Richard McCarthy

Have had this book for ages. An English author, she helped to remove the intimidation of cooking, and especially of vegetarian cooking. Clearly, from the age that predates the vegan v. paleo age.

Now in its second edition, this is one of the more useful cookbooks to own (if you only have room for a few). It was given to me by a farmers market shopper many, many years ago. My copy is smudged with all sorts of cooking and baking excess.

The incredibly simple dips and pastes come in so handily for last-minute entertaining. The lentil dip makes anyone look like a genius in the kitchen.

This book helped me overcome the intimidation about grains that were not part of my American repertoire.

Grabbed this book in a cookbook swap. Written by Chez Panisse alums whose tapas restaurant next door is the basis of this book, César is packed with simple Spanish bar food. When you’re inspiration is tapped out, thumbing through this book gets you going again.

Important English cooking icon of an earlier age provides ours with a glimpse into the kinds of homecraft skills useful in the kitchen. It’s a great read: Really, people lived like this!? And some very useful recipes.

This tastes of home and of 20 years of my life working with amazing fishers and farmers and chefs and home cooks. From Creole Cream Cheese to gumbo des herbes, it’s still a go-to-guide for how to best leverage the taste of place.

This is my favorite of Alice’s books. It gets to the heart of what cooking should be: simple and clean. Even the very design of the book does that.

As a student in London in the 1980s trying to decipher whether Chinese parsley and cilantro were the same things, Jaffrey’s book become my bible for Indian cooking. Still use it.

As a student in London in the 1980s trying to decipher whether Chinese parsley and cilantro were the same things, Jaffrey’s book become my bible for Indian cooking. Still use it.