This is an ever-changing list of books that really inspire me and/or have helped influence my food philosophy and approach to cooking. The books are roughly sorted by how recently I’ve acquired/read them, not in order of preference. If you have any book recs, please send them my way! I’d love to hear about your favourites.
David Frenkiel and Louise Vindahl
From the authors of Green Kitchen Stories, comes this beautiful book, full of inspiring and pleasantly unusual vegetarian recipes that I can’t wait to try.
Deborah Madison
I’m reading the book from cover to cover. It’s fairly new, and I’m only about 1/4 of the way through, but am in love already. Deborah Madison shares her wealth of veggie knowledge in this beautiful book along with amazing looking recipes.
Yotam Ottelenghi and Sami Tamimi
This book celebrates the diversity of the passionate and vibrant communities of Jerusalem from a culinary perspective. This is the newest love in my book collection, and I can’t wait to try out some of the recipes. Having visited Jerusalem a few times, I think the authors did a fantastic job of capturing Jerusalem’s fiery essence. I love the location photography.
Sally Fallon and Mary G. Enig
Challenging the mainstream definition of “healthy”, this book provides excellent basic information about nutrition, and discusses traditional methods of food preparation. There are a ton of recipes for things like fermented vegetables, cultured dairy products, sprouted grains and seeds of all sorts, organ meats, and everything in between. I was very happy to find that it is a required text for one of my nutrition courses.
Sara and Hugh Forte
I’ve been a follower of Sara and Hugh’s blog for years, and when they published a book, I knew it had to be a part of my collection. Sara’s simple, delicious, and down-to-earth approach to cooking, combined with Hugh’s stunning photography, quickly made this book one of my favourites.
Tamar Adler
I absolutely love Tamar’s approach to planning and preparing meals. This beautifully written, thoughtful, and inspiring book definitely agreed with how I like to do things around here, and made me think even more about instinctive cooking, and making the most of what we have.
Yotam Ottelenghi
Full of colourful veggie dishes and unusual ingredient combination, this book serves as a main source of inspiration in my kitchen. I’ve tried a few recipes which turned out really well, and have many more bookmarked for later.
Molly Stevens
I cook and eat meat regularly, but the reason I don’t write about it is because I almost never experiment with it. When you have a nice expensive (or cheap and challenging) hunk-a-meat and you need to trust someone with its success, Molly Stevens is your lady. Roasting is one of my favourite methods of preparation and this book is my main reference. There are some great veggie recipes too!
Anthony Bourdain
This book is full of juicy stories about the crazy underground world of the restaurant industry. Bourdain is hilarious, and there’s no better person to tell it like it is.
Harold McGee
Packed with insanely detailed and interesting information about food and cooking, this book is a must-have for serious cooks, and anyone fascinated with crazy food science. Though I haven’t read the book from cover to cover, I regularly feed my geek brain with a chapter or two, depending on my food interest du jour. It’s also a great reference for ingredient details, cooking methods, and the often mysterious kitchen chemistry that we take for granted.
Molly Wizenberg
Orangette, Molly Wizenberg’s blog, was my first glimpse into the world of food blogs back in 2008. Clearly I haven’t looked back. I loved this book, an autobiography/cookbook of sorts, even more than the stories on her blog, which says a lot. I can’t wait for Molly’s second book.
Michael Pollan
Though my food philosophy and eating habits have been influenced by many books throughout the years, I have to say that this one definitely had the most impact.I still think back to it almost daily. Pollan’s explanation of our food system is the best that I’ve read, and there’s no looking back after you’ve read this book. You can’t un-read it.