On our last podcast, Simon and I listed our “essential cookbook” lists which has been a simmering idea on both the podcast and this website since it’s inception. The idea of an “essential” list of cookbook is as insane as it is fun to discuss. For better or worse we hashed out what we considered a need-to-have cookbook and what was especially special to us. Listen to the podcast here.
SHAWN’S COOKBOOKS:
The Larousse Gastronomique by Prosper Montagné and Alfred Gottschalk with prefaces and contributions from Philéas Gilbert and Georges Auguste Escoffier. The reason I chose this one instead of Escoffier’s Le Guide Culinaire is because a lot of that book is in this one! It’s not a modern cookbook at all but more of an encyclopedia of culinary terms, techniques, recipes and food history. Not a lot of ingredient lists! Really neat for culinary students, old kitchen heads looking back for new inspiration and history nerds.
The Key to Chinese Cooking by Irene Kuo. A bit hard to find (I had to hit up Ebay for a 1981 copy) but definitely worth it! It’s about as all-encompassing as a book about the world’s biggest, most varied and imitated cuisine can be. Featuring hundreds of tiny hand-drawn illustrations and lessons on Chinese cutting and cooking techniques, this was the best way for a white kid from Ontario like me to start understanding the cuisine that first got me into cooking. FAV RECIPES: Sichuan Simmered Eggplant and the technique for keeping cooked greens green… It’s a secret!
Japanese Cooking: A simple Art by Shizuo Tsuji. Very similar to the last book I mentioned, this is another “all-encompassing” style tome on my other favourite cuisine. Written as a reaction to Western influences on Japanese food trends nearly 35 years ago by the man who would later create the Tsuji Culinary Institute, it was mostly intended to inspire Japanese cooks to get back to basics. Ironically, it went on to help inspire the world’s fascination with Japanese food. FAV RECIPES: The Daikon simmered Mackerel recipe from our Mackerel episode and the perfectly simple yet infinitely easy to screw up Tamago Tofu recipe.
Charcuterie by Micael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn. Oh the glory of meat! If you have ever wanted to dive into the complex and rewarding world of making your own hand cured salumi, sausages, terrines and pates this is the tome to get your started. I took a day-long sausage making course years ago and right up front the instructor plugged this book as the bible of all things salted pork. It also touches on brining, pickling and the art of confit. FAV RECIPES: any of the sausage recipes are bangers (pun intended).
The Joy Of Cooking by Irma S. Rombauer. With its step by step instructions and wide range of basic recipes from all corners of the globe this American classic does kind of give off a “baby’s first cookbook” vibe, but even kitchen veterans reach for it over and over because every single recipe is foolproof. Need to make a side dish you’ve never heard of and the family is already sitting down to appy’s? THis is the book that will never fail you. FAV RECIPES: The only scone recipe I’ve ever used and the best dumplings to accompany chicken stew.
SIMON’S COOKBOOKS:
- Silver Palate Cookbook and Silver Palate Good Times Cookbook
- Local Breads by Daniel Leader
- Coastal Foragers Cookbook, Robin Kort
- Burgoo, Food for Comfort
- Complete Chinese Cook, Ken Hom
- Rebar
- Hero’s Feast