I just ordered the Food Lab since so many of you recommended it. It's part of a few Valentine's gifts I bought for my husband who likes to cook too. I guess you could say it's a "joint" present

Bumping this post as i went back to look at sone old recommendations. I've been in a cooking slump lately. Just ordered Dinner and Americas Test Kitchen and hoping to find some new family favorites. With that said, does anyone have any Asian cookbooks they recommend? I have a few dishes my family likes but want to expand as my kids seem to really enjoy Asian food a lot more these days.

Jet Tila's 101 Asian Dishes to Make Before You Die.

This is the one I was thinking about ordering before you recommended. It gets great reviews. Thank you!

The best thing you can do to improve your Asian cooking is to get a dedicated Wok burner. Heat is as important as any ingredient to getting Chinese dishes to taste right. Maybe it will help with your slump too, because Wok cooking is hella fun. Breath of the Wok is my favorite Chinese cookbook

For Asian/stir-fry, I like Stir-Frying to the Sky's Edge. It is written by Grace Young, who wrote Breath of the Wok and another book. She has an active Facebook group community that works on the recipes on each of her books and she is very active in supporting local mom/pop Chinese restaurants and Chinatowns in various cities.

For Mexican, I enjoy watching Pati Jinich on Pati's Mexican Table on PBS. She has 3 cookbooks, I have the first one which has the same name as her show, and her latest which is Treasures of the Mexican Table. The latest book is such a gem. Her recipes are also found on her website. Sometimes they are the same, but I found several recipes that are different from the website and the book. So she does finesse and tweak them afterwards.

J Kenji Lopez-Alt, author of "The Food Lab", now has a cookbook out devoted totally to the wok

If you want classic Cajun/Southern recipes from SETX and SWLA this is a great one to have…I'm had this book for many years. I believe you can order it on the Tex Joy website.

Max Power said:

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The Tex Mex Cookbook by Robb Walsh

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I recently bought that one used off Amazon for 6 bucks. I haven't prepared any of the dishes yet, but it's a great read. I love all the history he presents.

Col. Steve Austin said:

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Max Power said:

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The Tex Mex Cookbook by Robb Walsh

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I recently bought that one used off Amazon for 6 bucks. I haven't prepared any of the dishes yet, but it's a great read. I love all the history he presents.

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Walsh's knowledge of the history of Texas cooking is good, and definitely the best part of his books. He used to come to the A&M BBQ camps and he always struck me as a pompous jack hole but I respected his knowledge.

I received Half Baked Harvest
Super Simple as a Christmas Gift from my sister in law and it looks amazing. Can't wait to dig in and start trying some recipes! There appears to be a lot of interesting ones for sure! Beautiful book too.

hudson96 said:

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I received Half Baked Harvest
Super Simple as a Christmas Gift from my sister in law and it looks amazing. Can't wait to dig in and start trying some recipes! There appears to be a lot of interesting ones for sure! Beautiful book too.

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We bought this cookbook a few weeks ago. We've done the chicken gnocchi soup and the chicken orzo dish. We really liked both….Have already done the chicken orzo a couple times, including when we had a lot of family over (cooking for 9).

Also have this book. The Hawaiian shrimp is really good. Dutch baby was okay, and did not like the butter chicken at all.

Edit: have the original HBH...not the super simple version

HBH can be VERY hit or Miss. the editing is kind of crap to be honest. Some of the ratios in the recipes are way out of whack.

That being said, there are some good recipes in there. Just gotta be weary of big clunkers as well.

The gnocchi soup was one of the recipes I narrowed down for last night but ended up making the everything bagel salad along with something else from the Ina Garten cookbook I received. I liked the salad but not the dish from the ina garten cookbook.

Good to know. I always feel if I can find a few keepers from every cookbook I purchase, it's a success. Some have definitely been better than others, like my Donald Link cookbooks. Hopefully I find a few from this one.

I tend to refer to Joy of Cooking, a 1964 edition, and Betty Crocker, 1978. I have lots of other cookbooks, but these are the ones that refer to the most.

When I got married, I did not know how to cook, so these were my friends and I also bothered my mother-in-law A LOT.

Diana Kennedy's cookbooks on Mexican cuisine, especially The Art of Mexican Cooking.

Phrasing said:

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Tumble Weed said:

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French Laundry Cookbook

Also The Great Canadian Chef From France by Pierre Dubrulle taught me how to make an excellent Veal stock, which is the base for many great sauces.

His recipes are tedious, but they work.

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Great recs! I know one poster mentioned it, but another great book by Thomas Keller is Ad Hoc at Home.

Ad Hoc

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The fried chicken recipe is one of our favorites!

We've really enjoyed every recipe of hers we've made. Her Instagram is a really good follow too.

For the Houston folk, this one should sound familiar, but Johnny Carrabba's "With Gratitude" is consistently one of my favorite cookbooks for a couple reasons. The recipes within are absolutely the same as the classics they serve at their family owned restaurants here in town, not the Landry's chain. The book is beautiful and could be right at home on someone's coffee table, which is also why I love giving it as a gift.

Cannon Crew Ag said:

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For the Houston folk, this one should sound familiar, but Johnny Carrabba's "With Gratitude" is consistently one of my favorite cookbooks for a couple reasons. The recipes within are absolutely the same as the classics they serve at their family owned restaurants here in town, not the Landry's chain. The book is beautiful and could be right at home on someone's coffee table, which is also why I love giving it as a gift.

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A Used copy on Amazon goes for $165 and up. I checked some other sites and found similar pricing. Holy crap!

Whachutalnbout Willys said:

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Phrasing said:

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Tumble Weed said:

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French Laundry Cookbook

Also The Great Canadian Chef From France by Pierre Dubrulle taught me how to make an excellent Veal stock, which is the base for many great sauces.

His recipes are tedious, but they work.

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Great recs! I know one poster mentioned it, but another great book by Thomas Keller is Ad Hoc at Home.

Ad Hoc

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The fried chicken recipe is one of our favorites!

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Making the fried chicken tonight! My kids call it the 3-day fried chicken (one day to make brine and cool it, one day to brine, and then next day cook it). The lemon in the brine is what makes it special.

Wow. I have a copy I bought for ONE recipe. Maybe I should copy it and sell the hook.