes, all the fish settled on the bottom and I strained out.

Noodles: I used a mixture of high quality Italian semolina and whole wheat flour, I know this seams weird but it yields great results. I make my own kansui with potassium carbonate and baking soda. No fat in these noodles, only water. I brought dough together in the food processor then kneaded by hand for a bit. Rolled out noodles on my pasta roller, laminating about half a dozen times. I went too thin on these noodles, the chew was nice but they were just too thin for my liking in a rich broth like this.

Toppings:
"Ramen Salt" I make this with the powder that collects in my katsubushi shaving block, togarashi and Maldon

Leek threads

Sliced green onion

Black sesame seeds

Marinated egg: six minute egg marinated in soy, mirin, sake and ginger for about 8 hours

Chasu: cured pork belly overnight in salt and brown sugar. Rinsed cure and dry roasted at high heat until nice and dark brown, lowered heat drastically and continued to cook until very tender. Pressed overnight. I made a glaze by reducing soy, rice wine vinegar, brown sugar, sake, mirin and hoisin. To pick up the pork I put slices in a cast iron at medium/low heat, onces the peices had rendered some fat and got nice color on them I flipped them over and repeatedly brushed on the glaze.

Let me know if you guys have any suggestions or questions! I love talking about my bowls!

I am a professional chef and while watching people prepare food is entertaining and sometimes also educating I actually recommend you to buy books and learn the basics first.

You can then use youtube pretty well in order to watch how to do specific things, like i.e. deboning a whole chicken for a gallantine, or how to trim certain pieces of meat.

Start with french cuisine. Once you have understood how things are connected you'll actually understand everything else.

If you want something simple and entertaining for the start I'd choose Anthony Bourdaine's Les Halles Cookbook. It's amusingly written and the recipes are fairly easy and they are all legit.

Then there is Paul Bocus. Living legend with three long-term girlfriends.

And of course you want to have Escoffier at your home. Doesn't get much more classic than that.

If you want to get a sense of what drives a top notch chef, watch In Search of Perfection by Heston Blumethal. Very very good stuff.

And finally, if you want to learn something about culinary history I highly highly recommend Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany and to learn about our lifes as a chef you need to read the (admittedly exaggerated) autobiographicly Kitchen Confidential by Bourdain.

All this provided, you won't learn cooking without actually doing it.

Edit: Depending on your budget, I also heavily recommend Alain Ducasse's Grand Livre de Cuisine.

In my experience the two biggest differences between Cook and Chef are managing costs and managing people. It’s like the difference between being an older sibling vs being a parent. The food is almost irrelevant in these two respects.

You can get the CIA’s main textbook at Amazon super cheap. That will give a broad overview and teach you about costing items. There are a ton of great books on managing people. I like Zingerman’s.

That being said, the buck stops at the Chef. The Chef better be able to answer any questions about the food quickly and efficiently. You still need to know more than your cooks.

I just took a step back from Head Chef/Owner to Sous Chef at a catering company. I am learning so much more as a sous after having been the boss than I did before becoming the boss. The journey is not always so linear.

Good luck! You will always get out what you put in. It’s on you.

Here are some links to the books I mentioned:

The Professional Chef https://www.amazon.com/dp/0764557343/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_8GI9AbHWF5FRH

A Lapsed Anarchist's Approach to Being a Better Leader (Zingerman's Guide to Good Leading) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0964895692/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_tQI9Ab17KX68J

I use a slightly modified version of the recipe from Professional Vegetarian Cooking.

dry:
2 c vital wheat gluten; 1/2 c white flour

wet:
2 T tamari; 3/4 c vegetable juice cocktail (I never have this, so I squirt about 1 to 1 1/2 T of ketchup in the bottom of a liquid measuring cup, fill to the 3/4 c line with water, and whisk it up); 1/2 c water; 4 drops liquid smoke

Mix the dry stuff separately, mix the wet stuff separately, then mix everything in a bowl. Knead until it's a homogeneous blob, then let rest for 15 minutes. Sculpt it into a log, and slice into "steaks" or strips with a serrated knife. Bring a large pot of stock to a boil, add the seitan, and let it come to a boil again. Simmer at a medium-low temperature for about an hour. Now cook it like it's meat! I think that this is a pretty good recipe, although keep in mind seitan generally won't have much taste anyway until you season it AFTER all of the boiling is done. One of my favorite ways to cook it is to pan-sear it in strips with extra virgin olive oil, tamari, and umeboshi vinegar (cook until all of the liquid from the tamari and ume is gone).

I don't bother with premade stock because if you cook with fresh ingredients enough, you will have everything you need to make it at home. Just save carrot tops/peels, celery tops, onion peels, garlic peels, parsley stems, mushroom stems, bell pepper innards, etc until you have enough to fill a pasta cooking sized pot about 1/3 to 1/2 full. Jack up the flavor by adding a couple garlic cloves and a sliced onion. Once I reused ginger that had been used to make ginger beer; stock making is pretty forgiving. Fill it to about 3/4 full with water, bring it to a boil, and let it simmer for about 45 minutes. Strain it well and compost the solids.

I know i'm late to the party on this, but i feel I need to throw this in. Get this book. This is the book they will hand her if she goes into culinary school. Start here it will give you the basics that some video will never cover. The older editions work to if you don't want to spend on the newest one. This book will teach you the science behind what we do. And very importantly terms and concepts as well as culinary math and yields. Each chapter has a test at the end with the answers at the back of the book. Could be a fun thing for you guys. Enjoy!!!

In that case, buy this book - http://www.amazon.com/Professional-Chef-Culinary-Institute-America/dp/0764557343/ref=pd_sim_b_5 - and practice. Buy a bag of potatoes and onions and work on your knife skills. Learn the ratios for each of the mother sauces - Bechamel, espagnole, Hollandaise, tomato, and veloute. YouTube is an awesome resource if you are a visual learner. The key to becoming a great line cook is practice. If you don't have time to practice at work, gather some friends or family and cook for them once a week. Instead of having everyone bring a dish to pass, have them bring an ingredient (or two). I've been doing this for several years now and it has helped me branch out and learn new techniques and experiment with different types of cuisine. Have fun and good luck!

I like the book that culinary students get at the CIA. While my knowledge has come from work experience, i do like to go back and look at this 'bible' for any technique or basics pointers. The beauty of not being traditionally trained is that there is no cookie-cutter way to do something, you can just improvise.

I have this book in the 7th edition and love it.

The Professional Chef

Hope this helps!

Four things that worked for me. (lost 60lbs a year ago and have kept it off.)

1. Weigh yourself every single day - same time of the day - naked. Get a smart scale that keeps a daily record for you. Continue to do this even after you've lost the weight. If you really want to keep weight off, you need to always know how you're doing.
   
   
2. It's always the food. Stop eating for pleasure and turn to eating for nutrition. THIS IS THE HARDEST - especially if you're seeking comfort. For me, following Penn Jillette's "Presto" was the perfect approach. It was simple and cheap. Or read ["Eat to Live"] (https://www.amazon.com/Eat-Live-Amazing-Nutrient-Rich-Sustained/dp/031612091X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1526423574&sr=8-1&keywords=eat+to+live) or ["Plant Based Nutrition"] (https://www.amazon.com/Plant-Based-Nutrition-2E-Idiots-Guides/dp/1465470204/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1526423647&sr=1-2&keywords=plant+based+nutrition).
   
   
3. DO NOT START AN EXERCISE PROGRAM until you hit your target weight. Unless of course you want the process to take longer.
   
   
4. Mild Cold Stress therapy - do it daily (or very often). Make your body cold for 6 fucking minutes. (maybe after you weigh yourself?) [Here is a timer video to use] (https://youtu.be/rIm16OcDUyQ)
   
   Like I said, this is what worked for me and once you get that weight off, jeeezus it feels good.

Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking is easily the best book to learn French cooking. It has very thorough instructions for techniques, authentic recipes, adapted for the American kitchen.

I also recommend Larousse Gastronomique,
Escoffier and
Jacques Pepin's Complete Techniques.

You mentioned that you prefer recipes that are simple and not too time consuming. The problem with that is, most authentic French cooking is time-consuming and laborious. This is why it is so delicious and intricate. However, I do have one cookbook that I don't use too much anymore, but it features great recipes that are fairly quick and accessible.

I know because this is British Indian restaurant style Indian food, which is not authentic Indian food.

There are even books that show you how to cook in this British Indian restaurant (BIR) style.

Look:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/British-Indian-Restaurant-Style-Meals-ebook/dp/B0096X3S4M/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1469234264&sr=8-1&keywords=british+indian+restaurant+curries

https://www.amazon.co.uk/British-Indian-Restaurant-Food-Home/dp/1523346418/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1469234264&sr=8-2&keywords=british+indian+restaurant+curries

Look in the comments for the first one - they're talking about chicken tikka masala, because it's a British Indian dish.

Sorry if you think this is actually what Indian food is like. It's kinda like believing that Tex-Mex food is actual Mexican food, or that Sweet and Sour Chicken is what Chinese people actually eat.

The new edition of Idiots Guide Plant Based Nutrition is full of useful information.. worth a look even if you aren’t vegan. Solid read for nutritional newbies, veterans and everyone in between!
Plant Based Nutrition 2E - Amazon

The Culinary Institute of America's text book The Professional Chef is very good at getting you through the basics, and you can find older editions for pretty cheap. For example: http://www.amazon.com/Professional-Chef-Culinary-Institute-America/dp/0764557343/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1463500041&sr=8-1&keywords=the+professional+chef+8th+edition

Get yourself a culinary textbook, such as On Cooking or Professional Cooking. Start reading. Pay attention to sanitation, safety, organization, and equipment. Get in the kitchen and work on knife skills, learning basic stocks, the mother sauces, and fundamental cooking techniques. These books are expensive, but they are better than buying a bunch of books that are just someone else's recipes. These books are the tool that allows you to develop your own recipes.

The only other book I can think of would be the Food Lover's Companion. This has been an indispensable resource in every kitchen I have ever been in.

1985

https://youtu.be/DyxK8ISCc6g

September 2016

https://youtu.be/4jBWUhFagXM

June 2018

https://youtu.be/Lo5BRAKvJoA

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8568914/

Plant-Based Actor Kevin Smith Credits Dramatic Weight Loss to Penn Jillette's Diet Program

https://www.livekindly.co/plant-based-actor-kevin-smith-credits-dramatic-weight-loss-to-penn-jillettes-vegan-diet-program/

 

It's like ripple effect, kudos to Ray Cronise who planted those seeds.

BTW, it's so nice to read the foreword of this book:

https://www.amazon.com/Plant-Based-Nutrition-2E-Idiots-Guides-ebook/dp/B078HQJ722

http://www.richroll.com/podcast/ray-cronise-julieanna-hever/

Some cookbooks that I use or are on my wishlist:

• The Fat Duck
  
  
• The French Laundry
  
  
• Alinea
  
  
• Eleven Madison Park
  
  
• Quay: food inspired by nature
  
  
• Room for Dessert
  
  
• Murgaritz: A Natural Science of Cooking
  
  
• Saison
  
  
• Rasoi: New Indian Kitchen
  
  
• Le Cinq
  
  
• Coi: Stories and Recipes
  
  
• Massimo Bottura: Never Trust a Skinny Italian Chef
  
  
• Atelier Crenn: Metamorphosis of Taste
  
  
• El Celler De Can Roca
  
  Great British Chefs also has some recipes from Michelin starred restaurants.

Here's a link to the older version which a lot of people are saying is better. It's used but apparently it's in good condition.

The Professional Chef https://www.amazon.com/dp/0764557343/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_AkBMub16KHGXH

Culinary Arts textbooks are great for building up basics and providing you with a solid foundation and general knowledge of cooking techniques.


https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1118636724/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1499635717&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=gisslen+professional+cooking&dpPl=1&dpID=51y6VzSuTiL&ref=plSrch

Professional Cooking by Wayne Gisslen. This is a somewhat expensive textbook (though you can find steeply discounted used copies of earlier editions on Amazon and Abebooks.com) used in culinary schools, and it's excellent in terms of teaching you that curriculum.

I do encourage you to learn about cooking no matter what you choose. These are the books that helped me most in my cooking career:

1. Professional cooking Often refereed to as 'the Gisslen'
   
   
2. Culinary Artistry
   
   
3. On food and Cooking
   
   The Gisslen and Culinary artistry are your starter books. On food and cooking is amazing but contains chemistry/biology and other scientific explanations of what your doing which is important but not for the actual act of learning to produce food.

I'm going to go with the classics here. I think these two books should be a staple in the kitchen. They are in mine, at least. And they are covered in flour and bits of sauce and random stuff. Makes them great!

Escoffier; Le Guide Culinaire

Larousse Gastronomique

Since you ask about knives, the best English-language book I know of about Japanese kitchen knives is https://www.amazon.com/Japanese-Kitchen-Knives-Essential-Techniques/dp/1568364903

The Professional Chef and http://rouxbe.com are fantastic.

Plant-Based Nutrition (Idiot's Guide) 2nd Ed. is a fairly well-rounded and practical book that is really good to start people off and running. Still waiting for Cronise to come out with his science-heavy book though.

Make Cold Espresso Drinks Just Like A Pro

>I find myself idealizing the idea of being a polymath

Why? What are you looking to get out of it? Is it that you don't feel you know as much as you should or something?

I only ask because it's a rather difficult request; with 'cooking' for instance do you want to understand how to do something? (most cookbooks would be more than sufficient, for instance this one from Marcus Wareing). Or do you want to understand what's happening to the food as you prepare it? If so, something like this might be more appropriate.

I think I understand your reasons; I'm guessing you're around the same age as I am?(late teens/early 20's)

I am looking for the equivalent book but for baking. I have read this cover to cover and am looking to learn some really solid baking basics.

Use this book as a guide.

Plant-Based Nutrition, 2E (Idiot's Guides) https://www.amazon.com/dp/1465470204/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_Y3qTAb4F5M0QT

Ray partnered with Juliana to create practical guide to plant based.

His book will focus more on the science behind the diet.

This is my only real cookbook and it has taught me well:
http://www.amazon.com/Professional-Cooking-Wayne-Gisslen/dp/0471382787/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1421255885&sr=1-5&keywords=gisslen+professional+cooking&pebp=1421255898065&peasin=471382787

My exgf gave me the CIA's The Professional Chef for my birthday one year.

It's amazing. It walks you through terms, technique, how to select produce, what the yield is for various ingredients, and of course has tons of restaurant quality recipes.

The only problem is you have to do a lot of math to scale down the recipes for just a few people.

>I'm looking for a book that will teach you which spices are good together, what kind of foods compliment each other (textural-wise, taste-wise, etc).

I've used Culinary Artistry for that exact function. The criticisms I've seen of this book tend towards the "if you didn't know that, then you're a simpleton" type, and I pretty much ignore those. Make no mistake, it is absolutely not a cookbook or a chef school textbook. For the later, please turn to The Professional Chef.

it's one in a series and the chef has a youtube channel as well. the third book has more chemistry in it but i think the second one has more unique recipes. i don't have the first one yet.

https://www.amazon.ca/Cooking-Russia-2-Greg-Easter/dp/193493996X/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=cooking+in+russia&qid=1568945834&s=gateway&sr=8-3

link to his youtube channel

https://www.youtube.com/user/CookinginRussia

The only cookbook you will need

http://www.amazon.com/Professional-Edition-Student-Study-Guide/dp/0470119403

Biology and chemistry then eat the results. Ok, not exactly science book, but a bifl book none the less

try this

http://www.amazon.com/Food-Presentation-Secrets-Techniques-Professionals/dp/1554074916/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1335573464&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.com/Working-Plate-The-Food-Presentation/dp/047147939X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1335573464&sr=8-2

http://www.amazon.com/Food-Styling-The-Preparing-Camera/dp/0470080191/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1335573464&sr=8-5

http://www.amazon.com/Stacks-The-Art-Vertical-Food/dp/1580080626/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1335573464&sr=8-4

Plant-Based Nutrition, 2E (Idiot's Guides).
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1465470204/

The Culinary Institute of America's The Professional Chef

Culinary Institute of America's Professional Chef is a godsent. I purchased mine in December of last year and have learned so much from it since then.

I've been cooking for almost a decade (self taught), and this book has vastly expanded my knowledge in just a few months. Plus the layouts are so pretty.

edit- spelling and syntax

This one. It was a lot more expensive when I bought it too.

http://www.amazon.com/Escoffier-Auguste/dp/047090027X

You are probably looking for Escoffier and his book Le Guide Culinaire

http://www.amazon.com/Professional-Chef-Culinary-Institute-America/dp/0470421355/

http://www.amazon.com/Professional-Cooking-Wayne-Gisslen/dp/1118636724/

This makes me so happy, truly. I feel like I can be kinda a zealot about Real Food vs Fake Food (and like, I'm human too, I have 19 different kinds of pumpkin spice snacks in the pantry right now haha) but I honestly feel like there's this whole other way of life that so many people miss out on. And on WW, which is supposed to be a lifestyle and teach healthy habits (the 'teaching' aspect is one part of the diet that..doesn't work for me..I have my own philosophy there) it's still incentivising crappy food and people are still trying to just find the lowest point substitutes for the problems that brought them here in the first place.

(I mean, I get it. A carrot is not a Pringle and never will be. And sometimes you just want a damn Pringle. But there's a carrot juice dressing from the State Bird Provisions cookbook that is to. die. for. No pre-made shelf-stable grocery store dressing will ever match what you can make yourself in 5 minutes.)

Zwei Bücher die dir von Grund auf an alle Prinzipien des Kochens erklären sind:


https://www.amazon.com/Salt-Fat-Acid-Heat-Mastering/dp/1476753830

Gibt's auch ne Serie auf Netflix.


https://www.amazon.com/4-Hour-Chef-Cooking-Learning-Anything/dp/1328519163/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=Four+hour+chef&qid=1557678541&s=gateway&sr=8-1


Kannst die ersten 50-100 Seiten überspringen, wenn dich Lernprinzipien nicht interessieren. Danach kommen aber einfache Rezepte die dir spezielle Kochtechniken beibringen.