I'm a bit of a cookbook junkie, so I have a bunch to recommend. I'm interpreting this as "good cookbooks from cuisines in Asia" so there are some that are native and others that are from specific restaurants in the US, but I would consider these legit both in terms of the food and the recipes/techniques. Here are a few of my favorites:


Pan-Asian

• Asian Dumplings - the masterpiece on all things dumpling
  
• Asian American - Dale Talde's (Top Chef) book with lots of Asian cultures' food in the US
  
• Asian Pickles - pickles and fermented foods from throughout Asia
  
• Lucky Rice - recipes from the Asian festival of the same name
  
• The Asian Grandmother's Cookbook - traditional cooking passed down to American cooks
  
  Burmese
  
  
• Burma:Rivers of Flavor - good focus on difference in Burmese cuisine from other regional
  
  Cambodian
  
  
• Num Pang - Cambodian sandwich restaurant in NYC
  
• Cambodian Cooking - GREAT book on Cambodian cuisine, supporting refugees
  
  Chinese
  
  
• Ken Hom Complete Chinese Cookbook - great primer for cooking Chinese food using ingredients commonly available in US
  
• China Moon - classic SF Chinese restaurant food
  
• Feeding the Dragon - modern culinary journey through all of China
  
• Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking - omnibus focused on the home chef
  
• Breath of a Wok - focus on wok technique at home
  
• Every Grain of Rice - wonderful Sichuan food for home cooks
  
  Indian
  
  
• Madhur Jaffrey Indian Cooking - actually, any of her cookbooks are wonderful for Indian cooking
  
• Savour Mumbai - looks at Indian cuisine as a melting pot in Mumbai
  
• The Indian Family Cookbook - modern South Indian food
  
• Indian Harvest - Vikas Khanna's family cookbook
  
• Made in India - classic Indian food, from street to home
  
  Indonesia
  
  
• The Food of Indonesia - everything you need for a rijstaffel!
  
  Japanese
  
  
• Japanese Farm Food - authentic rural Japanese cooking
  
• Preserving the Japanese Way - how to make awesome Japanese pickled vegetables
  
• Sushi Chef - not strictly speaking a cookbook, but "Jiro Dreams of Sushi" book in English
  
• The Japanese Grill - authentic hibachi and Japanese grill recipes
  
• Japanese Comfort Food - lots of traditional Japanese recipes
  
• Nanban - Japanese "soul food"
  
• Tokyo Cult Recipes - hip modern urban food from Tokyo
  
• Yum Yum Bento Boxes - updated modern take on bento boxes
  
• Ivan Ramen - traditional ramen for a Western audience
  
• Izakaya - traditional Japanese pub food & small plates
  
• Nikkei - emigrant Japanese food culture in South America
  
• Donabe - traditional Japanese hot pot recipes
  
• Kyotofu - very unique Japanese dessert cookbook
  
  Korean
  
  
• K Food - modern take on Korean street food
  
• Maangchi's Real Korean Cooking - great resource for Korean cooking in a non-pro kitchen
  
• Traditional Food - omnibus of four regions of Korean food
  
• Koreatown - authentic, approachable guide to Korean food in a US context
  
• Smoke & Pickles - Edward Lee's fusion of his Korean heritage and southern barbeque
  
• The Kimchi Cookbook - many, many recipes for kimchi...
  
  Malaysian
  
  
• Malaysian Cooking - good overview of Malay cooking
  
  Middle Eastern
  
  
• The New Persian Kitchen - modern Iranian food
  
• Ottolenghi - Israeli-Palestinian collaboration
  
• Persiana - dynamic modern recipes from throughout the Middle East
  
• Zahav - modern Israeli food
  
• Sweet Middle East - traditional and modern desserts
  
  Philippine
  
  
• Filipino Homestyle Dishes - good intro to classic Filipino dishes
  
  Russian
  
  
• Mamushka - focus on Ukraine
  
  Sri Lankan
  
  
• Hidden Kitchens of Sri Lanka - beautiful photo-cookbook on Sri Lankan cuisine
  
  Taiwanese
  
  
• The Food of Taiwan - um... food... from Taiwan
  
  Thailand
  
  
• Nong's Thai Kitchen - she beat Bobby Flay in pad thai
  
• Pok Pok - Portland's most AWESOME Asian restaurant
  
  Turkish
  
  
• Istanbul:Recipes from the Heart of Turkey - lovely focus on urban Turkish food
  
• Anatolia - wonderful approachable approach to Turkish cuisine
  
• Essential Turkish Cuisine - focus on history and evolution of Turkish food
  
  Vietnamese
  
  
• The Slanted Door - great Vietnamese restaurant cookbook
  
• Vietnamese Market Cookbook - focus on simple Vietnamese from fresh ingredients
  
• Into the Vietnamese Kitchen - traditional Vietnamese home cooking
  
• The Banh Mi Cookbook - the greatest sandwich in the world!
  
• Vietnamese Home Cooking - another great overview
  
  (edit: screwed up a couple links)

Well, I'm half-Chinese. I'll give you two cookbook recommendations which are full of recipes which really resonate with that part of my background:

• Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking by Eileen Yin-Fei Lo. While I'm generally not big on Chinese cookbooks not specializing in one or two regional cuisines, this book gets a pass because it's so organized and pedantic. It builds itself up from simple to complex and includes recipes which build on each other. It also features a large section on ingredients. An additional pro is that it includes the Chinese characters which makes it easier to find the proper product at your Asian grocer. I love it so much that I lugged this book to Taiwan with me and used it as my cooking guide/reference.
  
• Land of Plenty by Fuchsia Dunlop. Of all the regional Chinese cuisines with which I have experience, I love the multi-layered flavors of Sichuan the most. It was through Dunlop's book that I first discovered this magnificent cuisine and it encouraged me to discover some of the Sichuanese restaurants in the Bay Area. Instructions are clear and she does a great job bringing Sichanese food to life. An absolute must own if you are at all interested in regional Chinese food. Her book on Hunanese food is also pretty killer.
  
  In addition to the aforementioned Chinese food, I'm just a fat piggy who loves to eat. Here are a few more recs:
  
  
• Thai Food by David Thompson. This is the bible of Thai food for English speakers. It's nearly 700 pages long and not a page is wasted on fluff. It's more than just a cookbook, it's a anthropological study on Thai people, their history and the way they eat. An immense book. If you are more into pictures, check out his book on Thai Street Food.
  
• Into the Vietnamese Kitchen by Andrea Nguyen. This was the book that really unlocked Vietnamese food for me. I adore how many fresh herbs/veggies are used and how it creates a complex, yet light, cuisine. And don't get me wrong when I say light...it's as full flavored as can be, but without heaviness. In the interim since this book came out, others have showed up on the market which are as good (see Charles Phan's recent book), but Nguyen's book will always have a special place in my heart.
  
• ad hoc at home by Thomas Keller. Thomas Keller is arguably the most important American chef of the past 20 years, so when he turns his sights on homestyle food, you can be sure it's done with correct technique and style. While this book isn't as notable as TFL cookbook or his sorta primer on sous vide cooking, I'm including it because it has recipes which people will actually use. Unparallelled technique, good recipes and delicious food equal a winning cookbook. One note: it's not dumbed down and some of the recipes take time, but everything I've ever made from it has been great.
  
• Alinea by Grant Achatz. {Disclaimer: I worked for Grant Achatz for a couple of years.} Everyone should own at least one cookbook which is completely out of reach, but serves to inspire. When you flip through this book, your jaw will drop and you will wonder, multiple times, "WTF?!?!?!" It's an amazing testament to how open and possible American cuisine is at the moment and you'll do yourself well to flip through it. Additionally, the photographs and the book itself are phenomenal. The paper, in particular, is well worth the price of admission. It's sexy shit, yo.
  
  Feel free to drop me a line if you need more recommendations. I've got quite the cookbook collection (I love to cook, it's not just cookbook porn) and love to share my thoughts.

Basically gonna echo most of the answers already posted, but just to pile on:

• 8" chef's knife. 10" is longer than may be comfortable and 12" is longer than necessary, but 7" may start to feel a little short if she's ever slicing large melon or squash. I'm a casual knife nerd and I have knives by Wusthof, Victorinox, Shun and Mac. My favorite.
  
  
• This Dutch oven. Enameled and cast iron just like the Le Creuset that a few other comments have mentioned, but much, much cheaper. I own two and they're both great. I also have the non-enameled version for baking bread, but I don't recommend it for general use unless you're a Boy Scout. Here's an entertaingly-written blog post comparing the Lodge vs. Le Creuset in a short rib cookoff.
  
  
• This cutting board and this cutting board conditioner. The importance of an easy and pleasant to use prep surface can't be overstated. I'm listing this third on purpose; this is one of the most important things your kitchen can have. A recipe that calls for a lot of chopping is no fun when you're fighting for counter space to do the chopping, or doing it on a shitty plastic board.
  
  
• A cheap scale and a cheap thermometer. Seriously, these are as important as the cutting board.
  
  
• Just gonna crib this one right off /u/Pobe420 and say cheapo 8–10" (I recommend 10–12" but that's my preference) nonstick skillet. One note I'd add is that pans with oven-safe handles are a bit more dual-purpose than pans with plastic or rubberized handles. You can't finish a pork chop in the oven in a skillet with a rubberized handle. But one could say you shouldn't be cooking a pork chop on a nonstick pan to begin with. The important thing is to keep this one cheap: you're going to be replacing it every couple of years, there's no getting around that. For my money $30 or less, and $30 is pretty expensive for these things.
  
  
  

• Cookbooks
  

  Nothing inspires cooking like a good cookbook collection. The great news about cookbooks is that they're often bought as gifts or souvenirs and they make their way onto the used market cheap and in great condition. Here are my suggestions for a great starter shelf:
  
  

1. The Food Lab by J. Kenji López-Alt. I kind of hate that this is my number one recommendation, but I don't know your wife and I do know J. Kenji López-Alt. This one is brand new so you're unlikely to find it used and cheap, but as a catch-all recommendation it has to take first place. Moving on to the cheap stuff:
   
   
2. Regional French Cooking by Paul Bocuse. This is possibly the friendliest authoritative book on French food out there, and a hell of a lot easier to just dive into than Julia Child (Julia is the expert, and her book is an encyclopedia). Bocuse is the undisputed king of nouvelle cuisine and people like Eric Ripert and Anthony Bourdain (so maybe a generation ahead of you and I) came from him. Paul Bocuse is French food as we know it, and yet this book—an approachable, coffee-table sized thing—still has a recipe for fucking mac and cheese. It's outstanding.
   
   
3. Theory & Practice / The New James Beard by James Beard. These will completely cover your entire library of American cooking. Nothing else needed until you get region-specific. When you do, go for something like this.
   
   
4. Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan. When she died, the NYT ran a second obituary that was just her recipe for bolognese.
   
   
5. Christ, top five. Who gets 5th? I'm going with From Curries To Kebabs by Madhur Jaffrey. Don't get bamboozled into buying "Madhur Jaffrey's Curry Bible" which is the same book, repackaged and priced higher. You want the one with the hot pink dust jacket, it's unmistakeable. This is one of those end-all books that you could cook out of for the rest of your life. It covers almost every diet and almost every country that Beard and Bocuse don't.
   
   
6. Honorable mentions: Here come the downvotes. Pok Pok by Andy Ricker. If you're American and you want to cook Thai, this is the one. Ten Speed Press can go home now. The Book of Jewish Food by Claudia Rosen (so close to making the list). I shouldn't need to say much about this; it's the book of diasporic Jewish food, which means it covers a lot of time and almost every possible country. It's a no-brainer. Thai Food by David Thompson (a perfect oral history of Thai food for English speakers, only it doesn't include Pok Pok's precise measurements, which in practice I've found important). Flour Water Salt Yeast by Ken Forkish. Not for someone who just wants to become a baker, this book is for someone who wants to make Ken Forkish's bread. And for a casual bread baker I can't imagine a better introduction. Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table by Mai Pham. Andrea Nguyen is out there and Andrea Nguyen is awesome, but I really like Mai Pham's book. It's accessible, reliable and regional. You don't get the dissertation-level breakdown on the origins of chicken pho that you get from Andrea, but the recipe's there, among many others, and it's fucking outstanding. Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. This vegan cookbook is dope as hell and will really expand your imagination when it comes to vegetables. This could actually have been number five.

I think there are a few books that would help. I don't know of any specific titles but I know there are some fairly famous books that basically talk about flavors and which flavors go with what. They are quite specific and thorough. It'd be worth learning more about that if you try things on your own a lot.

I think something else that really helps is understanding the science behind cooking. Places like The Food Lab are great for that. Check out Kenji's other posts on that site as well, mostly from the Burger lab. He covers a lot of the science and always writes about the full journey. What his goals were, what he tried, what did/didn't work and why. Very useful.

Finally, if you can grill, bake and fry, you might try and play around with the 'new' forms of cooking that are popular. Read up on Sous Vide (The Food Lab has a great article with a beer cooler hack) and Molecular Gastronomy. For MG, this is a great source as well as this and on that blog for a fun read check out this

If you want some good cookbooks with a challenge look for anything by Thomas Keller, Heston Blumenthal, David Chang and a few others. I'd say start with Keller's Ad Hoc. The recipes are things you are familiar with but often quite complex. Check out this for an example. I don't have it myself, but I've heard for lovers of asian food, this is the best book out there.

Asia's a big, ancient place. Even within each nation there are unique styles of regional and ethnic fare.

With that in mind, I'd love to see some recommendations here for awesome Indian, Filipino, Hmong, Uzbek, etc. cookbooks.

Japanese

Lets get beyond sushi and hibatchi.

Shizuo Tsuji's Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art is a great starting point. If you want to get technical you should check out Ando's Washoku or Hachisu's Preserving the Japanese Way.

If you want to start simple, Hachisu also has a great book on Japanese Farm Food. Ono and Salat have written a great noodle slurping opus in Japanese Soul Cooking.

Chinese

What we've come to think of as Chinese food in the US is a natural part of human appropriation of food styles, but with all due respect to Trader Vic's, crab rangoon and other buffet staples really aren't the real deal. Food in China is extremely regional. You don't have to go very deep to see the vast differentiation in spicy Schezwan recipes and Cantonese Dim Sum culture.

For your reading pleasure:

Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking Eileen Yin-Fei Lo.

Breath of the Wok by Grace Young and Alan Richardson.

Phoenix Claws and Jade Trees by Kian Lam Kho and Jody Horton.

All Under Heaven: Recipes from the 35 Cuisines of China by Carolyn Phillips.

Some people might freak out that I'm placing Erway's The Food of Taiwan under the Chinese category, but I'm not going to get into a political debate here. Taiwan has had a lot of different culinary influences due to migration / occupation and that is really the take away here.

Go forth, make bao.

Korean

Korea is having it's moment right now and if you want the classics, Hi Soo Shin Hepinstall's Growing up in a Korean Kitchen is a good baseline. It has all the greatest hits.

You also can't cook Korean food without kimchi. The only book I've read is Lauryn Chun's The Kimchi Cookbook which is kind of underwhelming considering the hundreds of styles of Kimchi that have been documented. The process of making kimchi (kimjang) even has a UNESCO world heritage designation. With that in mind, I think it's only a matter of time before we see a English book on the subject that has depth.

Given the cuisine's popularity, there are several other cookbooks on Korean food that have recently been published within the last year or so, I just haven't gotten around to reading them yet, so I won't recommend them here.

Thai

David Thompson's Thai Food and Thai Street Food are both excellent. /u/Empath1999 's recommendation of Andy Ricker's Pok Pok is excellent but it focuses on Northern Thai cuisine, so if you want to venture into central and southern Thai fare, Thompson's the other farang of note.

Vietnamese

Nguyen's Into the Vietnamese Kitchen provides a nice survey to Vietnamese cooking. Charles Phan also has a couple of cookbooks that are quite good but I'm sure that there are zealots out there who would bemoan authenticity in either Vietnamese Home Cooking or The Slanted Door, but seriously, who gives a shit, the dude has Beard Awards under his belt for fuck's sake.

TL;DR OP means well but its long past time to bury "Asian" as a catch-all for such a large and diverse part of a continent, no?

When I make burgers, if I'm grilling I just sprinkle on some Montreal steak seasoning (specifically this from McCormick) but if I'm cooking it on the stove I don't add anything, just cook it in a little butter or vegetable oil. The burgers themselves are always pure beef; usually good, fresh ground beef (frozen is acceptable if you have it, but fresh is the best) and never preformed unless you need to make dozens for a cookout or something. When forming the burgers, I generally go for 1/3 to 1/2 pound patties, as loosely packed as possible (just enough to hold together on the grill); when grilling, you'll want to add a dimple on top (just poke down the center to compress it a bit more), since burgers tend to poof a bit on the grill (though they don't seem to on the stove for some reason). I also make "premium" burgers on occasion by starting with steak and chopping it myself, although that's a much more involved process (I got the recipe for that from this Cook's Illustrated cookbook). No seasoning or other additives or sauces go into my burgers, just on top of them.

Unfortunately, I'm not the best at grilling, that's my dad's territory - however, it's pretty straightforward, you should only flip the burger once. I'd suggest listening to other's advice on when to flip the burger. You add the cheese when the burger is very close to being done, and make sure you toast the buns on the grill as well (timing isn't too important, you mostly want to crisp up the inside - still being warm is ideal, but it's okay if the buns cool off by the time you're eating). Stovetop cooking is also a viable option, one which I'm more experienced with, but I couldn't really tell you how to tell when the burgers are done. The cookbook I linked to above is where I'm starting from, I'm just experimenting from the basics I learned from that book (it's well worth getting even if you never make the burgers, just about everything in there is really good). The really basic version is what I said above, cook them in a pan with a bit of oil or butter and flip them only once.

For the cheese, I generally use either cheddar or jack. If all we have is the shitty processed cheese product (Kraft Singles or some generic version of them), I won't have any on my burger (it adds a lot, but isn't really necessary).

The bun is really important, but that is the hardest to tell you what to get - what's available in UK stores may be wildly different from what's available in the US, even finding the same brands in different parts of the US can be hard. To start, just look for a bun from a company that makes good bread (the best regular loafs of bread around here (Connecticut in the US) are from Martin's and Freihofer's, and the best burger buns come out of the same bakeries).

As for the toppings, you can do whatever you like. My preferences are either ketchup (Heinz) and mayo or barbecue sauce (something ketchup-based, not vinegar-based). Bacon is great anytime I can get it, but it's not necessary. The closest thing to a vegetable that I'll put on (aside from the ketchup) is this stuff (not necessarily that brand, I use something from a local spice store, but it's the same thing). Experiment to find what works, but to start with I'd go for just cheese and ketchup and mayo.

edit: Oh, and drink some good root beer or sarsaparilla with the burger. A&W is my preference among the big companies, although Barq's is a close second. Locally-brewed stuff can be really good, though, I generally drink sarsaparilla from Hosmer Mountain with mine.

I have no problem with swearing in general. It is not to my taste, but it is not something I am against. This particular book is not just full of swears, it is specifically imitating the cadence and language that it supposes urban black people use. And that is the sole "joke" of it, the juxtaposition of fancy vegan food and "hood" language. The authors concealed their identities for a long time allowing readers to think they were something other than who they are.

I never said that white people should not be allowed to cook whatever they want to or that it wouldn't be good food. In fact, I recommended Thug Kitchen as a book that I have heard good things about and that my friends really enjoy, with the caveat that I have never personally tried it for those reasons.

Yes, I do know that many restaurants hire chefs and cooks that are of varying ethnicities and I did say appropriation is not about any individual person cooking food, but is about profiting and power dynamics. I would rather support a vegan cookbook by an actual black person like Bryant Terry or Makini Howell than Thug Kitchen. Similarly I would rather financially support PoC owned restaurants rather than white owned restaurants that get more recognition and praise and are able to charge higher prices. I say white because white people are the majority where I live and are in a position of power over people of color. That doesn't mean that the white restaurants don't serve good food, it means I recognize that they aren't operating on an even playing field.

You can call me a SJW, it doesn't bother me. My passion for social justice lead me to veganism because I believe all living beings deserve respect, consideration, opportunities and just treatment. Veganism should be intersectional.

Investing in culinary texts rather than cookbooks really helped me. These books provide very basic recipes along with relevant techniques/information. Once you get these down, it's a heck of a lot easier to be creative with your dishes (e.g. knowing the 5 mother sauces of French cuisine leads to literally thousands of other recipes).


Suggested reading material:

Sauces: Classical and Contemporary Sauce Making
One of my absolute favorites, I refer to this book pretty much every time I'm in the mood for something new. The author does a great job at keeping things simple while providing great information on traditional applications (along with how to flavor things to your own tastes) for dishes ranging from Mornay sauce to Ganache.


On Cooking: A Textbook of Culinary Fundamentals
This was my required text for intro culinary classes, which makes it expensive. I'm sure finding older/used versions will be much cheaper and just as useful. This is a great resource for techniques such as deboning poultry, ideal use for various potato species, the different cuts of beef and pork, the best cooking methods for said cuts, culinary terms, etc.


The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking
My god do I love Marcella Hazan. She's the Italian Julia Child, and does a fantastic job at making intimidating dishes much more approachable. While this is more of a classic cookbook than the previous two, Hazan provides info on produce selection, basic kitchen techniques, ideal tools to have, and, of course, hundreds of traditional Italian recipes with notes on altering flavor profiles.


YMMV, depending on how deep into the cooking world you'd like to get. Sometimes it's just easier for me to look through google results of a specific dish for inspiration. Good luck!

Welcome!!

If soul food is what you know & want, look into Bryant Terry's cookbooks. Vegan Soul Kitchen has gotten some amazing reviews. I've actually been thinking of picking up his most recent one, Afro-Vegan which is African, Southern, & Caribbean inspired recipes. Plus it looks like some good food porn for my coffee table book collection!

This subreddit is what inspired me to go vegan myself so I can attest that there are a lot of great resources around here. The people are friendly and helpful so never hesitate to ask questions!

My one piece of advice is this: patience. I know you've experienced this revelation of sorts and it's exciting and you want to share it with the world! I know I did. But sometimes the world is a few paces behind. My friends and family are still slowly coming around to the idea about a year and a half after the fact. So don't be discouraged if they don't hop on the vegan train with you right away. Have no expectations, don't take it personally, and enjoy the small victories.

Good luck! You're doing a great thing :)

No one has mentioned it yet, but I learned a lot from cook books.

These are not just lists or recipes, but instruction about techniques and methods and processes.

Some good ones are:

• How to Cook Everything: The Basics
  
• Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book
  
• Cook's Illustrated Cookbook
  
  Having an actual dead tree book can be more convenient in the kitchen than a laptop or mobile device with an ebook.
  
  If you can find episodes of Good Eats by Alton Brown he is really good at explaining things. Videos can be good, but a lot of times but really only when you know what it is you're looking for. With a book it is going to give you topics that you might never have thought of.
  
  But for reals now, you are going to get the best value learning how to cook the basics. Your Instant pot is AWESOME for cooking dry beans. Get pound of dry black beans and 3 pounds of water (obviously you need a good kitchen scale). I just put the inner pot of my Instantpot on the scale, dump in the beans, tare it, then pour water in with a big cup till I have 3 lbs. Put in 1/2-1 teaspoon of salt. I also add granulated garlic and powdered onion and some cumin but you don't have to. Set your instanpot to manual for 45 mins and wait. Let it naturally release, if you manually release the pressure the skin on the beans will break, to me it still tastes the same but you have far fewer whole beans. Now you have a weeks worth of delicious, healthy black beans. No need for overnight soak or anything.
  
  Small white beans (a.k.a navy beans) can be cooked the same and they taste different but just as good. Or you can add the extra ingredients and make pork and beans.
  
  You can cook pinto beans with the same basic recipe, and they taste great too. When you want to take the extra time, then with a slotted spoon dish the cooked beans into a large frying pan with some lard or shortening and make your own refried beans. You smash the beans with the back of the spoon or a spatula, and use the bean broth to add liquid till you like the texture.
  
  If you can't tell I like cooking beans in my Instantpot. I have a rice cooker but you can cook rice in the Instantpot too. Beans and rice is healthy and cheap!!! (cook them separately and mix them after cooking).
  
  

Hooray! I love cookbooks!

• Forest Feast is great for those veggies & entertaining
  
  
• A subscription to Cook's Illustrated
  
  
• A solid cookbook - Smitten Kitchen
  
  
• Anything by Yotam Ottolenghi but I particularly LOVE Plenty.
  
  
• The god of pastry Thomas Keller's Bouchon Bakery
  
  
• David Chang's momofuku, his pastry chef Christina Tosi's milk bar,or a subscription to his magazine Lucky Peach
  
  I don't know if they're into making ice cream, but it's really easy and fun:
  Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream, The Perfect Scoop, and Ample Hills are all great.

Fuschia Dunlop is a good source for Chinese food. Her published recipe for Kung Pao Chicken is pretty killer. Eileen Yin-Fi Lo is also a well respected Chinese recipe author, check out My Grandmother's Chinese Kitchen.

For Thai Food, Andy Ricker's Pok Pok is pretty interesting (and the restaurants are pretty awesome). There's also a tome, simply called Thai Food from David Thompson, as an outsider, looks complete and exhaustive (it's also daunting to me, but nice to have).

Hot Sour Salty Sweet also features Thai (as well as other SE Asian flavors). And I really like Asian Flavors of Jean-Georges as a more upscale cookbook.

Also, I find this little, unsung book to be a great resource. It has fairly simple recipes that can yield some nice flavors, great for weeknight dishes.

And, Momofuku is a fun contemporary twist with some good basics, but it's not a beginner book by any stretch!

Finally, The Slanted Door is on my wishlist. Looks divine.

Lots of people will say to look at the Instant Pot which is a combination electric pressure cooker/slow cooker/rice cooker ("multi cooker"). I had a bluetooth enabled "IP-SMART" 6qt model of theirs (actually three: first had a safety recall, second was dented on arrival, third still exhibited regulation issues). Lots of people are happy with Instant Pots, but I had a lot of issues with the pressure control being flaky for certain recipes. Additionally, much of what makes slow cookers safe when you are out of the house is their low wattage heaters... typically 250-400W... and low complexity (basically it's a small electric blanket that is wrapped around a very heavy ceramic pot). The Instant Pot has a 1000W heater, and is more complex (microcontroller + a thermocouple), so this negates some of the safety aspects of unattended slow cooking... though it is UL listed and has a thermal fuse in case anything goes wrong.

My recommendation if you are interested in pressure cookers and slow cookers:

1. Presto 8qt stovetop http://www.amazon.com/Presto-01370-8-Quart-Stainless-Pressure/dp/B0000Z6JIW $69 More volume than electric pressuer cookers (8qt > 6qt) which is important since safely pressure cooking needs lots of headroom between the food and lid valve so as not to clog. Typically headroom is 1/3rd volume for most foods, 1/2 for foamy foods like rice, etc. Thus a 8qt pressure cooker effectively has a volume of 4-5qt. When using it without building up pressure, it can double as a large 8qt stockpot. I ended up preferring stovetop over electric since I can get an initial brown on meat without having to use multiple pots, and I don't have to wait for an electric heater to come up to temperature (10+ minutes on the Instant Pot for me).
   
   
2. Hamilton Beach 6qt set'n'forget slow cooker http://www.amazon.com/Hamilton-Beach-33967A-Programmable-6-Quart/dp/B00EZI26DW $50 Check reviews on thesweethome.com for it, but it beat out a lot of more expensive crock pot models. Oval shape lends itself better for some slow cooker recipes, such as mini, chocolate lava cakes, roasts, etc.
   
   $120 for both.. around the ballpark of the cheaper Instant Pots, you gain an additional pot for stove use, pressure cooker is of bigger size, slow cooker is safe unattended and a more conventional shape, and IMO will last longer. You lose automatic rice cooking capabilities but... by a $20-$30 rice cooker and probably get better rice, or just do it on the stovetop.
   
   By the way, no idea what food you like to eat, but these are two of my favorite cookbooks if you are getting started and wanted to build up some experience:
   
   

• America's Test Kitchen 100 Recipes http://www.amazon.com/100-Recipes-Absolute-Best-Essentials/dp/1940352010/ Good for in-depth explanation of 100 recipes across a pretty big range of techniques.
  
  
• Cook's Illustrated Cookbook http://www.amazon.com/Cooks-Illustrated-Cookbook/dp/1933615893/ Shorter explanations but lots and lots of recipes.
  
  And major shout out to Kenji's (from Seriouseats.com) new book if you want more detailed science information:
  
  
• The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking through Science http://www.amazon.com/Food-Lab-Cooking-Through-Science/dp/0393081087
  
  This post ended up being much longer than I expected, but those are my recommendations if you are just starting out. ;) The main thing I've learned since beginning to cook is that 90%+ of the recipes online (and even in print) are untested crap, and to look for recipe sources you can trust. The second thing is that a finished recipe is much more dependant on the technique (the steps you use to modify ingredients at specific times, temperatures, and textures) and way less dependent on the ingredients themselves (you can easily sub ingredients for many recipes once the core techniques are understood).

Silver spoon. I've been taking a lot of recipes from it lately. It's considered "Italian" but it's the furthest thing from Olive Garden you'll ever see in respects to Italian. A lot of things are simply prepared but have immense flavor. I made the green risotto for our seven fishes night and it was great! I made the bucatini with red pepper sauce and that was amazing. I've made a few fish and beef recipes too, their lasagna is amazing. It has a lot of things most people haven't heard of but the book makes them extremely approachable if you collect all the ingredients. I used to be not very big on using cookbooks but I've had this book for a year and recently it's become a favorite of mine.

The one thing I do have to say is that you need to treat the recipes in a true Italian manner where spaghetti isn't the only dish but a filler before your protein. Almost none of the pasta dishes have protein (except one of my favorites anchovy and breadcrumbs) so you serve almost all of them as a small side dish. My edition has a section in the back where about a dozen chefs designed a menu with recipes not in the book but that you can only find in there. I've really wanted to pick a menu and do it one night for some friends.

https://www.amazon.com/Silver-Spoon-New-Kitchen/dp/0714862568

There are a few comments suggesting that you get your kids involved in cooking, and to that end, I highly recommend the Good Eats (Alton Brown's show) episode called "Soups On", as it's about teaching a kid how to cook. They use soups in that episode, since they're so forgiving, but have tips for teaching kids (and adults) basic knife skills as well.

Good Eats is generally a great show for learning how to cook. Unlike most of the food-porn shows on tv, he actually teaches you how to cook and gives you a lot of answers to the "why" questions around cooking. Similarly, Americas Test Kitchen - still runs on PBS - is another good show. They test out recipes to give you the best versions - for taste, cost, and simplicity - and it's pretty family-friendly American foods. I highly recommend their Family Cookbook as a great collection.

I'm guessing you haven't looked yet? Given that most Indian food (I think) is good, and a lot of it is vegetarian, you'd have a hard time finding something not fitting your needs ;)

You might want to take a look a Manjula's Kitchen, a free YouTube-based Indian cooking guide.

A good book I'd recommend (if you really like Indian food) is Lord Krishna's Cuisine: The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking, an 800 page tome with everything you could want. Here's a recipe I made recently which I enjoyed.

---

Cabbage Kofta (Bandhgobhi Kofta)

Preparation and cooking time (after assembling ingredients): about 30 minutes. Serves 4 to 6.

3 1/2 cups (930 ml) finely shredded trimmed cabbage (about 1 lb/455 g)
1-2 hot green chilies, seeded and minced
1/2-inch (1.5cm) piece of peeled fresh ginger root
1/4 cup (25g) grated fresh or dried coconut
1 tsp (5 ml) each turmeric and garam masala
3 Tbps (45ml) finely chopped fresh coriander, parsley or mixed herbs
1 tsp (5 ml) salt
1 tsp (5 ml) baking powder
ghee or vegetable oil for deep-frying
about 1 cup (100 g) sifted chickpea flour (sifted before measuring)
a few sprigs of coarsely chopped fresh coriander or minced parsley for garnishing
1 Tbps (15 ml) toasted chopped pumpkin seeds for garnishing

1. Squeeze the shredded cabbage between your palms to extract excess moisture, then blend with the green chilies, ginger, coconut, tumeric, garam masala, herbs, salt and baking powder.
   
2. When you are ready to fry the koftas, being warming 2 1/2 - 3 inches (6.5-7.5 cm) of ghee or vegetable oil in a karai, wok or deep-frying pan over moderate heat. While the oil is heating, add the flour into the cabbage mixture and knead by hand until the ingredients are bound together. (The cabbage should have enough moisture to hold the ingredients together. As it sits, the mixture will become looser. For this reason, it is important to add the flour just before shaping and frying. You may need to add sprinkles of water or more chickpea flour to ensure a mixture that can be pressed into logs. If you make this recipe in quantity, mix the ingredients in batches.) Divide into 8 portions and press into logs about 1 1/2 inches (4 cm) long.
   
3. Raise the heat to moderately high, and when the oil reaches 355ºF (180ºC), slip in 6-8 logs at a time, depending on the pan size, maintaining the temperature at between 335º-340º (168ºC-171ºC). After the koftas bob to the surface, turn them frequently and fry for 8-10 minutes or until evenly browned to reddish-gold color and crispy texture. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Keep warm in a 250ºF (120ºC) oven while frying the remaining koftas. Allow the temperature to reach 355ºF (180ºC) before frying the second batch. Before serving, place the logs in a heated shallow serving dish and cover with a seasoned tomato gravy (another recipe).

If you're into Middle Eastern food, Zahav is incredible. I'm biased because I'm in Philly but the restaurant has won James Beard awards for Outstanding Chef and Outstanding Restaurant, and the book has recipes for everything they serve and a lot more.

For a more general book, The Food Lab by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt is pretty great. Most of the recipes are on the Serious Eats website but it's nice to have the physical book.

Here's a list of the ones I own and love:

• Vegan Richa's Indian Kitchen: Traditional and Creative Recipes for the Home Cook
  
  
• Vegan Richa's Everyday Kitchen: Epic Anytime Recipes with a World of Flavor
  
  
• Hot for Food Vegan Comfort Classics: 101 Recipes to Feed Your Face
  
  
• Thug Kitchen: The Official Cookbook: Eat Like You Give a F*ck
  
  
• Chloe's Vegan Italian Kitchen: 150 Pizzas, Pastas, Pestos, Risottos, & Lots of Creamy Italian Classics
  
  
• Chloe's Vegan Desserts: More than 100 Exciting New Recipes for Cookies and Pies, Tarts and Cobblers, Cupcakes and Cakes--and More!
  
  Can't go wrong with any of these. I have come to view the world differently through food since going vegan. I would love to add a variety of other flavors like Caribbean, Asian - though some of these do include that, Vegan Richa is great for expanding beyond Indian food. I also highly recommend looking into Ethiopian foods, they are lentil heavy and flavorful.
  
  Also to note, Hot for Food has a blog and youtube channel, and Vegan Richa has a blog and has been making videos as well so you can check them out and see if the recipes interest you.
  
  
• https://www.veganricha.com/
  
• https://www.hotforfoodblog.com/
  
• https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCudzojQxnLAI7uQPVYJy_oQ

• Taste of Home Best Loved - A great down-to-earth cookbook with homestyle meals that mom and grandma used to make.
  
• The Silver Spoon - Originally in Italian, hundreds of awesome, authentic Italian dishes using a massive array of ingredients.
  
• Gourmet Magazine Cookbook - I got my copy at a brick and mortar bookstore many years ago, and it may be out of print now. But it is full of elevated dishes that are easily obtainable at home.
  
• Dinner for Two - For years it was just my wife and I. This was the perfect little cookbook for us. Additionally, ATK has a similar cookbook. This isn't the one we have, but one like it. It's basically their recipes scaled down for two people.
  
• Bocuse Gastronomique - It's like an awesome cooking class on paper from the master himself.
  
• Bocuse - An awesome collection of recipes from Paul Bocuse.
  
• ATK Cookbook. I probably cook more from here than any other. I used to buy the new version every year with the newest recipes, but now I have the online subscription.
  
• The Flavor Bible that someone else linked.
  
  
  I could keep going but I should stop. So many great ones out there.

I'd second Ottolenghi! I have Plenty and Plenty More and the recipes are honestly just so wonderful... particularly good for the summer when produce is at its best and you're craving fresh, flavourful, colourful food to match the weather.

In terms of really learning and having a totally new experience, however, I'd love to do this with a cookbook I've had for years but haven't explored much despite loving it: https://www.amazon.ca/Afro-Vegan-Farm-Fresh-African-Caribbean-Southern/dp/1607745313/ref=sr_1_fkmrnull_1?keywords=afro+caribbean+vegetarian&qid=1551191162&s=gateway&sr=8-1-fkmrnull.

I know very little about Caribbean cuisine, let alone the cuisine of the wider black diaspora, and this book is a great overview. It has music to go with each recipe, discussion of ingredients, culture and context - it's a really holistic approach to learning about the cuisines included. It's fun, light and easy! Personally, if I were going to do a cookbook project I'd probably use one like this where I'd really be immersing myself in something new rather than just cooking good food. It's all about opening up new worlds and sharing in someone's worldview through food, after all.

your method is a little different but the end result looks very similar to my own favorite carnitas recipe.

my recipe comes from the Cook's Illustrated Cookbook (page 420!), and since i started making it a few years ago it has become a favorite in my house. even my picky 3-year-old loves it!

i've never used ancho chiles or the peppers in adobo sauce, and i add some citrus flavor by juicing an orange and cooking the pork with the orange rinds mixed in, and a little different spices (i use onion powder, garlic powder, and like 5x more cumin lol), but otherwise this looks very very similar to the recipe i use.

i cook mine in a dutch oven for 2 hours then crisp it under the broiler for ~10 minutes. i also reduce my cooking liquid in a skillet before putting it on the pork under the broiler.

some fresh garnishes (onion, cilantro, lime juice) and sour cream complete the ensemble. its seriously amazing.

great post. made me hungry. 10/10 would upvote again.

Shoutout to Jen Fisch, author of The Easy 5-Ingredient Ketogenic Diet Cookbook (Amazon link). This is a modified version of her cream cheese muffin recipe. I would definitely classify these as a fat bomb, breakfast, or dessert!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup almond flour
  
• 5 Tbsp butter, melted
  
• 2 eggs
  
• 2 Tbsp cream cheese, softened to room temperature
  
• 2 Tbsp heavy cream
  
• 3/4 Tbsp baking powder
  
• 2 Tbsp all-natural peanut butter
  
• 1 Tbsp Hershey’s dark chocolate cocoa powder
  
• Liquid stevia (to taste)(I didn’t measure how much I added, but would guess 1/4 tsp or so. Even if you don’t like sweets, I’d recommend a little bit to offset the bitterness of the cocoa powder)
  
  
  

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Prepare 6 regular sized muffin cups by greasing bottom and sides with 1 Tbsp of melted butter.
   
   
2. In small bowl, cream together cream cheese and heavy cream until well combined. Add eggs and remaining 4 Tbsp of melted butter. Mix well and set aside.
   
   
3. In medium bowl, mix together almond flour and baking powder. Add cream/butter mixture to flour and blend with a hand mixer until batter is smooth.
   
   
4. Add peanut butter, cocoa powder, and stevia to muffin batter and continue to blend with hand mixer. Batter should be thick, dark, and smooth.
   
   
5. Divide batter evenly into 6 prepared muffin cups, using a rubber scraper to get all the batter into the tin.
   
   
6. Bake for 13 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Transfer to a wire wrack to cool. Serves 6 (in case that wasn’t obvious, haha).
   
   
   Macros per Muffin:
   
   Cal - 290
   
   Carbs - 5.3 g
   
   Protein - 8 g
   
   Fat - 27 g
   
   Fiber - 2.8 g
   
   Net Carbs - 2.5 g!

The Silver Spoon is like the Italian version of Joy of Cooking. It might be a good one for you to consider for your next project. There are a lot of editions so you can find copies that are pretty cheap.

"The quintessential cookbook." – USA Today

The Silver Spoon, the most influential and bestselling Italian cookbook of the last 50 years, is now available in a new updated and revised edition. This bible of authentic Italian home cooking features over 2,000 revised recipes and is illustrated with 400 brand new, full‐color photographs. A comprehensive and lively book, its uniquely stylish and user‐friendly format makes it accessible and a pleasure to read. The new updated edition features new introductory material covering such topics as how to compose a traditional Italian meal, typical food traditions of the different regions, and how to set an Italian table. It also contains a new section of menus by celebrity chefs cooking traditional Italian food including Mario Batali, Lidia Bastianich, Tony Mantuano, and Rich Torrisi and Mario Carbone.

Il Cucchiaio d’Argento was originally published in Italy in 1950 by the famous Italian design and architectural magazine Domus, and became an instant classic. A select group of cooking experts were commissioned to collect hundreds of traditional Italian home cooking recipes and make them available for the first time to a wider modern audience. In the process, they updated ingredients, quantities and methods to suit contemporary tastes and customs, at the same time preserving the memory of ancient recipes for future generations.

Divided into eleven color‐coded chapters by course, The Silver Spoon is a feat of design as well as content. Chapters include: Sauces, Marinades and Flavored Butters, Antipasti, Appetizers and Pizzas, First Courses, Eggs, Vegetles, Fish and Shellfish, Meat, Poultry, Game, Cheese, and Desserts. It covers everything from coveted authentic sauces and marinades to irresistible dishes such as Penne Rigate with Artichokes, Ricotta and Spinach Gnocchi, Tuscan Minestrone, Meatballs in Brandy, Bresaola with Corn Salad, Pizza Napoletana, Fried Mozzarella Sandwiches and Carpaccio Cipriani.

The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook by Joanne Stepaniak is a great book with tonnes of clever ideas and substitution advice, all of her books are pretty great. Vegan Richa's Indian Kitchen would be a great one as well, same with Bryant Terry's Afro Vegan. If you are looking for something easy and cutesy, the vegan stoner cookbook is a good bet too.

This is vegetarian and does the no-onion and no-garlic thing, but it's quite big and covers a lot of material - a good starting point. It really teaches a lot about the what and the whys of Indian food. It was written by the (American) personal cook of the Hare Krishna founder, she followed him around all over India when he travelled there, learning recipes from his hosts.

• http://www.amazon.com/Lord-Krishnas-Cuisine-Vegetarian-Cooking/dp/0525245642
  
  Some easy to get into books
  
  
• http://www.amazon.com/Indian-Home-Cooking-Introduction-Recipes/dp/0609611011
  
• http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Book-Indian-Cooking-Recipes/dp/0778801705
  
• http://www.amazon.com/Street-Food-India-Greatest-Complete/dp/184885420X
  
  This is a classic Indian cookery books that grannies used to have
  
  
• http://www.amazon.com/Mrs-Balbir-Singhs-Indian-Cookery/dp/0263700194
  
  Tarla Daral was a popular food writer in India
  
  
• https://www.youtube.com/user/TarlaDalalsKitchen
  
  Something from Punjab
  
  
• http://www.amazon.com/Punjabi-Khana-Tarla-Dalal/dp/8189491547
  
  This is not a beginners book, but very interesting
  
  
• http://www.amazon.co.uk/Food-Grand-Trunk-Anirudh-Arora/dp/1847739687
  
  These Kerala restaurants do lovely modern cookbooks
  
  
• http://www.rasarestaurants.com/rasa_books.html
  
  More from South India
  
  
• http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dakshin-Vegetarian-Cuisine-South-India/dp/9625935274/
  
• http://www.nimmypaul.com/html/nmy_recp_01.html
  
• http://www.kamalascorner.com/
  
  SOURCE: have been collecting books and shared cooking tips with Indian friends for a while

These were cookbooks I found continually helpful while working at a fine-dining Italian place:

La Cucina: The Regional Cooking of Italy - 900 pages with a background on each recipe. Very helpful for research and creating dishes.

Encyclopedia of Pasta - Invaluable if you're doing fresh pasta. Provides a thorough explanation of each shape.

The Silver Spoon - a monster with 2000 recipes, but a great reference book. I think it claims to be Italy's oldest cookbook(?)...

I think these are a great starting point if you're in a serious kitchen - best of luck!

Silver Spoon is the best for basics/reference. I've got a copy in both English and the original Italian. It's the modern bible while larousse gastronomique is outdated imo.

Cooking by Hand was a big inspiration early in my career

Recently I like cookbooks that are entertaining beyond just pretty pictures of food.

The Dirt Candy cookbook. The graphic novel style is awesome and the recipes are good.

Also, A Super Upsetting Book about Sandwiches

And of course Thug Kitchen

Do my best. CI is really good about keeping their recipes off the net and this is from memory. I highly recommend the Cooks Illustrated Cookbook, I've never made a bad meal cooking from one of their recipes. (Except that lentil soup, but that was my fault for buying old lentils.)

Take your 4-5lb roast and pull it apart by the natural seams and remove most of the fat. Tie it up into two smaller roasts with kitchen twine. Season with salt and pepper and let sit at room temperature for a couple hours.

Take a bottle of Pinot Noir and start reducing it (and I don't mean by drinking it). Continue until your 750ml is approx 2c.

In your dutch oven, cook 3-4 strips of bacon, cut into 1/4" pieces, until crispy. Remove and reserve. Pour out most of the grease. Brown your roasts on all sides and set aside.

In your dutch oven, add one onion, chopped fine, and cook until starting to go translucent, about 5-10 minutes. Add a three cloves of garlic, chopped, and a tbsp of all purpose flour. Cook until fragrant, maybe 3-4 minutes.

Add your wine reduction and 4c beef broth. Add a few sprigs of fresh parsley, three sprigs of fresh thyme and a couple bay leaves tied together with twine to the pot. Add in reserved bacon. Place your roasts on top of this concoction and place in a 300°f oven. One of the tricks here is to cover your dutch oven with tin foil before putting the cover on. This gives you a much better seal and keeps more liquid in the roast. This is apparently a pretty important step.

This will cook for 2-3 hours, until a fork slips in and out easily. Turn your roasts once an hour. When cooking has approximately 1 hour left, add four carrots, peeled and cut lengthwise into quarters by about an inch and a half long.

While waiting for it to cook, take 10ish oz of frozen pearl onions (thawed) and cook them in a saute pan in a cup of water and three tablespoons unsalted butter, covered, 12-15 minutes until soft. Uncover and cook until all water has boiled off. Add 8oz button mushrooms, quartered, and cook until everything is evenly browned.

When your roast is cooked, remove it from the oven, remove the roast from the dutch oven and tent with foil to keep warm. Add your pearl onion and mushroom mix to your braising liquid. Place the dutch oven back on the stove and reduce liquid by about a quarter. Skim as much fat off the top as possible. This will be your gravy for the pot roast. When nearly finished, add a tsp unflavored gelatin to the sauce to add richness.

And there you have it. By far the most prep I've ever done for a pot roast, but, bar none, it's the best I've ever had.

I cook mostly Asian food, although I'm not Asian. Here are several cookbooks I couldn't live without...

Real Thai (McDermott)

I have David Thompson's epic Thai cookbook, but that's more for special occasions. McDermott's book has excellent recipes from many regions of Thailand. The homemade curry pastes are really worth the effort.

Chinese (Sichuan): Land of Plenty, Dunlop

Chinese (Hunan): Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook, Dunlop

I can't recommend Fuschia Dunlop's cookbooks highly enough. You will have to search for some ingredients, but these days this is pretty easy.

General Asian: Complete Asian Cookbook (Solomon)

Charmaine Solomon's book is hit or miss sometimes, but it has so many recipes in it that it's worth it, from Sri Lanka to the Philippines to Japan, etc.

My favorite new, specialty cookbook is

Cooking at Home With Pedatha (Giri & Jain)

which has delicious Indian (specifically, Andhran) vegetarian recipes.

There are a lot of varieties, and they can taste pretty different. The good news is that they are hard to screw up.

For Thai curries, I like these pastes, they just get mixed with coconut milk (ratio is on the can), heated, and then you simmer veggies in the sauce until they are cooked to your liking. The red and green are spicy, the panang is somewhere in the middle, and the yellow and masaman are mild.

This is a good and easy Japanese curry. Instructions are on the box. It involves some simple sauteing and simmering.

And for Indian curries, I have been making my own using these recipes. There are so many good recipes in this book, and they are pretty easy too. However, you might need to up the contents of your spice cabinet to make these.

Anyhow, curries are usually just a very flavorful sauce with veggies simmered in them. Pretty easy stuff, lots of variety, and very tasty.

If you are looking for basic cooking information the Joy of Cooking is obligatory.

A couple things I've learned along the way is first to start slow and work through cookbooks. It's easy to keep buying book after book but they are just decoration if you don't know them well. Secondly, be wary of books with lots of pretty pictures! In my experience they are full of single-purpose recipes that don't teach you the true nature or source as you spoke of above.

As far as source recipes I'd second everything mentioned so far but if you are looking to blow people away with Italian and Mexican dishes (my particular favorite styles)... look no further than:

The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking - Marcella Hazan - Possibly my favorite author of cookbooks of all time. This is definitely the one to start with in my opinion.

The Art of Mexican Cooking - Diana Kennedy - If you are looking for real mexican food this book is a great place to start.

Bonus Book... not a cookbook but a great way to learn about cooking

The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook is pretty awesome. There's a shit ton of recipes and lots of good cooking techniques in there, along with equipment tests and other good stuff. It's also ring bound so it's easy to keep it open to a certain page. This is THE #1 cookbook I always tell beginners to get. They also have a TV show on PBS that's quite good. I'd recommend avoiding signing up for the website as you'll get a lot of spam mail. But their book series are pretty great for the beginner.


Cooking for Geeks is also quite good if you're interested in the physics / chemistry aspect of cooking, although some of the stuff in there is a little too science-y for general beginners.

As an addition to the other great answers: I know of two cookbooks that are aimed at making food that is cheap and good (as in healthful and tasty). One is Good and Cheap by Leanne Brown, available for free from her website. The other is More-With-Less, which is published by a Mennonite group. I have never used Good and Cheap (it was in the news after it was published), and I've only used a few things from More-with-Less, so I can't really speak to their overall quality.

My personal favorite simple, cheap, tasty, and versatile dish is beans and rice. I typically combine equal amounts black beans and brown rice (I'm glossing over cooking them), season with cumin, garlic, and salt, add some diced tomatoes and lime juice, and top with fresh cilantro, cheese, and avocado (and hot sauce).
Using brown rice instead of white rice adds minerals and fiber, but isn't necessary. Avocados and cilantro are delicious, but aren't necessary (and can be expensive). Note that dried black beans require several hours of soaking before they can be cooked (and about an hour of cooking time). You can use things like canned beans, minute rice, canned tomatoes or salsa, and guacamole to make this basically effortless (though probably a little more expensive). There are lots of ways to combine beans and rice (there's even an academic book about it).

An even easier version, which I've only ever served as a side dish but is nutritionally acceptable as a main dish is: combine a can of beans with a can of corn (both drained), spice to taste (I use salt, cumin, garlic, etc), and add some fresh cilantro. Optionally add a drained can of diced tomatoes.

Definitely agree there. Most of the time I've tried making my own "substitues" for things at home they don't exactly work out. Most of the time at restaurants it's done to quickly describe a flavor/dish out of ease. Honestly at home I mostly don't even bother with that type of food anymore and try to keep it simple. If I buy anything that's a frozen/prepared dish that's mimicking something that is overtly not vegan (cheeses, meat substitutes) it's on sale/i'm just feeling lazy/it's convenient.

While we're on the topic of cookbooks... :)
http://veganblackmetalchef.com/the-seitanic-spellbook-in-english/ (does a lot of good videos demoing some of the recipes as well, all with original music)
https://smile.amazon.com/Afro-Vegan-Farm-Fresh-African-Caribbean-Southern/dp/1607745313?sa-no-redirect=1 (incredible recipes. Haven't made one that hasn't been really good/fairly easy to make).

Not sure how you feel about Indian food but I've been working my way through this cookbook and the author does a really good job of telling you how to modify the recipes to make things gluten free or nut free or other dietary/allergen needs. Recipes are some of the tastiest things I've made too, probably from using fresh spices. The variety of spices can feel a little over whelming but it's been fun learning about it. Also if you go to an Indian grocery store they are suprisingly cheap.

Good and Cheap: (Note: This is also available for free download in PDF format on the author's website. I know many folks who have downloaded it and printed it out for offline use.)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0761184996/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_EVLLDbRBSQMBH

Depression Era Recipes:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0934860556/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_9OLLDbTKCP8B4

Clara's Kitchen:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0312608276/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_MPLLDbWM71RM9

More-with-Less World Community Cookbook:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/083619263X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_nQLLDbF12CDHM


Finally, a word on creating your own cookbook binder: Bookmark the recipes you've tried and loved (using Pinterest is okay for this, too), print them out, and either laminate the pages, or use clear sheet protector sleeves to keep them fom getting cruddy with repeated use. Pick out a binder you like or have handy, create labeled categories using tab dividers, then sort your recipes into said categories as you put them into the binder. Voila! Your own collection of recipes you know and trust. 😁

It was a game changer for me to realize that some recipes are just not good--a lot of cookbooks and recipes online have just been churned out and not really tested, so it's not even your fault if the food doesn't work out.

Finding cookbooks and blogs that you trust every time take the stress of failure out. America's Test Kitchen is fantastic, and this cookbook has the best recipes of all of the basics: http://www.amazon.com/Americas-Test-Kitchen-Family-Cookbook/dp/1933615486

I also love Heidi Swanson of 101cookbooks.com, and trust that all of her recipes will be delicious.

Just keep trying, and you'll get better.

Find a good vegan cookbook. Heck, find three or four of them. I like the Veganomicon, which is a great general reference, but you can find one for everything, from pies to soul food to sandwiches.

Cookbooks will do two things for you. First, they'll provide a resource if you start to feel cravings for food you used to rely on: if you get desperate for burgers, or chicken parmesan, or mousakka, you'll find a great alternative that scratches that itch. Second, they'll provide an excellent resource to browse through and find recipes you'd never have thought of on your own. Expanding your palate is a surefire way to improve your diet.

French food is more about a way of eating than about some dishes - it is about enjoying a meal vs. utilitarian feeding or instant fat and sweet gratification.

That being said, I get that the point of this thread is to know "obscure/insider dishes that will impress your friends" ... So there you go, here are some lesser known yet classic dishes (meaning any French chef would know):

- Quenelles sauce nantua

- Lievre a la royale

- Pommes souflees

- Pommes pont-neuf

- Pommes Maxim's

- Veau marengo

- Oeuf meyerbeer

- Tournedos rossini

- Tarte praline

- Profiteroles

​

Street food

- Jambon beurre

- Sandwich americain (way better than any hamburger)

- Pan bagnat

​

Some famous dishes that restaurants often get wrong:

- Boeuf bourguignon

- Quiche Lorraine (the real thing just onions and bacon)

- Oeuf coque avec mouillettes

- Croissants (assuming you live in America, it's near impossible to find decent ones)

​

To know more and if you have genuine interest in French food, I recommend to start by investing in this book: https://www.amazon.com/New-Larousse-Gastronomique-Hamlyn/dp/0600620425/ref=sr_1_2?crid=7DVIYNNXECNZ&keywords=larousse+gastronomic&qid=1562946190&s=gateway&sprefix=larousse+gast%2Caps%2C315&sr=8-2

Good luck with training!

I would love to have this book, if it's still on sale. If not, this one also looks amazing. I would love to learn more about the science of cooking.

To track macros I use MyFitnessPal but another popular one is CarbTracker.

As for books - If you are looking for recipes you can find examples all over. Easy 5-Ingredient Ketogenic Cookbook though is something I got as a gift last year and love the easy recipes.

Ok, so I'm a student at USC and I've just started cooking chinese food this summer. For a recipe book, you want anything by Fuchsia Dunlop. She's got three books out: Land of Plenty (四川菜), Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook (湖南菜), and Every Grain of Rice (a compilation of the other two). Hands down the best authentic Chinese cookbooks that are written by a westerner, while remaining true to the original recipes.


Finding a good Chinese market has actually been my biggest problem, which is a little ridiculous because it's Los Angeles and I know all the old 阿姨s have to shop somewhere. I'm not sure what the situation is over in Westwood, but the only chinese grocery store that I've found that really has everything is the Ai Hoa market, just a block away from the Chinatown metro station (Cluttered and unorganized, just like the markets over in China! But they really do have everything). I've also heard good things about A Grocery Warehouse. But I haven't really explored K-town or Little tokyo, so there may be some good grocers there. Please share if you find some, and report back if you find some Korean/Japanese grocers that also sell Chinese food!

I know, it's easy to get tired of chili since it's easy to make a TON of it and eat it regularly.

So it's the instant pot worth it? I've seen all over the place in reddit. It's not so popular here in Europe and I haven't seen it in appliance stores.

Also never heard of the Thug Kitchen cookbook. "Eat like you give a fuck" lol. Thanks for the references :)

By the way, if you like indian food I highly recommend this book I've been getting lots of good curry recipes from it.

The Silver Spoon is a massive Italian cookbook with pretty easy to read instructions and big fancy pictures. I got one as a gift its has some pretty good recipes in it that range from easier to harder recipes. Its about 30 bucks on amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Silver-Spoon-New-Kitchen/dp/0714862568/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1450126627&sr=8-1&keywords=the+silver+spoon+cookbook

Hand-hammered carbon steel woks.

Trust me, this is what you want. And as far as I know, this eBay seller is the only way to get them without making a trip to Shanghai.

You can read the other posts for why thin, carbon steel woks are the best.

Why a hammered wok though? The hundreds of dents provide grip, which is extremely useful in wok cooking. Often, after the first ingredient (usually meat) is cooked, it is temporarily moved out of the intensely-hot center of the wok to the sides while one or more other ingredients (usually vegetables) are cooked. After the vegetables (or whatever) are just about done, the meat (or whatever) waiting on the walls of the wok is returned to the center with the other stuff. Smooth, machine-made woks suck for this; textured, hammered woks destroy.

Also they're sexy as fuck.

The woks sold by Taost on eBay are hand-hammered by a pair of old Chinese dudes in Shanghai. As far as I know, these two dudes (the Cen brothers) are the only people in the world who still do this by hand, and Taost is the only one sourcing their woks outside of Asia. If you can know someone in China or wouldn't mind visiting, you can get 'em for a lot cheaper at their house/workshop located at 214 Baoyuan Lu, Shanghai. You know you're close when you can hear the extreme hammering. I visited about a year and a half ago; they work in their side yard banging circular sheets of carbon steel with hammers for hours until they take the proper shape.

Here's a neat book with of one of the Cen brothers' woks on the cover.

Happy wok'ing!

Edit: Also, if you want a different sized wok, I know the Cen brothers make them. You could try asking Taost, or even better buy one from them directly.

Edit #2: Dang! Just clicked your links, I see the second one is for a hand-hammered carbon steel wok. It doesn't look like Cen brothers, either! The hammer marks are too big. Well, I guess there are at least two producers of hand-hammered woks in this world--take your pick!

Afro-Vegan: Farm-Fresh African, Caribbean, and Southern Flavors Remixed by Bryant Terry

Lots of veggie-centric recipes from scratch without being too labor-intensive; hardly any "specialty" ingredients. There's a whole section on spice combinations and sauces, which you can adapt for so many other recipes (I will never run out of ways to make yams). He likes coconut oil and peanuts a lot (I hate coconut oil and my good friend is allergic to peanuts), but I think the substitutions are not insurmountable. Other frequent ingredients are millet, black eyed peas, and mustard greens.

I use ppk.com all the time as a reference and love Isa Chandra, and I'm sure people will recommend Veganomicon as a kind of vegan "tanakh" ;), but Bryant Terry is who I'd recommend if someone is overwhelmed by their CSA.

I'll be honest, this is sort of off the wall, but I read Edward Lee's Smoke & Pickles a couple of weeks ago and I thought it was outstanding. It's a combination Southern cookbook and memoir about the child of Korean immigrants who grew up in the Bronx, was briefly an annoying Brooklyn hipster, but ended up being a chef in Kentucky. It's basically a cookbook (and not one for entry-level cooks either), but each section starts with a long, thoughtful, engaging essay about how his life journey ended up with him being a good old boy who works buttermilk and bourbon into every dish and occasionally hangs out at slaughterhouses or goes pheasant hunting. I dunno, it's just cool and really, really well-written.

This is great advice and a welcome article. Some really nice links leading to other links like this one for what looks like a terrific cookbook from a vegan activist.

Alinea is a great cookbook that will open your mind to new cooking techniques and flavor combinations. Many of the recipes aren't extraordinarily difficult and there are a good number that don't require exotic ingredients. (Apart from a handful of special molecular gastronomy specific items that are listed in the preface.)

Thomas Keller's Sous Vide book is a good read, too. Setup for sous vide is only about $400. (generous estimates: $150 for PID device, $50 for rice cooker, $150 for vacuum sealer, $50 for blowtorch) Not bad at all considering anyone mildly-adept at cooking can put out steaks that will kick most steakhouses to the curb, and because a rice cooker, vacuum sealer, and blowtorch are all very useful pieces of kitchen equipment on their own. Apart from information you can get online, this book is (as far as I know) the only book in English that will really teach you sous vide.

My go-to gift is the Cook's Illustrated Cookbook. This thing is HUGE and reasonably priced, and every recipe in it is awesome. It's great for all the kitchen-gadgets she'll be getting :)

Also not a chef but here are some good theory and technique books:

Larousse Gastranomique -

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Larousse-Gastronomique-Hamlyn/dp/0600620425

The focus is obv iously french cooking techniques and application etc.


Leith's cooking Bible -

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Leiths-Cookery-Bible-3rd-ed/dp/074756602X

Prue Leith is highly respected in the U.K for her culinary school...this book gets used a lot in my house

The flavour thesaurus -

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Flavour-Thesaurus-Niki-Segnit/dp/0747599777

Once you have techniques you can look to build on them creatively so theory of what flavours work together is pretty crucial.

Get a nice bottle of Barolo and do a gift basket for her. If she liked Rome include all the ingredients to make a Spaghetti alla Carbonara. Since she liked Sicily get her some aged pecorino to grate on top. Also, toss in a copy of the Silver Spoon so she can whip up her favorite dishes whenever she likes.

I recommend you check out Vegan Richa, who has tons of traditional Indian recipes without all the butter and cream, and far fewer calories. I've been a fan of Indian food for decades and can tell you her recipes are very hard to distinguish from their higher-fat inspirations and in many cases, possess more complexity and nuance than what I'm used to. One of my favorites is her Mango Tofu Curry, which is the sort of recipe you'll never find in the typical Westernized Indian restaurant, and cleverly subs tofu for paneer. She also has a book I definitely recommend.

Nice! If you're into cooking, I recommend this cookbook. Super delicious Indian food that tastes really rich but is 100% vegan. Lots of coconut cream and coconut yogurt and tons and tons of vegetables.

I seriously feel like I'm indulging whenever I make some of these recipes, and then I remember it's VEGETABLES. IT'S ALL VEGETABLES.

not that coconut cream is the least caloric thing,but still. it's delicious, so worth it.

I’m making this recipe tonight that I found in this cookbook: The Easy 5-Ingredient Ketogenic Diet Cookbook: Low-Carb, High-Fat Recipes for Busy People on the Keto Diet https://www.amazon.com/dp/1939754445/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_PCfYCb7S5Y4Z1

Bacon Cheeseburger Casserole
Serves 4 Prep 10 mins Cook 50 mins

Ingredients
For the bacon and ground beef
1lb bacon (use your most feasible keto friendly brand)
1lb ground beef
1Tbsp ghee (could probably use grassfed butter too)
Pink salt and Freshly ground black pepper

For the casserole
1 Tbsp ghee
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 cup shredded cheese of your choice
Pink salt and Freshly ground black pepper

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350F

To make the bacon and ground beef
•In large skillet over medium-high heat, cook the bacon on both sides until crispy, about 8 mins. Transfer the bacon to a paper towel lined plate to drain and cool for 5 minutes. Transfer to a cutting board and chop the bacon.
• use the same skillet with the bacon grease, add ghee and heat. Add the ground beef and season with salt/pepper. Stir occasionally, breaking the beef chunks apart. *don’t overcook the bacon and beef because you’ll be baking the casserole.
• once meat is browned, after about 8 mins, drain the fat and mix in the chopped bacon.

To make the casserole
• coat a 9x13 in baking dish with ghee
• spoon the meat and bacon mixture into the baking dish as a first layer
• in a medium bowl, mix together the cream, eggs, and half the cheese, and season with pink salt and pepper. Pour over the meat. Top with the remaining half of the cheese.
•bake for 30 mins, or until the cheese on top is melted and lightly browned.
•let the casserole sit for 5 mins on a cooling rack before setting and serving.

Ingredient substitutes
• if desired, substitute ground turkey for ground beef
• add a 1/2 cup of diced pickles into the beef mixture; it adds a nice acidity
• sliced pepperoncini works if you don’t like pickles
• adding a 1/4 cup of low-sugar tomato sauce to the cream and eggs mix provides flavor. Rao’s or Simply Ragu are low/no sugar brands. Skip pasta sauce if it doesn’t fit into your macros.

Can’t wait to see how this recipe works tonight!

You might want to look into cuisines that have a more integrated take on dishes than the western style of star ingredient + sides.

For instance, there are a lot of great Indian vegetarian dishes where you'd never feel like you're missing meat, because curries are about a whole integrated dish of ingredients in a delicious spicy gravy.

Personally, I'm a big fan of Levantine (Lebanese, Palestinian, Israeli) cooking, and there are a lot of great vegetarian dishes there. /u/greypillar already recommended Ottolenghi's Plenty and I seconded and added Plenty More, which have clear influences from this region (Ottolenghi is Israeli). There are also a lot of good recipe's in Michael Solomonov's Zahav. I've heard good things about Bethany Kehdy's Pomegranates & Pine Nuts, but I don't own it myself. Check out the recipes on her blog and see if anything piques your interest.

It really depends on the person and the cook book and they can be great tools to learn from, especially for novices. I only have one cookbook, Cook's Illustrated, and I've learned a ton from it. It's made by the folks at America's Test Kitchen, which if you are unaware of who they are, are exactly what it sounds like. They test all sorts of recipes trying different techniques, temperatures, methods, etc, until they find the "best" way to cook a dish. The cookbook gives easy instructions, explanations as to why what they say to do is the best, and provide multiple variations for each recipe so you learn how to cook with a basic technique and then change it up however your imagination desires. My cooking has improved immensely from this one book.

Marcella Hazan has a great recipe. It's probably my favorite thing to eat ever. Her recipes can be a bit fussy, but the instructions are thorough and straightforward. I'd recommend cooking anything in her book the prescribed way first, and then making any changes the next time around (though I usually find I don't want to change a thing). I usually do her bolognese on the stove through all the reduction steps, then put it in my crock pot on "low" or "warm" for the rest of the day.

Added bonus: that book contains my other favorite pasta sauce; it's called something like "tomato sauce with butter and onion." It's a quicker sauce to make and it's quite addictive. (Edit: and it doesn't taste super oniony. You cook it with the onions and then take them out before serving.)

One of the most interesting and classic Italian cookbooks is "Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well", written by Pellegrino Artusi in 1891. It's huge, a fascinating read, incredibly comprehensive, and literally laugh-out-loud funny. EDIT: another good one is "Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking" by Marcella Hazan.

Get yourself Julia Sahni's Classic Indian Cooking book. It's a great place to start. If you're primarily into veg, another place to go would be Devi's Lord Krishna's Cuisine which is a positively massive cookbook that is great and vedic (no onions, etc. only hing).

Also, Manjula's Kitchen has some good videos.

I definitely recommend using an app like Carb Manager at first, it really helped me at first to understand what a typical keto day looks like with my allotted macros (and what foods to avoid - it even has a barcode scanner for easy adding foods you eat).

​

There's also a lot of really budget-friendly foods you can buy that are keto, I eat a lot of eggs, brick cheese, bulk ground beef/ pork, pork tenderloin (pretty much whatever meat is on sale each week), bulk avocados. If you're not much into cooking I got this book through my local library to help me through the first couple weeks with easy meal ideas: https://www.amazon.com/Easy-5-Ingredient-Ketogenic-Diet-Cookbook/dp/1939754445

The Essentials of Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan is an excellent book on Italian cooking.

​

What's Eating Dan has some great videos on food science and why if you cook in certain ways the food is more delicious

Bryant Terry's Afro-Vegan is great! Simple recipes with bits of history, humor, health and music (each recipe has a suggested soundtrack song) mixed it. And, it's a beautiful book with lots of pictures and a lovely printed cloth binding.

Check out vegan richa's cookbook. If you like indian food, you'll love it. Most of the recipes are simple-medium complexity, and they make a lot of servings. Plus you don't feel bad for stuffing yourself with them since it's almost entirely really healthy food. Plus some of the desserts (especially the doughnuts) are unbelievable in how good they taste.

I get all my best recipes from good cook books. I highly recommend Cooks Illustrated ( https://www.amazon.com/dp/1933615893/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_KbjOAb6PBRC4Y ) and if you want to learn everything in and around food for any occasion then try Joy of Cooking ( https://www.amazon.com/dp/0743246268/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_TcjOAb55Z5TRH ).

The Easy 5-Ingredient Ketogenic Diet Cookbook: Low-Carb, High-Fat Recipes for Busy People on the Keto Diet https://www.amazon.com/dp/1939754445/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_kYZuDbY3EGHRR

If you follow the link they have a few recipes listed there. The one we did tonight is cheesy bacon and broccoli chicken
2 tablespoons ghee
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
Pink Himalayan salt
Fresh ground pepper
4 bacon slices
6 oz cream cheese room temp
2 cups frozen broccoli
1/2 cup shredded cheese.

This is a two person serving. Best part she provides calories, total fat, carbs, net carbs, fiber and protein per batch and per serving! It was delicious

You need to get a good veggie cook book. Get an old hippie book for the stand-bys (hummus, tempura, veggie chili, lasagna, tofu stir fry, curried chick peas, burritos, etc..) then find a good new one for some interesting fusion recipes. My all-time fave is the Rebar which features tex-mex minestrone, bhangra burritos, and potato crust pizza with goat cheese and onions caramelized with balsamic.

Ask vegetarians you know for recommendations. I have been a veggie for over two decades and I eat better than any carnivores I know.

Her book, Vegan Richa's Indian Kitchen is really good, she has a vegan "paneer" recipe in there and pretty much everything you could want. Even sweets, there's a good gulab jamun in there too!

This is my cooking bible. Think of any major, favorite or well-known dish and I almost guarantee it's in this book. Very solid and dependable recipes all around.

My one minor criticism is I think they might compromise the ethnic dishes a little too much towards western cooks. They always prefer using easily found supermarket ingredients.

Regardless though out of almost 50 recipes I've cooked out of this book I haven't run across a bad one yet. It's also a really great resource for making that classic dish you already know just a little bit better.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Cooks-Illustrated-Cookbook-Americas/dp/1933615893

As a vegetarian, not a vegan, my current favorite cookbook is actually a vegan cookbook. Vegan soul food by Bryant Terry is a fantastic read with phenomenal recipes. I've worked my through a significant number of the recipes and I have been amazed by the complexity of the flavors and the deep unami taste of many of the recipes. Worth every cent - http://www.amazon.com/Vegan-Soul-Kitchen-Creative-African-American/dp/0738212288/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_y

The Cook's Illustrated Cookbook. I'd also suggest subscribing to the magazine.

They're like the Popular Mechanics of cooking. No ads, no sponsors, just lots of great recipes that have been refined through many trials and variations. The Cookbook has thousands of recipes with detailed info on why a particular ingredient or process works or doesn't work. They've taken all of the guesswork out of it, just follow the instructions. Great if you just want a tested recipe to follow or if you want to understand more about why a recipe works. Highly recommended.

Check out this book, we use it all the time, meals are easy and delicious.

The Easy 5-Ingredient Ketogenic Diet Cookbook: Low-Carb, High-Fat Recipes for Busy People on the Keto Diet


https://www.amazon.com/dp/1939754445/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_FaoCCbDH4N4D6

then for days that you don’t want to plan, Grill up a steak or chicken, bake a fish. Breakfast for dinner is always good.

Just cook. Experimenting, watch cooking shows, get cookbooks(Cooks Illustrated 20 year book is an amazing book) from the library. But most importantly don't give up and don't be afraid of a challenge. That's how we learn by pushing ourselves. Everything you make won't be a success but in the long run it will be. Also remember to just have fun and enjoy it. Heck I have been cooking for over 20 years and my lastest experiment just totally flopped, but I tried something new and learned from it.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1933615893/ref=cm_sw_r_other_taa_i_AszbBb6PHTS6R

My breakfast is almost always a Slimfast Advanced Nutrition shake.

Lunch, I do a lot of Atkins frozen meals or Quest bars and cheese. Sometimes I'll do a precooked frozen chicken breast and steam in the bag frozen veggies (I teach, so my lunches need to be fast and microwavable at most)

Dinner is where things get more adventurous. My husband and I have a keto cookbook. We try to do one new thing a week. (Specifically, I use this one:The Easy 5-Ingredient Ketogenic Diet Cookbook: Low-Carb, High-Fat Recipes for Busy People on the Keto Diet https://www.amazon.com/dp/1939754445/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_.AOQCbHCF6T7K )

Personally, you cant go wrong with salad (romaine, black olives, mushrooms, cucumbers, maybe a little shaved carrot and feta cheese) with your protein of choice (grilled salmon is great. Fried tofu is good. Chicken is good.) Just make sure you measure all those veggies- they do have carbs and they can add up.

This one, named for his restaurant in Philadelphia (I swear I'm going there this year). I LOVE the beet salad in here too, and I'm sure everything I haven't made yet is amazing too. :)

Edit: I just looked closer at the page I linked, and the publisher actually shared the eggplant salad recipe there! It's right above the editorial reviews. You gotta try it. And be prepared to eat a shitload of eggplant.

Mollie Katzen's The New Moosewood Cookbook. Great little pictures of ingredients/recipes.

The Joy of Cooking. It's got a great baseline of knowledge and can provide a good context when you start cooking.

The Mennonite cookbook More with Less. This one will broaden your horizons and you'll find yourself cooking outside of your typical cuisines.

Real ramen is nothing like those instant ramen packets. Fresh meats and vegetables, insane broths, and fresh noodles make it a completely different dish.

I was on a ramen kick awhile back and bought the Momofuku cookbook. AWESOME recipes. I spent hours making some of those broths in the book, went to several asian markets to find the right noodles, and spent a lot of time learning different techniques. It was a ton of fun, and now my kids are crazy about ramen. Even if you don't plan on making it yourself, the cookbook is a great read. It's basically more of a story about how the author got into ramen and opened his first restaurant, interlaced with recipes and other instructional stuff.

Edit: Here's the link for the book:
https://www.amazon.com/Momofuku-David-Chang/dp/030745195X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1474393414&sr=8-1&keywords=momofuku

I love the Test Kitchen. I have learned so many tips, techniques, and great recipes from them in the past 2 years. I think a useful pick up is The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook. I use it at least once a week.

*edit for grammar

love reading good cook books too!
It's a little older, but when I moved of my parents house I took the Anna Thomas cook books.
The other one I like to page thru is the Silver Spoon
do you have a favorite?

I love the Rebar cookbook. (Also available on Amazon).

Some of the recipes are a bit more labour intensive, but many are easy and the authors have developed some very creative recipes. They also give tips for altering recipes to be vegan, and occasionally include seafood as an option (like in the wild rice waffles with smoked salmon... yum yum!).

Zero recipes, only plating.
It is a fantastic resource for that because it is open to interpretation.

The Escoffier Cookbook and Guide to the Fine Art of Cookery is a good companion.

New Larousse Gastronomique has many recipes and is an essential reference book

Institut Paul Bocuse Gastronomique: The definitive step-by-step guide to culinary excellence also a fantastic resource.

3 spørgsmål:

• Hvor kendt er du i et køkken.
  
  
• Har du nogle preferencer til hvilket køkken (hvilke lande) du vil have kogebøger om?
  
  
• Er der noget loft for hvad du vil give?
  
  For mig, der er den vigtigste bog at have, når vi snakker kogebøger, det er Kokkebogen. Det er en bog med alle de gode gamle klassiske retter i dansk køkken samt klassisker fra rundt omkring i Europa. Dertil får du alt den viden, som du har brug for, omkring alle dyr, udskæringer, køkkengrej og værktøj osv osv. Min gamle kokkelære på hotel og restaurations skolen sagde, at man med denne ene bog, kunne åbne en restaurant.
  
  God mad, let at lave er også en rigtig god bog. Den er fyldt med masser af fantastiske opskrifter, som er skide god, hvis man ikke gider lange og besværlige processer.
  
  Sølv Skeen Er den italienske udgave af vores kokkebog, bare uden alle de tekniske begreber. Jeg tror der er også 1000 opskrifter i denne bog (den er kæmpe. Min udgave har ødelagt et tørrestativ.)
  
  Frøken Jensens kogebog er en gammel klassisker, og en hver kok med respekt for sig selv, har sådan en i sit køkken.
  
  Jorden rundt på 80 retter er en lidt ukendt en til samlingen. Jeg synes personligt at den er skide god, fordi der er retter og inspiration at hente, som man normalt ikke ville falde over.
  
  Men igen, så handler det jo meget om, hvad du gerne vil have. Du kan også hente inspiration på youtube, hvor Gordon Ramsay har sine Ultimate cooking course, som er en rigtig god madserie ( men det er fyldt med foodporn dog).

Aah asafoetida - sometimes called Devil's Dung because of its aroma, especially when the powder is fresh! A pinch or two is all that is ever needed, and it adds a similar flavour to onions and garlic to a dish. It is commonly used with lentils and beans.

In South India it is used quite a bit. It is very common in Sambar and Rasam dishes. It is also very common in Ayurvedic cooking as that does not use onions or garlic.

The cookbook Lord Krishna's Kitchen uses it in almost every recipe, and the recipes are all great.

This is a great article on Asafoetida - and here is one of the few recipes you will find with it in the title - Salt Lassi with Asafoetida

Wow. Dude, that is not a deep argument. Spare your keyboard, you don't have to repeat yourself over and over.

Look, the fact is, when we die, we all go to the great pasta bowl in the sky. I don't know how to prove that to you, you'll have to take my word for it. There is a god, and he's made of spaghetti.

There's no way I can prove it to you in such a shallow forum. But perhaps this book will enlighten you. I could take you to a restaurant and introduce you to some of the best chefs in the world... but that's a lot of work.

I'm not being irreverent for the hell of it, I'm trying to make a point. You are incredibly tone deaf. Who do you think you're talking to? You just came to a debate forum, and told someone who has never seen any evidence of your god, "Don't worry, it's all true. Trust me. Some old people in a monastery are really nice. You'll die one day and then you'll realize that the dude you chatted with on reddit once was right all along."

The stuff you're saying is so vapid. If you learn nothing else on here, please learn this: If you want to convince a skeptical person who values evidence, a hollow and wordy emotional argument is actually counterproductive. When I decided I no longer believed, I was desperate for any counter evidence. I really wanted to keep my faith, but it just didn't make any sense. And arguments like yours (many of them, from several people) are what sealed my decision.

These are two fantastic books for beginning cooks, so much so that I've been buying them as wedding/hosewarming presents as part of my gifts to newlyweds/new homeowners just starting out.

How to Cook Without a Book: Recipes and Techniques Every Cook Should Know by Heart by Pam Anderson

The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook by America's Test Kitchen

The ATK book apparently has a new edition coming out in October. They also have a similar version if you are less interested in perhaps the best tasting versus the more healthful options.

I've come across a few great vegan cooking resources that you may be interested in:

• minimalist baker
  
  
• vegan richa site
  
  
• vegan richa indian cookbook
  
  please share others!

a giant granite mortar and pestle is a good tool to have. This is a good book, as long as you can track down the ingredients. Andy Ricker's is probably also good, as I'm sure David Thompson's other book is too.

You said Southern Style but I really like Ed Lee's collards + kimchi served at MilkWood which is technically Korean-Southern fusion. I love it so much so that I quit using my grandmother's recipe and adopted his. Recipe here: http://www.pbs.org/food/recipes/collards-kimchi/ basically the entire restaurants menu is in this cookbook https://www.amazon.com/Smoke-Pickles-Recipes-Stories-Southern/dp/1579654924

Yes yes yes yes. This bad boy has all kinds of great bechamel - and other sauce - recipes.

I read “Nothing in this book is true but it’s exactly how things are” back in 1997. It explains how there are microscopic inter dimensional space ships inside a chamber in the Sphinx which can be activated using star tetrahedron technology which is some sort of interior mechanism anyone is capable of activating through meditation. I think I’m going to read the book again. It’s excellent in my opinion.

https://www.amazon.com/Nothing-This-Exactly-Things-Anniversary/dp/1556438311

i recently got hooked on Roasted Rosemary Tofu (recipe) (picture) from the Vegan Soul Kitchen cookbook. it's really easy to make, has wonderful flavor & a perfect texture. the only note that the posted recipe & the photos miss is that the rosemary should be very finely chopped, not left whole.

The cookbook "More with Less" is a good one for different ways to use pantry staples like your rice and beans. Bonus is they have info on what combos of grains/beans/veggies make complete proteins to help keep nutrition up.


https://www.amazon.com/More-Less-Cookbook-World-Community/dp/083619263X

Breath of a Wok by Grace Campbell. You will learn everything you ever needed to know about the wok, as well as the best ways to cook with it. She recommends a 14" carbon steel flat bottomed wok for the Western kitchen. Wok Hay Baby!

you should consider picking up Grace Young's two wok cookbooks, Breath of a wok and Stir frying to the sky's edge. I like her earlier book better but they are both great.

Agree with /u/X28.

Andrea's book should be considered as a primary text for Vietnamese cooking (much like David Thompson's Thai Food for Thai, or Paul Bocuse: The Complete Recipes for French).

Luke's books are great (as well as his shows that sort of accompany the books, or the other way around).

I can highly recommend either of Fucshia Dunlop's books, Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook and Land of Plenty, as excellent recipe and instruction books for Chinese cooking. In the front matter she lists the equipment you'll need to get started as well as goes over the techniques. I cook out of both of them several times a week.

I purchased my wok and cleaver from the Wok Shop and was very happy with their prices and service.

The last apartment I lived in had an electric stove so I picked up a cheap butane stove from the local asian grocery store for ~$20 that worked fine. It's nowhere near as powerful as a high-end gas stove or a turkey fryer burner but it gets the job done. An electric stove will not work for Chinese, you need something with a flame.

Edit: I also own a rice cooker which is well worth the $20 I spent on it. I'd pick one up if you're serious about Chinese.

From a Chinese perspective, I think that Fuchsia Dunlop's books are very much on point as far as Sichuan cooking is concerned.

Eileen Yin Fei Yo's Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking is an excellent generalist work, with a slightly Cantonese bent.

Grace Young's Breath of a Wok is another excellent generalist cookbook.

I respect your progression up to Alton Brown, and I do enjoy Alton's cooking science, but I watched his show for years and never learned as much as I did since I started watching America's Test Kitchen on PBS. Sometimes they go into some complex recipes though, ignore those and pay attention to their basics, they explain what they tried and why it failed. They have an excellent beginners cookbook that covers all the essentials without going into the complex recipes they do on the show, it's found here The show has excellent product recommendations too. It's now the only show I watch, although I still occasionally look for specific episodes of Good Eats on youtube.

See if they have this book at your local library.

https://www.amazon.com/Cooks-Illustrated-Cookbook-Americas-Magazine/dp/1933615893

Has a great section explaining all of the ingredients and how to cook each. Start easy and get more complex. Canned beans have a ton of salt in them. Carne burritos are easier to cook than chicken because you can eat it rare. To get the taste of take out spot just look up mexican recipes online. It's all in the seasoning.

Rebar Modern Food Cookbook

It's a mix of easy and medium recipes from a legendary vegetarian restaurant in Victoria, British Columbia. The book has been a staple across Canada since it came out in 2001. It's incredible.

Though the book is mostly vegetarian, most of the recipes have foolproof instructions for veganizing.

Best V tortilla soup ever.

Wow! I actually own this one already. Good to know that's the real deal.

Here's a link for those interested:

Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking https://www.amazon.com/dp/039458404X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_5puYzb43Z2KMK

Jerusalem and Zahav are Israeli food cookbooks that handle vegetables nicely, though neither is vegetarian. The former is coauthored by Yotam Ottolenghi, who also wrote Plenty (which /u/Osatomr has recommended elsewhere in the comments).

It's also worth looking into Indian cuisine, as some versions of it are both vegetable-centric and relatively easy to make (due to their one-pot nature). I don't know of any Indian cookbooks off the top of my head, but Serious Eats' recipe for channa masala is a fun starting point (if a slight departure from tradition).

Yeah, I was thinking maybe chicken teriyaki. This Cooks Illustrated Cookbook is my favorite cookbook I own, and it never lets us down. It has the best chicken teriyaki recipe I've ever made.

There are more than enough resources out there to teach you how to cook. The better question might be - what do you want to learn how to cook?

If you're a big Italian food fan like I am, I did the following:

Step 1. Purchase copy of Marcella Hazan's ["Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking"] (http://www.amazon.ca/Essentials-Classic-Italian-Cooking-Marcella/dp/039458404X)
Step 2. Figure out the fundamental recipes - for me it was plain tomato sauce, bolognese sauce, minestrone soup, hand made pasta, roast chicken, ossobuco, and a few others
Step 3. Practice practice practice - I have probably made my own pasta 20 times in the past year and I am still not close to mastery (but I'm getting there!)

I'd also suggest that you work on basic knife skills, including sharpening your own knife. These are essential no matter what route you decide to take.

Cooks Illustrated. Ex bought this for me and it's pretty much been my bible. Good luck!

Cooks Illustrated is my absolute go to. We refer to it as The Bible in my house. https://www.amazon.com/dp/1933615893/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_lJNTDbTA8M9FF
Any America's Test Kitchen books are great.

I also love Mark Bitman's how to cook everything, Ottolenghi's Plenty & Plenty more.

Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan.

I've enjoyed this book immensely, it has great reviews on Amazon, and Alton Brown considers this one of the 'best' cook books to own.

I recently donated away about 100 cookbooks I had collected over the years (I organize virtually everything digitally now) but I kept these 5:

Child et al, Mastering the Art of French Cooking (well-used, next to the stove)

Hazan, Essentials of Italian Cooking (carried to Italy and used there twice)

Lewis, The Taste of Country Cooking (such a good read)

Rombauer. An older than I am edition (with how-to-skin-a-squirrel recipes) of the Joy of Cooking (falling apart, kept for sentimental reasons)

Fox, On Vegetables: Modern Recipes for the Home Kitchen (for the porn)

America's Test Kitchen Family cookbook. They explain technique very well and the recipes are solid. Plus it comes in a ring binder which is nice since it lays open better.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1933615486/ref=pd_aw_sims_3?pi=SY115&simLd=1

I love most Cook's Illustrated cookbooks, but for a new cook it can seem rather daunting and some ingredients are not in a simple grocery store.

That being said, everything I have made from my Cook's Illustrated Cook Book has been delicious.

A lot of famous restaurants and chefs have cookbooks that feature recipes from their restaurants.

It can be pretty hard to replicate a restaurant dish at home. I cook for a living and you have a lot of advantages in a professional kitchen. Hotter ovens and burners and all kinds of other toys.

So the recipes in restaurant cookbooks aren't always the most reliable when you do them at home. And the cookbooks are pricey. But they have pretty pictures.

If you want to get really crazy try one of these,


Mugaritz: A Natural Science of Cooking

or

Alinea

or

Noma: Time and Place in Nordic Cuisine

Wok pr0n, featuring a hand hammered wok from Shanghai on the cover.

While I'd be happy to follow along and maybe provide photos of woks in use in Shanghai, I'm no expert either and I don't consistently have the time or posses the temperament to be a good mod.

When he said “you wouldn’t believe me” reminded me of a great book that changed my outlook on life “Nothing in This Book Is True, But It's Exactly How Things Are” by Bob Frissell. Here is an amazon link: it will tell you all the secrets
https://www.amazon.com/Nothing-This-Exactly-Things-Anniversary/dp/1556438311/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2JHG0BDXT4WLO&keywords=nothing+in+this+book+is+true+but+it%27s+exactly+how+things+are&qid=1556244776&s=gateway&sprefix=Nothing+in+this%2Caps%2C220&sr=8-1

Cooking by James Peterson is a good resource. Very readable with plenty of illustrations, recipes, and techniques shown step by step.

Jacques Pepin's Complete Techniques is on my Christmas list.

The greatest cooking encyclopaedia though has to be the Larousse Gastronomique. One of my very favourite possessions and something that I refer to more than any other book I own.

Of course! Mine is mostly from Momofuku

2 Large pieces of konbu (or other seaweed if you can't find konbu)
2 cups dried shiitake mushrooms, (you can use fresh if you want, but they're stupid-expensive where I am)
1 Large chicken, whole.
5 pounds marrow bones (I use pork neck bone)
1lb bacon (one package)
2 bunches of scallions (green onions)
Mirin or Sake, Tare or teriyaki sauce to taste.

Rinse all ingredients before putting them in the stock pot. All ingredients can be eaten in any number of ways after they've given their flavor to the broth.

1. Take 6 cups of water and bring the water to a simmer (right before boiling) somewhere between 180-200ºF.
   
2. Simmer seaweed for 10 minutes then remove
   
3. Simmer mushrooms for 30 minutes then remove
   
4. Pre-heat your oven to 400
   
5. Skim off all the scum you see from the top from this point on.
   
6. Put the marrow bones in the oven
   
7. Add the whole chicken to the pot, yes, the whole thing, remove water if you HAVE to but try not to waste too much.
   
8. After 30 minutes flip your marrow bones over to roast the other side.
   
9. The chicken and the bones should be simmering/roasting for an hour now, take the bones out of the oven and remove the chicken (save your chicken for a topping or just eat it while you wait for your ramen).
   
10. Simmer the pork bones and the bacon, remove bacon after 45 minutes, remove bones after 7 hours. (you can cut down on this time if you're trying to rush the recipe, but at least 3 hours)
    
11. add your scallions 45 minutes before you take your bones out.
    
12. Remove everything and you have your broth, it freezes REALLY well.
    
13. Add mirin and teriyaki to taste.
    
    Toppings:
    Flavor eggs:
    Boil some eggs, peel the eggs, then put them in a ziplock bag.
    Add teriyaki, peanut sauce, and a little mirin and shake that sucker. Leave in the fridge overnight.
    
    Spicy Pork:
    I buy the shredded pork in the package for this.
    Heat some oil in wok.
    Add the pork, let the oil cook it.
    Add whatever spicy sauce you want to it, I use a schezwan stir-fry sauce.
    
    If you have the pork, an egg, some chicken, extra seaweed and a mushroom or 3 you've gotyourself some ramen, get the broth piping hot and let everything cook in the broth before eating. (I use fresh noodles because they cook faster)

My most used and well loved cookbook is Marcella Hazan’s Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking. My Italian grandmother recommended it to me when I first started cooking as a teenager and it seems to be a staple for a lot of home cooks I know.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/039458404X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_ESCPAbCSJBRWR

Check this out as well!! Its a great Veggie book!

It's in Vegan Richa's Indian Kitchen: Traditional and Creative Recipes for the Home Cook. The book came out earlier this year, and it's great.

http://www.amazon.com/Silver-Spoon-New-Phaidon-Press/dp/0714862568
The most amazing Italian cook book, the author went to little villages and talked to real Italian cooks and got the truest traditional methods and recipes

I've eaten at Alinea, Moto, and quite a few other high end restaurants as a cooking enthusiast. Its hard to say one kind of food is better than another - however, one of the reasons you would eat at a place like Alinea because you could never reasonably make the dishes they make (unless you have some specialized and expensive lab equipment).

EDIT: I should mention that Achatz has an Alinea book where he outlines some of the recipes from the restaurant (http://www.amazon.com/Alinea-Grant-Achatz/dp/1580089283). I find this commentary quite appropriate: http://ruhlman.com/2008/09/alinea-the-cook/

>This is not a home-cook book. This is a document of the exact recipes the Alinea brigade uses. It's very complex stuff and some of the techniques are difficult to pull off, requiring a good deal of skill and delicacy.

Fuchsia Dunlop's books are quite good as well.


Land of Plenty: A Treasury of Authentic Sichuan Cooking

Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook: Recipes from Hunan Province

Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking

I recommend you read "Nothing in this Book is True...But it's Exactly How Things Are" by Bob Frissell. It talks about all kinds of things from Grey Aliens to Sacred Geometry. Just finished it and it's a great book.
http://www.amazon.com/Nothing-Exactly-Things-Anniversary-Edition/dp/1556438311/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1331748774&sr=8-1

A few of these are vegetarian, not vegan, but they have lots of great vegan stuff:

https://www.amazon.com/Teff-Love-Adventures-Ethiopian-Cooking/dp/157067311X

www.amazon.com/Alternative-Vegan-International-Straight-Produce/dp/1604865083/

http://www.lotusartichoke.com

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0517581671/

https://www.amazon.com/Decolonize-Your-Diet-Plant-Based-Mexican-American/dp/1551525925

https://www.amazon.com/Afro-Vegan-Farm-Fresh-African-Caribbean-Southern/dp/1607745313

https://www.amazon.com/Vegan-Soul-Kitchen-Creative-African-American/dp/0738212288/

https://www.amazon.com/Food52-Vegan-Vegetable-Driven-Recipes-Kitchen/dp/1607747995

I would actually suggest the normal (not healthy) version, but either is great.

http://www.amazon.com/Americas-Test-Kitchen-Family-Cookbook/dp/1933615486

np \^.^ how's being vegan so far? (i started jan. 1, and it's been great, i just learned how to make mapo tofu)

Edit: also, maybe check out bryant terry's cookbooks, eg:

https://www.amazon.com/Afro-Vegan-Farm-Fresh-African-Caribbean-Southern/dp/1607745313

Depending on where you live, your library might have a bunch. You can check them out, try some recipes, and see if it's one you might want to buy.

I like a lot of international and multi-cultural flavors so I like a wide variety of cookbooks including:

Afro Vegan

Vegan Richa's Indian Kitchen

Chloe's Vegan Italian Kitchen

and a general cookbook that helps you make your own dishes using vegan staples:

The Homemade Vegan Pantry

If you are a big fan of Indian food, like me, I recommend Vegan Richas Indian Kitchen https://www.amazon.com/Vegan-Richas-Indian-Kitchen-Traditional/dp/1941252095/ref=nodl_

She also has a website https://www.veganricha.com/

This cookbook: http://amzn.com/1933615486 from America's Test Kitchen.

Includes a huge variety of recipes and also includes techniques on successful completion. Tips for how to identify and choose cuts of meat, easily dice an onion, choose knives, light a grill, preheat an oven...everything a beginning cook could use.

Each recipe gives exact cooking times and are rated "easy" "quick" so you know what you're getting into before you start.

THIS. You are going to want to get a burner that puts out crazy heat. I really like THIS model. 64,000BTU is on the low end for wok burners (pro burners are 120K plus) but is more than serviceable for a home cook. If you are unwilling or unable to get a high output gas burner you would be best served by listening to tsdguy and getting a nice heavy saute pan as trying to use a wok on a home stove is going to be a disappointment.

I also highly highly suggest you pick up Breath of Wok it has been invaluable for my wok cookery.

Pick a classic in a cuisine with which you're generally unfamiliar but for which you feel confidant you can get good ingredients. A few ideas:

• Diana Kennedy - Essential Cuisines of Mexico or The Art of Mexican Cooking
  
  
• Barbara Tropp - The Modern Art of Chinese Cooking
  
  
• David Thompson - Thai Food
  
  
• Claudia Roden - The New Book of Middle Eastern Food
  
  
• Shizuo Tsuji - Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art
  
  You'll be forced to learn new techniques and deal with new ingredients, and get a sense of an entire cooking tradition. Any of those books will give you at least a small sense of the culture that inspired the cuisine, the human context, in addition to culinary knowledge.

He figures prominently in this doosie of a read. Pretty entertaining stuff: Link

Ahhhh, my condolences, how tragic!

I'm something of a cookbook minimalist, and keep my personal collection pretty concise; I'm quick to give away books if they've been on my shelf too long without much use. I used to be a cookbook hoarder, but I don't have the space for it anymore, lol.

The cookbooks I have on the shelf rn are Season, The Palestinian Table, Arabesque, Afro-Vegan, Donabe, and several Japanese-language cookbooks.

For dessert-related things, I have Baking and Pastry: Mastering the Art and Craft, Chocolates and Confections: Formula, Theory, and Technique, SUQAR, and the Flavor Thesaurus.

I would recommend a dozen or so books to get started. However, if I had to recommend one thing it would be this blog, as it dissects the first book from Alinea from the view point of a novice. It should make you think about cooking and food in a completely different way, and give you a head start into think about advanced concepts.

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.

Yep, I agree. I was actually wondering how he's take my question on the iPad app. Whatever - I bought two of his $40 book, and he knew it. :P

(You can get them waaaay cheaper online, but I wanted to support the store, etc.)

Look up Jain and/or Buddhist recipes. Jain should exclude onions, potatoes & garlic. Buddhist should exclude onion & garlic, too but from what I've read, the onion is iffy, so it's good you have a substitute readily available.

Lord Krishna's Vegetarian Cooking cookbook follows the Vaishnava diet, which should also exclude onions & garlic.

Good luck!

Eat Me: The Food and Philosophy of Kenny Shopsin

or possibly

Smoke and Pickles: Recipes and Stories from a New Southern Kitchen

they both look like a lot of fun.

Veganomicon is less than $10 on Amazon if you get it used:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/156924264X/ref=sr_1_6_olp?ie=UTF8&qid=1486674904&sr=8-6&keywords=vegan+cookbook

Afro Vegan is solid, and is less than $20 new:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1607745313/sr=8-31/qid=1486674985/ref=olp_product_details?_encoding=UTF8&me=&qid=1486674985&sr=8-31

Vegan Soups and Hearty Stews is like $4 used:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/076793072X/ref=sr_1_5_olp?ie=UTF8&qid=1486675176&sr=8-5&keywords=nava+atlas


Vegan Without Borders is $5 used:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/1449447082/ref=tmm_hrd_used_olp_sr?ie=UTF8&condition=used&qid=&sr=

First recommendation is don't work as a chef if you value a social/family life.

Good books to read are;
Larousse Gastronomique which is the absolute Bible/Koran/Bhagavad Gita

The Silver Spoon which is a great Italian cook book.

And another tip is old, outdated looking cook books are sometimes the best. I've got one I got from an ex girlfriend's mum which looks terrible but if you're into Cypriot/Greek/Turkish food is incredible, it's here

You can make keto bread too, using almond flour and MCT powder and baking powder and eggs. It's not bad. I get most of my stuff from a cook book.


https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1939754445/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


And these keto snacks are good, just expensive and not a lot in the bag...


https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DDQ3GJT/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1

These are all great starts -

http://www.amazon.com/Essentials-Classic-Italian-Cooking-Marcella/dp/039458404X


http://www.amazon.com/Lidias-Italy-Simple-Delicious-Recipes/dp/1400040361/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1413903918&sr=1-6&keywords=lidia+bastianich+cookbooks

http://www.amazon.com/Mario-Batali-Simple-Italian-Food/dp/0609603000/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1413903950&sr=1-9&keywords=mario+batali

I'll also suggest "The Joy of Cooking"

A couple of other books that are filled with perfect and realistic versions of food everyone will recognize and want to eat are:

The Cook's Illustrated Cookbook

The Complete America's Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook 2001-2014

These two books are very similar so you don't need both of them, but I think having at least one of them is essential.

If you're looking for a cookbook for this then Lord Krishna's Cuisine is one of the best cookbooks I've ever used.

https://www.amazon.com/Lord-Krishnas-Cuisine-Vegetarian-Cooking/dp/0525245642

Lord Krishna's Cuisine: The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking is on my shelf. Good recipes & very comprehensive.

My favorite cookbooks so far are

1. Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads and
   
2. The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook 3rd Edition
   
   If you are brand new and want only the basices, you should get I'm Just Here for the Food: Food + Heat = Cooking by Alton Brown which is the most basic cooking-for-dummies book!

Great British Chefs, Challenging Recipes

Momofuku Milkbar

Thomas Keller recipes

that's why i cook my own or go to china town.

this is one great source for recipes:

http://www.amazon.com/Revolutionary-Chinese-Cookbook-Recipes-Province/dp/0393062228/ref=la_B001IGLRVG_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1343350265&sr=1-2

Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking is a great Italian cookbook, although maybe more recipe-centric than what you are looking for.

> Do you guys have any sources of really high quality vegan meals by like high level chefs and shit.

Take your pick! What cuisines does she like to make? What do you like to eat? Choose something that fits both.

Gourmet Stuff (youtube channels, blogs, and/or cookbooks. Some are all three):

• Hot For Food
  
• Sweet Potato Soul
  
• Edgy Veg
  
• AvantGardeVegan
  
• Exceedingly Vegan
  
• Mr. Vegan
  
• VeganLovlie
  
• Peaceful Cuisine
  
• Vegan Soul Kitchen
  
• Oh She Glows
  
• Minimalist Baker
  
  For direct recreations of dairy, meat, and condiments/sauces.
  
  
• Seitan and Beyond by Skye Michael Conroy
  
• The Non-Dairy Evolution Cookbook by Skye Michael Conroy
  
• The Homemade Vegan Pantry: The Art of Making Your Own Staples by Miyoko Schinner
  
• Artisan Vegan Cheese by Miyoko Schinner
  
  For recreations of eggs:
  
  
• Baking substitutes
  
• For straight eggs
  
  For a general cookbook: Veganomicon
  
  ---------
  
  My list of substitutions, taken from another comment:
  
  "
  Another thing you can do is learn or find vegan substitutes to things, then you can look up recipes that are as complex or authentic as you want, and simply use the substitutions. For gourmet vegan cooking, some are:
  
  
• Beef, sausage: seitan, commercial vegan meat substitutes
  
• Bacon: Coconut bacon or Bac'n bits
  
• Heavy Cream: Cashew Cream
  
• Butter: Vegan Butter, margarine, vegetable oil or coconut oil in baking
  
• Cheese: blended up nuts or other things with flavorings or gelling agents, different for different ones. Mozzarella, Ricotta, Feta, Parmesan, Fancy Cookbooks: 1, 2
  
• Eggs: For cooking, Tofu or Commercial Egg Replacers. For baking, a bunch of different things depending on what you're making.
  
• Crab cakes: hearts of palm
  
• Tuna salad: mashed chickpeas
  
• Merangues: aquafaba
  
  "

FYI I'd recommend this book if you're into Thai Food

I got my first copy many years ago and it's a bit of a Thai food Bible.

I saw a recipe in David Chang's book (Momofuku) that I'm going to try:

Ginger scallion noodles.

There's a free preview with the recipe on the book's Amazon page:

http://www.amazon.com/Momofuku-David-Chang/dp/030745195X

Ingredients are important. I suggest purchasing Chinese cooking wine, soy sauce, and vinegar to start.

Looked at a few recipes from this book and it seems pretty legit.

It's all about the broth, which means it's all about simmering a bunch of stuff in a giant pot for a very long time. Momofuku's ramen is not my favorite but the recipe in the Momofuku cookbook is very detailed. Good place to start.

The Alinea cookbook has several dessert recipes and is beautiful

Alinea https://www.amazon.com/dp/1580089283/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_zIIBzbCXCSD9V

Pastry cooks are hardly rare. Good ones are, though.

Get the Alinea cookbook and work your way through it, if you have the patience and the pocketbook. Very neat stuff, but really anal from a guy with zero taste buds. I respect him, but really... His most critical restaurant reviews are of his presentation and flavor combinations, so use your own judgement and taste buds while using this book. I recommend it as reading material, but follow your own head and area.

The Silver Spoon is a mammoth of a book. around 2000 pages if I remember right. I had it recommended to me countless times but didn't realise just how amazing of a deal it was until it landed on my doorstep and I found out you could believably beat someone to death with it.

Huge book, categories for EVERYTHING. My only criticism is that sometimes it uses terminology that might not be the best for beginners and there's not many guide pictures. But that's nothing a bit of googling around can't sort out. I'd definitely recommend getting it for your collection.

The Bacon Cookbook, Ratio, and because I'm obsessed with New Orleans food, The Court of Two Sisters Cookbook.

Also someone else mentioned the Cook's Illustrated cookbook which is absolutely amazing.

Buy a good vegetarian cook book. Go through and cook all of the recipes that appeal to you.

My favourite book is the Rebar: Modern Food Cookbook

https://www.amazon.ca/Rebar-Modern-Cookbook-Audrey-Alsterburg/dp/0968862306

There are a lot of good ones and some crappy ones. Just find one that you like.

Get the Cook's Illustrated Cookbook. Tons and tons of classics made with perfect technique. It'll be your new go-to.

I'm trying to remember the name of it! Hold on... :)

edit: got it! More With Less (https://www.amazon.com/More-Less-Cookbook-World-Community/dp/083619263X)

The bourbon jalapenos and caraway pickles were both from Edward Lee's Smoke and Pickles book. I found a lot of inspiration in it.

I got this book: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1941252095?keywords=vegan%20richa&qid=1452442977&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1

Has a ton of recipes in it, all are pretty damn good.

Okay I'll bite "Awful Truth" loaded to kindle.

I really hope its as bastshit as this one

I am not sure if 'vegan' qualifies automatically as 'diabetic' but this cookbook is rockstar....and healthy.

"Vegan Soul Kitchen"

http://www.amazon.com/Vegan-Soul-Kitchen-Creative-African-American/dp/0738212288/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1450929368&sr=8-1&keywords=vegan+soul+kitchen