As far as I know this hasn't been done before, only touched on in some Anthony Bourdain posts. I know I've passed on a few recommendations in here, so let's consolidate. I own maybe 15-20 cookbooks, and am always on the lookout for more. I mean more real real books. I don't want any supplement crap, or those such and such generic guide to a cuisine. Let's talk books that matter to real chefs or serious homecooks. Here's some of the best of what I've got:

Fuschia Dunlop - Land of Plenty: A Treasury of Authentic Sichuan Cooking

This is my single favourite book. It's by far the best book in the English language on Sichuan food (nay probably Chinese food per se). This is the real deal, none of that westernized, MSG-ridden gloopy sweet rubbish. Pictures are scarce, the ones that are there are fairly average, some ingredients might be hard to come by, you have to be ready to deal with drastically different cooking methods than you might be used, but damn the results are awesome. I lived in China for a year and used to ate almost exclusively Sichuan food whilst there (despite not living in Sichuan). I'd like to think I know what it should be, and this is it. The book is a real treasure trove and I'd say a 100% compulsory purchase for anyone who wants that good Chinese food.


Fuschia Dunlop - The Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook

This is her second book on Hunanese food. It's also excellent. However due to my near obsession with all things Sichuanese I rarely find myself using it. I really should, I've made a few bangers out of this.


Thomas Keller - The French Laundry

Ok let's get serious. This is to be avoided like the plague unless, like me, you are devoted to food to social deprivation levels. There are almost no recipes in here that are easy or quick to make, no matter what level you can cook. Don't be put off though, because as anyone out there who saw Bourdain go to the French Laundry will know, this man cooks on a Yoda like level. What's more, he writes better than any other chef I've come across, leaves out no details, and gives you word for word how to make all of the best dishes at one of the best restaurants in the world. If you're dedicated enough, you can make the stuff in here. Who the hell wouldn't want that?! This is the BEST cookbook I've ever read, and if anyone has a suggestion to trump it, I suggest they've never read it or they don't know what they're talking about, or I need to know ASAP what book they're talking about. The boeuf bourguignon i made from this was ridiculous, as was the sweet potato agnolotti, as was anything I've made from it! If you're serious about food - order this from Amazon right now.
PS - check out this blog - http://carolcookskeller.blogspot.com/
This woman cooked every recipe from the French Laundry. Insane, expensive, very difficult, but great reading.


Thomas Keller - Bouchon

Probably a better book in reality for most people. Here Keller does more Bistro fare from his Bouchon restaurant. A lot of things in here are very do-able, and very very good. This is proper French cooking, and I use it waaay more than The French Laundry. It's also equally brilliantly written and brilliantly made. As above - buy this.


Prue Leith - Leith's Cookery Bible

To me this is the best cooking reference book available and is equally useful to a great cook as it is to an absolute amateur. I really really like it. It will cover any basic cooking idea or popular dish you can conceive of, and deal with it well. She runs a cooking school and every recipe here is tested day after day, so you know it will work.


Stephane Reynaud - Pork and Sons

If you like pork, as the name suggests, this is fucking brilliant. It deal with every cut of pork cooked in every conceivable way, from cured hams, to pot roasts, to terrines. In fact all of the charcuterie stuff in here is pure gold. It's also really pleasantly put together.


Shizuo Tsuji - Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art


A really good classical Japanese cookery book (I think it's around 25 years old). It really brings you proper traditional Japanese cuisine, avoiding some of the rubbish crossover cuisine, and shortcut books you might find around. The hand-drawn pictures in it are real nice, as is the writing. The author has a great ability to convey that kind of Japanese attention to detail and simple elegance essential to doing Japanese food properly. Well recommended.


M Lee - The Lee Brothers Southern Cookbook: Stories and Recipes for Southerners and Would-be Southerners

Creole cooking. It's ugly big pot cooking. There's no finesse, no subtlety, but yeah it tastes real good. I've only recently got it, and haven't used it extensively yet, still sometimes you just know you're gonna get to love a book.


Ok that's too much for now, I'm too tired. But I'll add some more if this post takes off and I have the time. But I'll leave you with some A+++ food porn which I only ever use for coffee table reading and inspiration:

Thomas Keller - Under Pressure

Keller Sous-Vide-ing. Rid-ic-u-lous cooking. However, it's not only technically too difficult for me, it requires £1000's of machinery. Oh well.


Yoshihiro Murata - Kaiseki: The Exquisite Cuisine of Kyoto's Kikunoi Restaurant: The Exquisite Cuisine of Kyoto's Kikunoi Restaurant

Again technically impossible. Even worse there's not one recipe in it which doesn't contain some insanely obscure ingredient only available as specialities in rural Japan. But if you wanna see the mad mad levels crazy Japanese people can go in search of perfection in food, this is the book for you (the author drives water from his Kyoto restaurant to his Tokyo one because its the right pH level). It's stunning.

Ferran Adria - A day at El Bulli

You need a lab fit for a PHD student to cook most of this, so forget about it. It's not meant to be cooked by anyone other than Ferran Adria. As the second longest book ever written about 24 hours (after Ulysses) this is stacked with great shots of food that should never have even been conceived of. Oh and in case you didn't know, it's also the book from the restaurant which has been voted the best in the world for a number of consecutive years. They serve 5000 guests a year, and have 2,000,000 applications for those places.

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