5 Cookbooks Every Girl Needs

Cookbooks are keepers of memories. We remember the meals we made from their pages, and the kitchens where we made them. When we look at a cookbook, we often think of the person who gave it to us, or the friend who recommended it so highly. The recipes we create remind us of holiday meals, cooking disasters learning experiences, and tastes from places we love.

Okay, sorry to wax a bit poetic (and poorly too), but I can’t help myself. I have a serious love of cookbooks. On the rare occasion I’m eating breakfast by myself, I love to grab one off the shelf in my kitchen and flip through the recipes as I slurp cereal. Sometimes I get obsessed with one in particular and use it to plan my weekly menus for months (an easy way to do that: pick a soup, a salad, a pasta, a chicken dish, and one other meat dish and you’ve got a nice varied menu).

With so many delectable books to choose from, here are the five types of cookbook every girl needs (no matter how skilled--or not--she is in the kitchen), plus a few recommendations for my most treasured sources of culinary inspiration (all the cookbook titles are links, if you want to check them out in more detail).

Oh, if you’re looking for a great gift for a certain approaching holiday, a cookbook almost always hits the spot (and usually for less than $25).

The Cooking Bible

 

  

 

Want to know how to make French onion soup? Or cheese blintzes? Or butterflied leg of lamb? This is your go-to book whenever you think, “I should make that.” It’s thick, heavy, and has an index to rival a history textbook. It’s a source you can always trust to ensure your end result is worth the effort. My pick is The Gourmet Cookbook, edited by the beloved Ruth Reichl, but here are a few other good ones:

Williams-Sonoma Bride & Groom Cookbook by Gayle Pirie and John Clark
How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman
Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker

The Baking Bible

 

 

Baking is an art unto itself, which in my opinion means it needs its own tome. Much as the cooking bible above, this is where you turn when you’re suddenly dying to make a linzer torte or need a fail-proof recipe for chocolate ganache.

I love Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook. A couple other great picks:

Baking Chez Moi by Dorie Greenspan
Tartine by Elisabeth Prueitt and Chad Robertson
The Baking Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum

The Weeknight Go-To

 

 

As I’ve said before, weeknight cooking needs to be fast, relatively healthy, and satisfying enough to make you happy you resisted the drive-thru. My all-time favorite is Bon Appetit: Fast, Easy, Fresh. Nearly every recipe can be made in 30 minutes or less and the ingredient lists are short and accessible.

A few others I love:
How to Cook Everything Fast by Mark Bittman
Dinner: A Love Story by Jenny Rosenstrach
Weeknight Fast & Fresh by Kristine Kidd

The Chef You Want to Be

 

 

This is the book that makes you feel like you can reproduce that amazing plate of roast chicken with saffron aioli at home. Usually you’ll end up realizing why you paid $36 for it at the restaurant, but nevertheless, having the book on your shelf can bring back memories of favorite meals, which is sometimes almost as good as the meal itself.

This category is personal pick, but I love Renee Erickson’s A Boat, a Whale, and a Walrus. Since I’ve had some of the best meals of my life at The Whale Wins, one of her Seattle restaurants, I was so excited when her first cookbook came out this fall. The butter-roasted zucchini bread convinced me that my favorite dessert in the world is made with vegetables.

To continue in the vein of great Northwest chefs, I also love Fried Chicken and Champagne by Lisa Dupar and Tom Douglas' Seattle Kitchen.

The Cuisine of Your Dreams

This is also a personal pick, but every chef needs to have a cookbook dedicated to a type of food they love (ideally with beautiful pictures). For me, that would be Italian. When I look through my cookbook about the gastronomical delights of Rome, it immediately transports me to a very happy place of bucatini all'amatriciana, grapefruit gelato, nutella-filled donuts, and fried artichokes. Think about the food that captivates you most and treat yourself to a cookbook that will help you master it.

A few ideas:
A Kitchen in France: A Year of Cooking in My Farmhouse by Mimi Thorrison
Delicioso! The Regional Cooking of Spain by Penelope Casas
Authentic Mexican: Regional Cooking from the Heart of Mexico by Rick Bayless
Persiana: Recipes from the Middle East and Beyond by Sabrina Ghayour
Japanese Soul Cooking by Tadashi Ono
Molto Gusto: Easy Italian Cooking by Mario Batali

(And don’t forget to enter the TJB Giveaway! We'll draw a winner on Tuesday, December 9.)

What cookbooks can you not live without?