5 books all chefs should read
When a person steps in a career, it’s really important to enhance his/her craft and build new skills. Culinary arts is no different than other careers: even the best chefs are still learning and growing, they read the top books and literature in their field.
While it’s important to learn and practice proper cooking techniques, like mixing different spices in dishes, but the learning journey should be beyond pans and pots. To master the culinary arts and for becoming a top chef reading and continuing education is equally important ingredient.
So here are the best five chef books that will expose you to the ideas and techniques directly from culinary gurus and they’ll give the basis for developing your own approach in kitchen.
The Flavor Bible by Andrew Dornenburg & Karen Page
The title should say it all…this is the definitive book for understanding how to cook with true flavor. One will get to know about classic ingredients — their origin and composition — as well as ways to find the best complementary pairings. The book takes you, from Germany to West Africa and points in between.
On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee
Harold McGee is considered one of America’s premier writers on food chemistry, cooking, and culinary history. This now-famous book, written in 1984, provides scientific insight into cooking, such as how ingredients interact with one another and the importance of accurate temperature.
The Tummy Trilogy by Calvin Trillin
Another one of America’s beloved food writers, Calvin Trillin, combines his three most successful books — American Fried; Alice, Let’s Eat; and Third Helpings — for this excellent chef’s resource. The book spans 40 years of culinary knowledge, each cha[ter excludes passion for meals like cheeseburgers and buffalo wings.
The Devil in the Kitchen: Sex, Pain, Madness, and the Making of a Great Chef by Marco Pierre White
Marco Pierre White knows what it takes to become a truly inspired chef — he was the youngest — and first British chef — to ever win three Michelin stars in 1994. Read about the ups and downs in his culinary career…like when he returned his three stars in 1999.
One will enjoy the hilarious stories he shares about famous chefs — including Mario Batali and Gordon Ramsay — but also he or she will get a deep understanding of the devotion and commitment it takes to become a successful chef.
Great Chefs of France by Anthony Blake and Quentin Crewe
Blake and Crewe accomplished something remarkable with their 1978 publication: They managed to gather together ideas from all of France’s three-Michelin-star chefs.
This “day-in-the-life” book follows each chef over the course of a typical day. They share insight of their crafts, as well as their thoughts on food. It’s a light but reading full of information, giving you the chance to learn at the feet of some of the most thoughtful and influential chefs in modern history.
