Best instructional culinary tome?

What would be your desert island encyclopedic cookbook? The Professional Chef from the CIA? Cooking by James Peterson? The Zuni Cafe cookbook? The Joy of Cooking? Looking to buy a present for a beginning cook who wants to graduate to intermediate and eventually advanced level.

Mingus Rude wrote:What would be your desert island encyclopedic cookbook? The Professional Chef from the CIA? Cooking by James Peterson? The Zuni Cafe cookbook? The Joy of Cooking? Looking to buy a present for a beginning cook who wants to graduate to intermediate and eventually advanced level.

For a beginning cook, "The Best Recipe" by the editors of Cook's Illustrated.

Best,
Michael

Nothing is more encyclopedic than Joy of Cooking -- 4500 recipes! However, as far as learning how to cook, it would be hard to find a better teacher than Jacques Pepin -- and Jacques Pepin's Complete Technigues has everything you need to know, from how to create a perfect baguette to how to make sauces to how to poach anything you'd want to poach to boning a chicken and beyond.

Definitely not the Zuni cookbook although I do love it. James Peterson is good and I like John Ash, Cooking One on One (I think that's the name). I think the John Ash cookbook is very informative without being overwhelming.

I have The Professional Chef from the CIA, and while it's great in its encyclopedic range, I'm not sure it's best for the beginning cook. A much more accessible, but also broad-ranging cookbook, focusing on master recipes with variations (and thereby encouraging cooks to go on to their own variations), is the classic from Julia Child, The Way to Cook.

I have many books that I consider "encyclopedic" that I really just can't single out one... Here's a good chunk of my collection by category:

For Beginners (my first cookbook ever)
How to Cook Everything by Bittman

Italian:
Essentials of Classic Italian by Hazan

Mexican:
Essential Cuisines by Kennedy

Breads:
Bread Baker's Apprentice by Reinhart

Middle Eastern:
New Book of Middle Eastern by Roden

Japanese:
A Simple Art by Tsuji

Chinese:
The Chinese Kitchen by Eileen Yin Fei Lo

Joy of Cooking is indeed encyclopaedic; you should find an older edition - say the late sixties - as I've read many comments that recent ones have been dumbed down. It has an excllent index, too.

The Best Recipe is also excellent with lots of technique descriptions. The index is very good, but with a few typographic shortcomings.

I have used - and pretty much worn out - James Beard's American Cookery, named after the first cookbook published in America, and find it always extremely helpful. Excellent index also.

For a beginning cook, "The Best Recipe" by the editors of Cook's Illustrated.

I agree. I have Julia Child's "Way to Cook" and "Joy of Cooking" but my "Best Recipe" sits out of the shelf, on top of the others. I use it every time I need to cook something new or just to review a technique. The technique descriptions are useful to develop a newer cook's skills. It tells you the "why" as well as the "how". Even though I have done many of these recipies many times, I always read through them before I do anything from mashed potatoes to snickerdoodles.

I liked The Fannie Farmer Cookbook by Marion Cunningham when I was first learning. It has basic classic recipes (pot roast, roast chicken, cake from scratch, pancakes) & is easy to follow. I still use mine. In fact, this is my third copy.

I think it would be good for a beginner because its not overwhelming.

Anyone can learn to cook from this book & build their skills on this basic knowledge.

EDIT: D'oh! I just realized that the cook is ready for intermediate...in that case, I agree with The Way To Cook.

One single book would be "Way to Cook", J. Childs.

the 2 I reach for most often, especially if I'm attempting a new dish:

How to Cook Everything
Mark Bittman

The Joy of Cooking
Irma S. Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker, and Ethan Becker

A little different from the encyclopedic type cookbooks listed, but I found Cookwise by Shirley O'Corriher very inspiring when I first started cooking frequently several years ago. Not for everybody, but she discusses the science and process of cooking in a very approachable way, and follows up every few pages with recipies that demonstrate various ideas so that you can really understand how food changes and flavors develop as you cook. Depending on who you are buying for, it could really get them interested in what really happens when you cook and ways to improve how you cook.

Otherwise, I love Cooks Illustrated, but for some reason never really had luck with their cookbooks - which is odd since the cookbooks seem to be just a glorified reprint of past magazine articles. I've probably made one recipie out of every issue of CI that comes out, but the two or three CI books I have sit largely untouched. Maybe a subscription would be a good gift.

Cynthia wrote:Nothing is more encyclopedic than Joy of Cooking -- 4500 recipes! However, as far as learning how to cook, it would be hard to find a better teacher than Jacques Pepin -- and Jacques Pepin's Complete Technigues has everything you need to know, from how to create a perfect baguette to how to make sauces to how to poach anything you'd want to poach to boning a chicken and beyond.

I would second Pepin as a good choice. For someone that is interested in the culinary arts, I would recommend that the first two books be, "La Methode" and "La Technique," both by Pepin. If you understand the methods and techniques, you can follow any recipe. IMO, Pepin is the best tv chef there is. He explains why, not just how, and once you know that, you won't need recipes. Plus, both books are a great reference to French / Western culinary practices.

After those two, I would opt on building a reference foundation with Julia Child, James Beard, etc. These will give you the "home cook" recipes that everyone loves. One of my favorites is the Silver Spoon, Italian cookbook. It's sort of the "Betty Crocker" of Italy. It's comprehensive and really easy. I also have Escoffier's "Ma Cuisine" - originally published in '34 but translated to English in '65 - I picked up at a second hand book store. It's a great book but I would have never been interested if it wasn't for Pepin's foundation books. Good luck.