Cook Like Carmy: The Cookbooks Behind The Bear

In The Escoffier Cookbook,Auguste Escoffier, regarded as one of the greatest chefs of all time, presents 2,973 dishes, clearly and simply outlines the methods of preparation for each, and shows how to achieve perfection in delicious flavor.

Written by culinary icon James Beard—the “Dean of American Gastronomy”—and featuring a wonderful variety of different types of bread—plain, whole-meal, and sweetened breads, batter breads, baking powder and soda breads, rolls, flat breads, filled breads, fried breads, and more—as well as a 12-point list of remedies to help you bake a better loaf, this is the only book home bakers need in order to master the art of making bread.

With more than two hundred traditional and contemporary recipes, The Africa Cookbook is a unique window into the long culinary history of a diverse continent.
From the savory stews of the western savannah to the curries and chutneys of the Swahili coasts, prominent scholar Jessica Harris has assembled a collection of recipes that reflects the modern innovations and rich heritage of kitchens across Africa.

Thomas Keller, chef/proprieter of the French Laundry in the Napa Valley - "the most exciting place to eat in the United States," wrote Ruth Reichl in The New York Times - is a wizard, a purist, a man obsessed with getting it right. And this, his first cookbook, is every bit as satisfying as a French Laundry meal itself: a series of small, impeccable, highly refined, intensely focused courses.

Larousse Gastronomique has been the foremost resource of culinary knowledge since its initial publication in 1938. Long revered for its encyclopedic entries on everything from cooking techniques, ingredients, and recipes to equipment, food histories, and culinary biographies, it is the one book every professional chef and avid home cook must have on his or her kitchen shelf.

In the nearly ninety years since Irma S. Rombauer self-published the first three thousand copies of Joy of Cooking in 1931, it has become the kitchen bible, with more than 20 million copies in print.

Dooky Chase's Restaurant, a New Orleans landmark and celebrated bastion of fine Creole food, has welcomed notable individuals as well as thousands of locals through its doors since opening in 1941. The unquestionable authority in the restaurant's kitchen for many of those years, Leah Chase offers here a collection of recipes from the menu and her personal files that have delighted patrons for decades.

Every good cook knows that a great sauce is one of the easiest ways to make an exemplary dish. Since its James Beard Award-winning first edition, James Peterson's Sauces has remained the go-to reference for professionals and sophisticated home cooks, with nearly 500 recipes and detailed explanations of every kind of sauce.

Frida's Fiestas is a personal account in words and pictures of many important and happy events in the life of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, and a scrapbook, assembled by her stepdaughter, of recipes for more than 100 dishes that Frida served to family and friends with her characteristic enthusiasm for all the pleasures of life. 

Marcella Hazan introduced Americans to a whole new world of Italian food. In this, her magnum opus, she gives us a manual for cooks of every level of expertise—from beginners to accomplished professionals.

A memoir by the legendary cookbook editor who was present at the creation of the American food revolution and played a pivotal role in shaping it • “Engrossing. . . .The Tenth Muselets you pull up a chair at the table where American gastronomic history took place.”—O, The Oprah Magazine

With an essential repertoire of timeless, approachable recipes chosen to enhance and showcase great ingredients, The Art of Simple Food is an indispensable resource for home cooks. Here you will find Alice’s philosophy on everything from stocking your kitchen, to mastering fundamentals and preparing delicious, seasonal inspired meals all year long.

A 2006 travel and food book about a year-long global quest to find extreme, unusual, and culturally "dangerous" foods across four continents. This book explores how different cultures define acceptable food versus the taboo.

Throughout the years that she has lived and worked in East Hampton, Ina Garten has catered and attended countless parties and dinners. She will be the first to tell you, though, that nothing beats a cozy dinner, surrounded by the people you love most, in the comfort that only your own home can provide. In Barefoot Contessa at Home, Ina shares her life in East Hampton, the recipes she loves, and her secrets to making guests feel welcome and comfortable.

This is the bread bible for the home baker or professional bread-maker. It comes from Chad Robertson, a man many consider to be the best bread baker in the United States and co-owner with Elizabeth Prueitt of San Francisco's Tartine Bakery. 

Only a handful of bakers have learned the bread science techniques Robertson has developed. To him, bread is the foundation of a meal, the center of daily life, and each loaf tells the story of the baker who shaped it.

The tastes of childhood have always been a touchstone for Thomas Keller, and in this dazzling amalgam of American and French baked goods, you'll find recipes for the beloved TKOs and Oh Ohs (Keller's takes on Oreos and Hostess's Ho Hos) and all the French classics he fell in love with as a young chef apprenticing in Paris: the baguettes, the macarons, the mille-feuilles, thetartes aux fruits.

One of the most respected chefs in the country, Paul Bertolli earned glowing praise for the food at California’s renowned Oliveto restaurant. In this groundbreaking collection of essays and recipes, Bertolli evocatively explores the philosophy behind the food that Molly O’Neill of the New York Times described as “deceptively simple, [with] favors clean, deep, and layered more profusely than a mille-feuille.”

"What makes The Zuni Café Cookbook a real treasure is the voice of Zuni's Judy Rodgers," whose book "repeatedly sheds a fresh and revealing light on ingredients and dishes, and even on the nature of cooking itself." - Harold McGee. Deborah Madison (Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone) says the introduction alone "should be required reading for every person who might cook something someday."

The Professional Chef is the quintessential kitchen companion from The Culinary Institute of America, used by hundreds of America's top chefs. This updated 10th Edition presents the skills and quality standards needed to master the fundamentals of cooking. A refreshed, modern design features simplified definitions and techniques streamlined into step-by-step instructions to support aspiring chefs and culinary students of any level.

All the best recipes from 150 years of distinguished food journalism—a volume to take its place in America's kitchens alongside Mastering the Art of French Cooking and How to Cook Everything.