Great recipes, mostly simple but great food.

A great introductory cookbook, very useful and very readable. Madeleine Kamman ran a prestigious cooking school and helped to transform culinary education in the US. Her teaching experience is evident in her excellent cookbooks such as this one.

Great, usable book. Each technique is illustrated by photographs of Pépin himself working. Very useful for learning knife skills, basic cooking techniques, garnishes, etc.

A variety of recipes, with a lot of vegetable and potato dishes. Mostly advanced recipes. Richard shares many useful and innovative techniques in here. For example: using ring molds and plastic wrap to shape food, using a mandolin to dice potatoes, using a microplane grater to grate garlic and shallots directly into a dish, etc.

Great collection of braising recipes from many different cuisines, from classic French to Asian, Middle Easter, Latin, etc. It’s Daniel Boulud so expect some amazing dishes, solid recipes, and a bunch of exotic ingredients. For those, there are explanations within the recipe, where to find it, etc.

The king of old school, classical French cookbooks. Classic sauces, elaborate garnishes, etc.