As we continue our month-long tribute to cookbook geekery, we polled our Flour + Water team about the cookbooks that have either impacted them the most or become favorites in their personal collections. The responses are truly a testament to the power of cookbooks to inspire. They also underscore why our nearly 1K Flour + Water Test Kitchen collection will keep growing (even if we run out of shelf space).
If you’re interested in ordering any of these titles, Omnivore Books on Food in San Francisco, and Now Serving in Los Angeles are our go-to independent culinary bookshops in California. Both are always dazzling us with the breadth of their titles, as well as their author events. Now Serving is also currently hosting a campaign called Friends of the Shop: Rebuilding Cookbook Collections to replace the cookbook collections of those impacted by the Eaton and Palisades wildfires in LA. Books ordered through the above dedicated campaign page will be gifted to someone who lost their beloved copies during the fire.
And now into it with our top picks, a mix that ranges from pizza to butchery to desserts. We hope they bring fresh inspiration to your home shelf.
1,001 Secrets of Great Cooks by Jean Anderson
Thomas McNaughton, Co-Chef/Co-Founder, Flour + Water Hospitality Group
Anybody walking into the Flour + Water Test Kitchen can see the collection of cookbooks that chef Ryan Pollnow and I have accumulated over the years. I don't necessarily know if this is my favorite, but the first cookbook that had an impact on me was one I bought when I was 15 and out with my friends: 1,001 Secrets of Great Cooks by Jean Anderson. I told them I was buying it for my mom because I was so embarrassed. I completely forgot I had it until Ryan and I moved into the Test Kitchen with all our books. It really hit how influential it was to me. My bonus answers are Ma Gastronomie for classic French cooking and being a tortured artist, and the iconic culinary publication, Art Culinaire. It was another favorite as a teenager. Things really came full circle when I was able to be a part of the publishing of one after opening Flour + Water.
Bianco: Pizza, Pasta and Other Food I Like by Chris Bianco
Elliott Armstrong, Chef de Cuisine, Flour + Water Pizzeria
The most important cookbook for me was definitely Bianco: Pizza, Pasta and Other Food I Like by Chris Bianco, the patron saint of American pizza makers. That book made me feel like it was a good choice being a pizza nerd. I really like cookbooks you can actually cook out of unlike a lot of the books that come out today that require two weeks of fermentation just to start a sauce.
Pok Pok, The Drinking Food of Thailand by Andy Ricker
Elijah Baccus, Sous Chef, Flour + Water
Pok Pok was the first spot that I worked at back in Portland, and this was the first cookbook I cooked front-to-back. I still cook from it when I’m feeling homesick.
Alan Garcia, Executive Sous Chef, Penny Roma
One book that I really enjoy is Butchering By Adam Danforth. It was one of the first books I ever got when I started working in the industry. It taught me everything about butchery. It’s what helped me get through butchery days at Aatxe when I was left to break down a whole pig. It gave me confidence on what I was doing whether it be pig, chicken, duck etc.
Aaron Shapiro, Chef de Cuisine, Flour + Water
Jeremy Fox's On Vegetables is a wealth of knowledge on vegetable cooking. It also shows a refined way to cook veggies in the style of meat.
Art of Simple Cooking By Alice Waters + Dessert Person By Claire Saffitz
Madison Migneault, Assistant General Manager, Flour + Water Pizzeria
Art of Simple Cooking is a great beginners cookbook with straight forward basic recipes that every person could follow. If you are a home baker the recipes in Dessert Person will speak to you. They are generally fairly easy but there's a ton in here that is geared for the more advanced home baker. The blueberry slab pie is AMAZING.
Six Seasons by Joshua McFadden
Mac Malone, Director of Marketing + Events, Flour + Water Hospitality Group
Six Seasons by Joshua McFadden is one of the first cookbooks that I really took the time to cook from, and having just moved to Northern California a few years before it was published, it sparked excitement for me around all of the microseasons and unique varietals of vegetables we’re lucky to have here. The book strikes a perfect balance between practical cooking guidance and creativity, making it one I find myself reaching for most often (especially during the winter when inspiration is hard to come by).