The 35 Best Cookbooks of All Time, According to Chefs

The French Laundry Cookbook

$34 at Amazon $37 at Walmart

When it was published in 1999, Thomas Keller’s The French Laundry Cookbook offered a look inside the famed Napa Valley restaurant that Ruth Reichl once called “the most exciting place to eat in the United States.” The book features 150 recipes for ambitious home cooks and has inspired many of the latest generation of top chefs, including Jordan Kahn, chef and creative director at three of Los Angeles’ most creative restaurants — Vespertine, Destroyer, and Meteora.

“For Christmas when I was 14, my mother wanted to get me a nice cookbook to fuel my interest. She got me a copy of The French Laundry Cookbook, based on the recommendation of the store clerk and not knowing anything about it or Thomas Keller,” he says. “Three years later, I was accepted as a chef de commis at The French Laundry and was able to fulfill my dream of working with Chef Thomas Keller."

Food & Wine Best New Chef Justin Pichetrungsi also encountered the book early, at the Borders bookstore across the street from his family’s Los Angeles restaurant, Anajak Thai. “I must have been 12 or 13 years old. It began with a page about acknowledgments. Chef Keller thanked his family deeply ‘because the life of a chef inevitably leads to areas of neglect in one's life.’ It started with vulnerability even though so much of the book is about perfection,” he says. “I never cooked the recipes. But the first four pages are some of the best writing about the life of the chef you will ever read.” It put him on the path to turning a neighborhood Thai spot into one of the country’s most celebrated restaurants.

Mastering the Art of French Cooking

$14 at Amazon $135 at Saks Fifth Avenue $179 at Pottery Barn

For so many budding chefs, watching Julia Child on PBS was the gateway to a career in cooking, and this is the book that got the culinary icon her TV show. First published more than 60 years ago, the simple guide to classical French cuisine changed the way America cooks, and it’s still going strong.

“When I started reading the book, I felt like I was learning a different language,” says Michelle Weaver, former executive chef at The Charleston Grill. “Julia was my bridge from home cooking to professional cooking. Mastering the Art of French Cooking will always have a special place in my heart.”

The book is also a formative one for Patrick O’Connell, chef at the three-Michelin-starred Inn at Little Washington in Virginia. “Every recipe works perfectly, and as a wonderful bonus, Julia’s enlightening anecdotes bring to life the stories behind each dish,” he says. The book’s rolled omelet recipe, a deceptively simple classic, has become his go-to test for cooks. “A prerequisite for landing a job in my kitchen is to make a proper, rolled, French omelet. That simple dish perfectly illustrates how Julia forever altered America’s understanding of French cuisine."

White Heat

$55 at Amazon

The late Anthony Bourdain called White Heat an “amazingly religious experience.” He’s not the only chef who feels that way about outspoken chef Marco Pierre White’s book, a blend of Michelin-level recipes and photos of the "enfant terrible of the UK restaurant scene" in his kitchen. Think what you want about his personality: The chef is a legend among chefs and any cook who knows food.

2017 Food & Wine Best New chef Angie Mar, of Les Trois Chevaux in the West Village and formerly of the Beatrice Inn, calls White Heat “My favorite book of all time. So much of how I view the raw beauty of a real kitchen and its juxtaposed refinement is in that book. It’s raw and real, not made up and neatly manicured, or food that’s “easy to make” like books we see today. It’s not supposed to be easy; not everyone is meant to cook. White Heat tells that story elegantly.  

It’s no surprise more than one chef who was polled professed their love for White’s cult hit. “Besides stunning classic recipes like pigs trotters with Morels and truffles, the book may have signaled the birth of the Rock Star chef who wasn’t afraid to publish what many chefs only thought or talked about in their walk-ins,” says chef, cookbook author, and TV Personality Richard Blais.

My Bombay Kitchen

$24 at Amazon $31 at Target

My Bombay Kitchen was the first book on Parsi food published in the United States. The book’s volume of 165 recipes won it the 2008 James Beard Foundation Book Award in Asian Cooking. It’s not just a cookbook, though. The author takes the reader on a journey rich with their own personal experience and techniques grounded in Parsi cuisine.

"One of the most influential cookbooks in my life has been My Bombay Kitchen by Niloufer Ichaporia King,” says Meherwan Irani, co-founder, chef and CEO of Chai Pani Restaurant Group. “It taught me things about being a Parsi that I didn't realize, as well as captured the influence the Parsi diaspora had on Indian cuisine, changing the way I look at the entirety of Indian food forever."

The Cooking of Southwest France

$20 at Amazon

Paula Wolfert is an expert on the diverse cuisines of the Mediterranean, with nine cookbooks to her name covering everywhere from Morocco to Turkey, plus a James Beard Lifetime Achievement Award. She’s beloved by many chefs, but sadly, most of her books are out of print today.

However, this one is available in ebook form, and it’s an all-time favorite of Suzanne Goin, chef and co-owner of A.O.C. in Los Angeles as well as a former Food & Wine Best New Chef and frequent contributor. "It’s been beloved since I was a teenager," she says. “Despite growing up in Los Angeles, this book spoke to me so deeply with its incredible traditions, layers of flavors, love of the ingredients, and meticulously thorough instructions. It feels like a one-on-one masterclass in the joys of regional French cooking.”

The region covered in this book is the homeland of cassoulet, black truffles, and plenty of rich and hearty dishes. Duck is a common ingredient, as in one of Goin’s favorites, boudin de canard aux pommes et aux marrons, AKA duck sausage with apples and chestnuts. And you should not skip dessert! Goin says A.O.C. served two favorites from The Cooking of Southwest France at its most recent annual cassoulet night: croustade with apples and prunes in Armagnac, and walnut tart from Masseube.

The New Basics Cookbook

$20 at Amazon

Chef Pati Jinich is one of our country’s foremost authorities on Mexican cuisine due to her extensive collection of cookbooks and her James Beard Award Winning and Emmy-nominated public television series, “Pati's Mexican Table.” However, her favorite cookbook is not about Mexican cuisine. Instead, The New Basics Cookbook is one she was given a long time ago and spans many cuisines. Its authors, Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins, also wrote the acclaimed books Silver Palate Cookbook and Silver Palate Good Times Cookbook. 

Jinich calls the book “an oldie but goodie that never tires, and no matter how much time passes, it continues to deliver and weathers the storms of trendiness. I have had it since I got married more than 20 years ago, and I come back to it time and again not only for its solid advice but phenomenal recipes.” Look for illustrated recipes in an encyclopedia-like tome that spans everything beginning cooks need to know, from boiling an egg to risotto to a hearty weeknight meatloaf.

Every Grain of Rice

$23 at Amazon

“Fuchsia Dunlop is a true gem in the world of Chinese cooking, and despite being English with no Chinese background, she's become such an important voice in the field,” says Hong Kong–born Philippe Chow, executive chef at Philippe by Philippe Chow, which has six locations around the world. “What strikes me is her meticulous research and understanding of the diverse regional flavors that make Chinese food so special. In her recipes, it's not just about cooking; it's a peek into the history and traditions that have shaped the dishes of my people. Her dedication to preserving traditional Chinese kitchen techniques resonates with me, and her books are a source of inspiration in my kitchen.”

Dunlop has written several books on spicy Sichuan food, but this one focuses on easy recipes from throughout China. They’re weeknight dinners that come together quickly, backed up by extensive research. Some of Chow’s favorites are slippery wood ear salad with cilantro, sour-and-hot silken tofu, red-braised beef with tofu “bamboo,” and braised chicken with shiitake mushrooms.

Cleora's Kitchens

$54 at Amazon

Author Cleora Butler was born into a family of professional cooks. Her memoir explores the American black experience in the South through food and black-and-white photographs of items like antique kitchenware. 

Chef Erika Council of Bomb Biscuit in Atlanta calls the book “my favorite because it was the first cookbook ever given to me when I graduated high school. Once I started reading it, I fell more in love with the story of Cleora, how she talked about her experiences as an African American cook in Tulsa over 80 years, and how her family migrated from Texas after emancipation. Her story is fascinating and not shared enough." 

Like Council’s recent cookbook Still We Rise (nominated for a James Beard Award this year as is the chef), Butler’s book is peppered with recipes for Southern sweets like burnt-sugar ice cream. It also includes rich historical anecdotes and memories of the author’s father.

The Preservation Kitchen

$24 at Amazon

From brandied cherries to sauerkraut to chicken liver mousse, this book offers a wealth of delicious ways to preserve foods, plus recipes that make use of them. But it’s the format that makes it a favorite for chef Eric Bost of the Michelin-starred Jeune et Jolie in Carlsbad, California. “This one is mighty dog-eared,” he says. “It’s packed with full dish recipes, but my main love of this workhorse lies in the individual preparations for the base preserves and pickles. They even break down the pickle recipes based on volume, ounces, grams, and percents, which come in very handy for restaurant uses.”

Bost suggests you start with crème fraîche, an ingredient that will turn your home cooking fancy and chef-y with very little effort. He also loves the color (and flavor!) of the book’s peach saffron jam.

The Zuni Cafe Cookbook

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The late Judy Rodgers is a culinary icon, and it’s no surprise her The Zuni Café Cookbook is a James Beard Foundation 2022 Cookbook Hall of Fame Inductee. Since it was published in 2002, the cookbook, known for recipes such as the restaurant’s famous Zuni Roast Chicken, continues to make best-of lists. Rodgers was one of our country's most celebrated and influential chefs and a trailblazer in the early days of Californian cuisine.

Chef Anne Quatrano, an award-winning chef and co-owner of Atlanta mainstays Bacchanalia and Star Provisions and co-author of Summerland: Recipes for Celebrating with Southern Hospitality, is equally notable. Quatrano cites the books as her favorite. “It is the book I most frequently gift to chefs and cooks and one I never tire of looking through. Judy had a unique and all-encompassing passion for food and how to prepare it; I worked for her at Zuni while in culinary school and can honestly say that my time with her at Zuni taught me more than culinary school and other work experiences combined.”

The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook

$21 at Amazon $32 at barnesandnoble.com

It’s hard to find someone who isn’t charmed by chef Ina Garten, her recipes, laughs, and love for her husband — and entertaining. Garten has influenced a generation of home cooks with her gorgeous cookbooks and TV shows. However, The Barefoot Contessa is perhaps her most notable. The book’s recipes center on her specialty food store in the Hamptons, where she started. Unsurprisingly, its timeless recipes are an inspiration for chef Asha Gomez, author of My Two Souths and I Cook In Color, who is also a master entertainer. 

“If I had to pick one book, it would be The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook,” says chef and cookbook author Asha Gomez. The reason is simple — it played a significant role in my culinary journey. While I initially learned Indian cooking in my mother's kitchen, mastering the art of everyday cooking in the US as a first-generation immigrant happened through the pages of The Barefoot Contessa. What people don't know about me is that on any given weeknight, I enjoy a perfect roast bird rather than a curry chicken. Garten's recipes and approach made the learning process enjoyable, and it's where my love for cooking truly blossomed. I never went to culinary school, but Ina Garten's cookbook became my kitchen mentor. What brings a smile to my face these days is seeing my son Ethan, who is now old enough to navigate the kitchen, pulling up Ina Garten recipes. It's heartening to witness the culinary tradition being passed down through generations.”

Forgotten Skills of Cooking

$60 at Amazon

“From foraging, preserving, and building smokers (hot and cold) to irresistible recipes for potted shrimp or homemade crackers, flipping through this book always reminds me of why I love to cook and putter in the kitchen,” says Mary Sue Milliken, chef-owner of Border Grill and co-host of Food Network’s classic “Too Hot Tamales.”

The book focuses on old-fashioned techniques that were once commonplace in the kitchen — home-churned butter, house-made bacon, and even planting a vegetable garden and raising chickens. Author Darina Allen is a chef and writer who runs Ballymaloe Cookery School in Cork, Ireland, and Milliken says she fell in love on a visit about 15 years ago. (There are cottages available to rent during school holidays, so you can stay, too!)

The Professional Chef

$72 at Amazon

Sometimes, it’s the foundational cookbooks that have the greatest impact that you cherish forever. The Professional Chef by the Culinary Institute of America is one such book treasured by students and home cooks alike. The book is a user-friendly guide on practical techniques that reflect how we cook today, complete with global influences and a range of courses covered. 

Considered by many to be one of the most important chefs of today for his role in leading the conversation around childhood hunger and the culinary arts, chef Kwame Onwuachi, calls the book his favorite. Onwuachi wears many hats as a chef, cookbook author, actor, James Beard Winner, and 2019 Food & Wine Best New Chef — just to name a few. He is also Food & Wine's executive producer. So, he knows a little about cooking. Yet, his pick illustrates the chef’s commitment to technique and a strong basic culinary skill toolkit. "It's a complete book of techniques which gives you a full scope of the basics that you can build from," says Onwuachi.

The New York Times Cook Book

$27 at Amazon

"When I started cooking in high school in the early 1980s, I cooked out of my mother's cookbooks,” says Craig Stoll, a former Food & Wine Best New Chef who’s been running San Francisco’s Delfina for more than two decades. That included Joy of Cooking and The Pleasures of Chinese Cooking, but his very favorite is this comprehensive tome, which features nearly 1,500 recipes of just about every kind. Stoll first cooked from the 1979 “updated” edition, but this latest version came out in 1990.

Stoll especially remembers the recipe for chicken breast with raspberry vinegar sauce. “I cooked that recipe for a girl who agreed to come over for dinner while my parents and siblings were away for the evening.” Let’s just say the recipe turned out well, and now Stoll is a professional chef.

Tender, Volume 1

$33 at Amazon

Cooking lunch with chef Nigel Slater is a dream of Chef Steven Satterfield, the award-winning executive chef and co-owner of Miller Union in Atlanta. “I’ll have to admit that my cookbook crush has been Nigel Slater for quite some time, and his vegetable book Tender: A Cook and His Vegetable Patch was a game changer for me,” says chef Steven Satterfield. 

Slater, who has been a food columnist for The Observer for over twenty years, award-winning cookbook author, and more, is one of the foremost authorities on farm-to-table cooking in the UK. His book is a love letter for cooking and growing vegetables with over 400 recipes and guides. 

“It gave me the courage and inspiration to write Root to Leaf, A Southern Chef cooks with the Seasons and wax poetic about my favorite vegetables grown on our bountiful Georgia soil,” says Satterfield. “The biggest difference is that I don’t grow anything. I admire his huge commitment to seeing it through from seed to table, but I encouraged home cooks to shop locally and cook with the seasons.”

New Complete Techniques

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“When I found Jacques Pépin’s La Technique and La Methode on the shelves of a library in Mexico, I knew I had to have them. So, on my next trip to the US, I bought both cookbooks and brought them back to Mexico with me and started cooking with them,” says James Beard Award-winning chef Iliana de la Vega of El Naranjo in Austin, Texas. Those two classics are now out of print, but they were combined and updated in 2012 to create New Complete Techniques.

The great thing about all three books is how extensively illustrated they are. “[La Technique] was the first cookbook that I knew of that not only had recipes and photos of the final dishes but also detailed pictures with detailed descriptions of the steps to prepare the dishes,” de la Vega says. You’ll find step-by-step photos of everything from how to sharpen a knife to how to caramelize onions for her favorite recipe in the book, French onion soup. “I have moved several times to different houses and different countries, and both cookbooks have always been with me.”

La Varenne Pratique

$94 at Amazon

La Varenne Cooking School is a famous cooking school in Paris. This book was written by its founder and director in order to combine practical cooking techniques with an understanding of ingredients backed by the school’s arsenal of resources. It’s no wonder that when we asked lauded chef Jim Lahey of Sullivan Street Bakery and “No-knead Bread” recipe fame for his favorite cookbook, he named La Varenne Pratique. Lahey says he loves it “for its breadth of recipes and techniques. It was the first cookbook I ever bought, and I learned so much about food and cooking from it.”

The book is divided into 22 chapters, covering everything from hollandaise sauce, roasting times for venison, pheasant, and even squirrel, preserving and microwave cookery. It also extensively covers how and when to use specific kitchen equipment like a Bain-marie and much more.

The Italian Baker, Revised

$23 at Amazon $40 at barnesandnoble.com

The Italian Baker has won the International Association of Culinary Professionals Award for best baking book and is considered by the James Beard Foundation to be one of the thirteen most indispensable baking books of all time. The well-loved book is a class on Italian bread executed with expertise. Readers can expect recipes for Italian classics such as focaccia, grissini (breadsticks), pastries to have with espresso, and other traditional and lesser-known breads from regions all over Italy.

Given Lahey’s commitment to baking excellence, it is no surprise it’s on his list of favorite books. “It accurately describes the culture in the context of the village and community baker,” he says. “The recipes are bombs, and it inspired me to learn more. It was highly influential to me at the beginning of my journey as a baker.” 

The River Cottage Meat Book

$45 at Amazon

English chef and TV host Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall was an early advocate of seasonal, hyper-local eating, and this book has become a modern classic. The title says it all: It covers the whole process for all sorts of meats, from sustainably raising beef, pork, poultry, and more; to using all parts of it in recipes of many kinds.

The book has been an inspiration to Jesse Griffiths, cookbook author and co-founder of local-centric Dai Due in Austin, Texas, along with The New School of Traditional Cookery, which holds classes in hunting, fishing, and butchery. “I first saw an original edition of The River Cottage Meat Book while working on a farm in France. I was completely taken by Hugh's transparent look at domestic meat production. The rest of the book is dedicated to celebrating these animals with recipes and thoughtful essays like ‘Limits of the Vegetarian Utopia,’ along with his real-life connections to his farm animals. It is decidedly British, innovative, and an inspirational book that has shaped my career,” says Griffiths.

Mexico: The Cookbook

$34 at Amazon $34 at Walmart View on Harleylilac.com

Published by the artsy Phaidon Press and filled with gorgeous full-page photos, this is a coffee table book — but it’s one you’ll ruin with spatters and stains in your kitchen. “It's a necessary read for every person who loves cooking Mexican food at home or who wants to learn more deeply about our gastronomy,” says Fernanda Serrano, James Beard Award–winning executive chef at ElNico in New York. “I love this book because it covers everything from street food classics to recipes from renowned Mexican chefs. The book itself is beautiful, with a papel picado-style cover and photography that shows Mexican culture and people in an incredible way.”

This tome covers all regions of Mexico, with more than 700 recipes ranging from Oaxacan moles to coastal blue crab salad. Serrano’s favorite is simple, basic conchas: “It is my favorite Mexican pastry and so easy to make,” she says.

Eleven Madison Park: The Cookbook

$50 at Amazon

If you’ve ever wanted to make three-Michelin-star-style food at home, this book can get you there. It captures in detail the process of making dishes from the famed New York restaurant, named the world’s best in 2017. It even adapts the recipes to use tools and batch sizes regular cooks are equipped to handle. (And, since Eleven Madison Park has gone fully vegan, it’s also your only chance to taste dishes that aren’t available anywhere anymore.)

“From front to back, it encapsulates the feel of a temple of fine dining,” says Andrew Quinn, chef and co-owner of The Noortwyck. He worked at Eleven Madison Park before opening his restaurant, but the book was a favorite even before that. “The Day in the Life section gives a glimpse into 24 hours inside a three-Michelin-starred kitchen. This book was the reason I moved to New York."

Estela

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For more than a decade, the Michelin-starred Estela in New York has been among the most creative restaurants in the country. Its chef spills lots of secrets in this book, but for Eric Huang, chef/owner of Pecking House in Brooklyn, it’s all about one chapter.

“The whole chapter on salads is amazing and should change everyone's perspective on what most chefs consider a necessary evil. The opening line — ‘our salads should make you forget that you're eating a salad’ — is a zeitgeist-shifting sentence,” Huang says. “The persimmon and kohlrabi salad is one of the most memorable things I've ever eaten, and despite growing up eating persimmons frequently, it changed my perspective on what they were capable of. It remains one of my favorite fruits and ingredients to this day. Estela is one of my favorite restaurants, and Ignacio Mattos is aggravatingly talented.”

The River Cafe Cookbook

$32 at Amazon

A born-and-bred Southerner, Jacob Sessoms nonetheless cites this book from an Italian restaurant in London as his favorite of all time. “It's more about their food philosophy,” says the restaurateur behind a trio of eateries in Asheville, North Carolina: Table, All Day Darling, and Golden Hour. “The River Café changed the food world when Rose and Ruth opened it.”

Premiering in 1987, the River Café was revolutionary in using authentic recipes and ingredients hard to find outside of Italy at the time. Things like Lacinato kale, arugula, and high-quality mozzarella are a lot easier to get today, but the recipes in this book still stand out. Sessoms’ personal favorite? Chocolate Nemesis, a dessert that remains one of the restaurant’s signatures. “It’s one of the best chocolate cakes ever,” he says.

Six Seasons: A New Way with Vegetables

$23 at Amazon $23 at Target $36 at barnesandnoble.com

In his first cookbook, Joshua McFadden shares his vast knowledge of vegetables and, specifically, how to transform them into the main attraction. The Portland, Oregon-based chef and restaurant owner honed his skills in notable restaurants that include Blue Hill and Momofuku in New York, as well as the renowned Four Season Farm in Maine. With 225 visionary recipes that include a pickling section and a collection of compound butters that predated the current butter board obsession, the book has been praised by Dan Barber, Nigella Lawson, and David Chang, and, in a starred review, Publisher’s Weekly called it “A must-have cookbook that stands out from the crowd of vegetable-centric cookbooks.” 

Kat Petonito, the executive chef of the duck & the peach, La Collina, and The Wells in Washington D.C., calls it her go-to book when she hits a seasonal creativity roadblock. “I love how he splits the typical seasons up because not all seasonal vegetables are available as soon as their ‘season’ starts,” she says. “It's also just a visually beautiful book.”

The Book of Sushi

$6 at Amazon

Kaze Chan, Master Sushi Chef at The Omakase Room at Sushi-san in Chicago, says this book is one of the few that he turns to regularly. “I use this book as a way to reference fish seasonality, regional variations, and other practical information that allows me to build on the tradition to create a modern omakase experience,” Chan says.

Curious novices and expert sushi makers will appreciate Omae and Tachibana’s book, as well as those who just love sushi and want to learn more about the history and context of the cuisine. The clean and elegant guide delves into how to choose the best fish, regional recipe variations, and, of course, the indispensable instructions for creating impressive rolls and dishes at home. 

Cooking by Hand

$34 at Amazon $40 at barnesandnoble.com View on Booksamillion.com

“If I could fall asleep and wake up living in a cookbook, it would be this one,” says Ashley Christensen, chef/proprietor of AC Restaurants in Raleigh, North Carolina. “This book is filled with classic workhorse Italian technique, nuanced by the evergreen offerings of California’s endless seasons, thoughtfully combined.”

The former chef at Chez Panisse and Oliveto, Paul Bertolli thoroughly conveys his love and appreciation for food, delving into the importance of ingredients throughout the roughly 120 recipes and several essays on topics like balsamic vinegar, pasta flours (and how each influences the type of pasta), and ways to use a tomato. Illustrated, step-by-step guides, like the section on curing prosciutto, are practical and thorough. Christensen calls the textbook-style lessons, often with numbered photo steps, “romantic and fully dependable.” The chef’s house potato gnocchi is based on this book. “Sometimes, there is no need to look further,” she says. “It doesn't get better.”

Larousse Gastronomique

$82 at Amazon $78 at Walmart

At age 11, Gabriel Kreuther saved his money to buy Larousse Gastronomique. The acclaimed French chef’s first cookbook is a 1200-plus page tome that was first published in 1938. The exhaustive food histories, descriptions of techniques and equipment, and recipes broken down into step-by-step photos made the book, which Kreuther read each night to soak up its lessons, foundational in his career. 

“It’s so comprehensive … the book itself probably weighs over 15 pounds!” says the chef. “My favorite parts, however, are the bios of the most important people from the world of cooking, their stories, and their impact — everyone from Taillevent to Marie Antoine Carême. The depth and knowledge are unsurpassed.”

The book’s breadth of information and expertise is indeed superlative, as is its user-friendly structure, organized in alphabetical order with nearly 4,000 recipes indexed at the end of the book. While it was first published over eight decades ago, an updated version now includes more modern techniques (sous-vide, for example), fresh photos, and new biographies of food world luminaries. 

The Big Fat Duck Cookbook

$222 at Amazon View on Walmart

Named for The Fat Duck, his modern British restaurant in Bray, Berkshire — which, in 2005, was awarded three Michelin stars — Heston Blumenthal’s groundbreaking cookbook is more than 500 pages of dramatic, glossy photography and recipes. Organized into three sections — History, Recipes, and Science — Blumenthal delves into his background and food philosophy, a robust selection of recipes that spans roughly 300 pages, and comprehensive, fairly approachable cooking science. (Including ice cream science!)

Paddy Coker, the executive grill chef at Hawksmoor NYC, grew up watching influential British chefs, and Blumenthal was the first to make him think chefs could make magic in the kitchen. “He makes food exciting,” says Coker. “He's self-taught, has an incredible mind, and you can tell he has a sincere passion for the history of food.”

Mi Cocina

$93 at Amazon

Luis Herrera, the executive chef/partner at Ensenada in New York City, names the Venezuelan cookbook Mi Cocina, written by Venezuelan engineer-turned-chef, writer, and publisher Armando Scannone. Originally published in the 80s, Scannone’s books, including Mi Cocina, sought to honor and preserve Venezuelan cuisine. 

“It was the first time that a book compiled so many traditional Venezuelan cuisine recipes, especially from the central area and Caracas,” says Herrera. “It is a must in every Venezuelan household, and it has become even more special with the massive exodus my country has suffered for the past 20 years as this book gave us the chance to preserve a little bit of our culture no matter where we are."

While the book doesn’t include color photos, the traditional flavors and recipes, from basic to more elaborate, are beautifully conveyed. 

Noma: Time and Place in Nordic Cuisine

$48 at Amazon $48 at Target $70 at barnesandnoble.com

Of all the cookbooks that have shaped Eric Leveillee, René Redzepi’s Noma: Time and Place in Nordic Cuisine has had the most profound impact on the executive chef at Lacroix at The Rittenhouse in Philadelphia. “It was given to me by my now wife, and through its pages, I learned about the type of power a dish could have, the feelings a dish could evoke, and the communities it could build,” he says. 

Redzepi’s 368-page opus includes more than 200 color photos and 90 recipes for boundary-pushing dishes like sous-vide reindeer shoulder and carrot cake-coated lingonberry sorbet. And while they exalt the hyper-local ingredients the chef is known for championing, curious and creative home cooks can use it as a guide to creating unique dishes based on the inspiration they’ll find throughout the book.

Plenty: Vibrant Vegetable Recipes from London's Ottolenghi

$20 at Amazon $20 at Target $20 at Walmart

Yotam Ottolenghi’s books, just like his London-based restaurants, celebrate vegetarian cuisine — in Plenty, it’s throughout 120-some recipes, and 150 in Plenty More, each one with its own vibrant photo. Besides the bright, fresh recipes that draw on ingredients (spices, herbs) and combinations (eggplant and mango) that impart unexpected flavors to dishes, Ottolenghi shares creative and thoughtful techniques.

“Both of these cookbooks focus on vibrant vegetable recipes, which I found very useful when developing our new concept [in Los Angeles], Mother Tongue,” says chef and restaurateur Michael Mina. “They completely rethink how vegetables can be turned into amazing dishes with incredible flavor, and that aligns nicely with the thinking around our restaurant.” 

Le Grand Véfour

$120 at Amazon

Le Grand Véfour cookbook highlights one of the oldest gourmet restaurants in Paris, which dates back to 1784. Chef Guy Martin earned the restaurant three Michelin stars, and shares more than 50 of the famed restaurant’s signature dishes, including Barbary duckling breast with fig confit, red kuri squash gnocchi, and beet-blackcurrant jus. 

Chef Andrew Black of Oklahoma City’s The Gilded Acorn, Black Walnut, and Grey Sweater calls the book, which also digs into the restaurant’s history and shares stories highlighting its cultural relevance, one of his favorite cookbooks. “I ate at this restaurant often during my working at the Ritz in Paris, and have specific memories of the garden there and how beautiful and inspiring it was,” says Black. “I find myself grabbing this book often, and every time I pick it up I always come away with new ideas and inspiration.”

On Vegetables

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Food & Wine Best New Chef Jeremy Fox worked at award-winning restaurants in Napa and Los Gatos before opening his game-changing Santa Monica spot Rustic Canyon in 2006. In On Vegetables, Fox spotlights vegetables just as he’s done at his restaurants. Mushroom conserva, ramp kimchi, and green tomato preserves are among the 160 recipes included. Fox makes “the best-tasting vegetables on the planet” according to David Chang, who wrote the book’s forward. 

“The flavor combinations of the different vegetables together are pretty amazing,” says George Madosky, chef de cuisine at Fork Restaurant in Philadelphia. “It’s very aligned with Fork and very vegetable-forward with a creative way to incorporate bright colors and flavors.”

My Mexico City Kitchen

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“Gabriela Camara makes beautiful food, and her restaurant, Contramar, is an institution,” says Alfredo “Fredo” Nogueira, the Executive Chef-Partner of the New Orleans-based CureCo., including Cane & Table, Cure, and VALS. “I had such a memorable meal there a few years back and purchased the book from the gift shop,” he says. “The recipes are all spot-on and help recreate that experience whenever I need to.”

The highly-lauded cookbook by the chef — who runs award-winning restaurants in Mexico City and San Francisco and was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people — includes 150 recipes that showcase vibrant and deeply flavorful Mexican cuisines. But beyond detailed recipes for everything from basic salsas to her signature whole red and green grilled snapper, Camara also shares her history and insights, making My Mexico City Kitchen feel rich and personal.

The Taste of France

$62 at Amazon

Michael Cimarusti, James Beard Award-winning chef-owner of Providence in Los Angeles, calls The Taste of France his all-time favorite cookbook. First printed in 1983, the book spotlights regional French cuisine (14 regions, to be exact, including Brittany, Provence, and Normandy) through 100 recipes, 375 photographs, and maps. With an emphasis on both ingredients and recipes as well as farms, markets, and culinary customs, The Taste of France is both a cookbook and a guidebook.

“The book covers all aspects of French gastronomy,” says Cimarusti. “Running the gamut from Haute Cuisine to the most rustic country-side cooking, this book paints a clear, vivid picture of the French people and their abiding connection to their cuisine and their culture.”