BootsnAll Travel Community

My favorites:

1. The New Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden
2. Arabesque by Claudia Roden
3. Mastering the Art of French Cooking by JC (Julia Child)

What are your favorites that you use all the time and can't live without?

Welcome to the Boards! It is always wonderful to have another foodie around!

You might appreciate this thread...

"Great British Dinners" by James Martin.

If in London, check out the "Books for Cooks" shop in the Portabello Road market. I'm not a huge cookbook fan but was buying for gf who is (which means, yeah, I was kinda' buying it for me since the results come my way ).



The easy way out: "A Man, A Can, and a Microwave" from Mens Health magazine.

I have a huge cookbook collection and here are some of my favorite authors of different cultures-
Rick Bayless-Mexican
Claudia Roden-Mid Eastern
Marcella Hazen-Italian
James Peterson, Wolfgang Puck and Jacques Pepin all have great French cookbooks
Anya Von Bremson-Spanish
Ferren Adria-molecular gastronomy


I could use some recommendations for South American cookbooks. I am a chef and am always looking for new ideas. As far as American cookbooks- I like James Peterson, Thomas Keller, Patrick OConnell, Rick Tramotino, and Gary Kunz. Dorenberg & Page are the authors of my favorite cookbook ever- Culinary Artistry. I refer to it every day! The pages are falling out and its out of print. Fantastic book!

The CIA book and Professional Cooking are two great comprehensive books.

I used to find some good and easy cook book for loosing weight.

I love collecting cookbooks too.Was trained to be a chef years ago but never really worked in the industry but still love cooking for freinds.

Some recommendations for Indian Cookbooks....

Author Madhur Jaffrey she has many Indian cook books and I think she caters to many in the west and taliors recipies to adapt to ingredients we can find easily. Taste of India has recipies and also details on the Region..more like a travel cookbook.

Tarla Dalal is another for Indian cooking that I like...makes things simple.

Hyderabadi Cusine (Specialized South Indian Cuisine) by Pratibha Karan. Fantastic book as its concentrates on small city cusinine in India.

Cafe Spice Namaste: An Indian chef (who worked at the same hotel I interned at) Cyrus Todiwala...Some great recipies once again from one region of India. Showcases some Goan and Parsi recipies.

Rotis and Naans of India - Purobi Babbar. Once again focuses on breads of India and also accompaniments

Dakshin (Veggie cuisine from South India) - Chandra Padmanabhan. Specific to the Southern India...cusine that is not found in the many North Indian resturants around the world.

Have other books but thought I would highlight Indian cooking books.

What about Betty Crocker?

Seriously, We have a Madhur Jaffrey vegetarian cookbook. One of several vege books we bought way back when during our 2 year foray into vegetarianism. That didn't work out, but we still use that book 20+ years later. A lot of her stuff is not for the timid though. Very labor intensive.