Cookbook Club

We asked top chefs, writers, and teachers from around the country to share their favorite cookbooks with us. Here's what they had to say.

Illustration: Alicia Plate

Lynne Rossetto Kasper

Host, “The Splendid Table,” American Public Media, Minneapolis

Couscous and Other Good Food from Morocco
by Paula Wolfert (William Morrow Cookbooks, 1973)
“Oh, the flavors and ideas this book brought into my life. This was one of the first books to tie together food and culture not from hearsay, but from being there. The tastes, the techniques, and the idea that food changes from village to village was a groundbreaker. It still makes me hungry.”

On Food and Cooking
by Harold McGee (Scribner, 2004)
“Maybe three times a week I thumb through these pages, along with Harold’s Curious Cook column in the New York Times. Power is not in the recipe; it’s in knowing the how and the why of food.”

David Mas Masumoto

Illustration: Alicia Plate

Julia Child Cookbook Award–winning writer, California’s Central Valley

Simply Organic: A Cookbook for Sustainable, Seasonal, and Local Ingredients
by Jesse Ziff Cool (Chronicle Books, 2008)
“This is an elegant guide to eating with nature. Cool makes seasonal cooking easy with eight seasons of delicious recipes using ingredients fresh from the farm.”

Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table
by Mai Pham (William Morrow Cookbooks, 2001)
“A wonderful treasure that enlightens and inspires us to celebrate the flavors of Vietnam. Pham’s inclusion of cultural stories and her explanations of unique ingredients make this collection a gem.”

Paula Wolfert

Illustration: Alicia Plate

Renowned cookbook author, San Francisco

Cooking by Hand
by Paul Bertolli (Clarkson Potter, 2003)
“A truly inspiring cookbook by an author who loves cooking and feels it in his blood. Bertolli really knows how to coax flavor out of food. His bottom–up cooking chapter is a revelation. In fact, my guinea hen recipe is based on Paul Bertolli’s teachings.”

The Zuni Café Cookbook: A Compendium of Recipes and Cooking Lessons from San Francisco’s Beloved Restaurant
by Judy Rodgers and Gerald Asher (W.W. Norton and Co, 2002)
“This book features superbly written text and detailed recipes that will make almost anyone a better cook.”

Barbara Dawson

Illustration: Alicia Plate

Owner, In Good Taste cooking school, Portland

Cookwise: The Secrets of Cooking Revealed
by Shirley Corriher (William Morrow Cookbooks, 1997)
“If I could have only one cookbook in my library, this would be it. It not only has good recipes, it has the reasons why things fail in the kitchen and what you can do to ensure success.”

Classic Indian Cooking
by Julie Sahni (William Morrow Cookbooks, 1980)
“If you love Indian food like I do, this book is essential to your library. It is also a great resource for anyone wanting to learn more about spices.”

Robert Reynolds

Illustration: Alicia Plate

Author and teacher, the Chefs Studio, Portland

Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking
by Marcella Hazan (Knopf, 1992)
“Like Ada Boni before her, Marcella Hazan shows us again and again that as cooking evolves, what was done before has not necessarily been improved upon.”

The New Making of a Cook
by Madeleine Kamman (William Morrow Cookbooks, 1997)
“It’s important because of the intelligence Kamman brings to the subject. Even though it was written in English, no defining influences about cultural values are lost. Her thinking is French; her food tastes French.”

More Cookbook picks from the Portland Culinary scene