(Part 2) Best european cooking, food & wine books according to redditors

I love this! Asparagus and Brussels are two of our favorites, the mushrooms we need to incorporate a little more.

I’m sure you’ve heard of the Mediterranean Diet (MD), but have you heard of the Mediterranean Keto Diet? The approach is a well formulated MD but with monounsaturated fats being the primary fat source (saturated fat is limited but not as strictly as the MD is on saturated fats), removing the grains and starchy veggies and adding back in eggs and cheese and such. I’m not doing the best to explain it, but here is a list of some recipes to try (the Israeli salad is delicious) as well a book I recently got going over the diet.

I tried to book an Airbnb with this girl in Rome. I liked her profile because it said she was a foodie, a blogger, and a photographer. She rejected my request because she already had a booking off of airbnb.

I must have said something that resonated with her because she messaged me a few days later and invited me to grab some beers with her friends. I'M IN!

Fast forward a few months and I'm in Rome staying somewhere else. Its raining and I'm thinking... maybe I'll bail on this drinks thing - she hasnt really followed up. At the last minute - I'm late now - I decide... what the hell I'm just gonna sit here doing nothing. I hail a taxi and head to a place named Birra+.

She's there and after a warm welcome, I start meeting her friends. First one is a sommelier, next one is a sous chef, next one is a food blogger, and it keeps going... these people are ALL food industry people. "What is going on here?" I thought.

I eventually find out, she's a food blogger AND also a New York Times travel writer. Published a few times, has her own app, etc. WOW! She was testing out an Italian beer tasting tour on her friends, and I got to join it. It really was a fantastic experience.

The rest of my trip was filled with THE BEST food recommendations for any price point. I still keep in touch with some of her friends to this day. I got to go to a michelin star - meet the chef. I got recommendations on best wine bars and which wines to try. It completely made my trip! Memories for a lifetime.

BTW if anyone is interested her name is Katie Parla. She now has her own book and is writing another book on the Italian island food right now. Also looks like she still does the Italian beer tour doesnt look like she lists prices... I'm guessing shes super expensive.

Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking is easily the best book to learn French cooking. It has very thorough instructions for techniques, authentic recipes, adapted for the American kitchen.

I also recommend Larousse Gastronomique,
Escoffier and
Jacques Pepin's Complete Techniques.

You mentioned that you prefer recipes that are simple and not too time consuming. The problem with that is, most authentic French cooking is time-consuming and laborious. This is why it is so delicious and intricate. However, I do have one cookbook that I don't use too much anymore, but it features great recipes that are fairly quick and accessible.

A lot of famous restaurants and chefs have cookbooks that feature recipes from their restaurants.

It can be pretty hard to replicate a restaurant dish at home. I cook for a living and you have a lot of advantages in a professional kitchen. Hotter ovens and burners and all kinds of other toys.

So the recipes in restaurant cookbooks aren't always the most reliable when you do them at home. And the cookbooks are pricey. But they have pretty pictures.

If you want to get really crazy try one of these,


Mugaritz: A Natural Science of Cooking

or

Alinea

or

Noma: Time and Place in Nordic Cuisine

The Soprano's Cookbook, as well as its companion piece, Entertaining with Carmela Soprano, are both full of solid recipes.

https://www.amazon.com/Vefas-Kitchen-Vefa-Alexiadou/dp/0714849294

Vefa Alexiadou is a TV food personality and all round Ina Garten-esque figure in Greece. Her book is pretty comprehensive and a good resource for classic Greek dishes from all around the country (not the typical Asia-minor inflected cooking of expat Greek places).

Argyro's Cooking https://www.amazon.com/dp/9607952820/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_MgNFAbRE311EV

Argyro Barbarigou is one of the more innovative chefs in Greece right now - her book is available in Greek but sold out in English atm I think. Well worth it as an update on classics that captures fairly mainstream trends in Greece.

PM me for more info if you’re curious. Happy to help!

Source: greedy Greek.

Afro Vegan

Vegan Soul Kitchen

Crossroads: Extraordinary Recipes from the Restaurant That Is Reinventing Vegan Cuisine

Dirt Candy: A Cookbook: Flavor-Forward Food from the Upstart New York City Vegetarian Restaurant

PLANTLAB

The Blossom Cookbook: Classic Favorites from the Restaurant That Pioneered a New Vegan Cuisine

Candle 79 Cookbook: Modern Vegan Classics from New York's Premier Sustainable Restaurant

Also The River Cottage Meat Book although it is extra British, I consider it to be an essential read. Also, Pork & Sons is my favorite meat subject.

I can't avoid plugging my soon-to-be-released book here. I just can't.

I just finished writing a book about what the ketogenic diet would look like if combined with the Mediterranean diet.

https://www.amazon.com/Ketogenic-Mediterranean-Diet-Fresh-Delicious/dp/1612436412/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1481264435&sr=8-1&keywords=robert+santos-prowse

Spanakorizo
http://mydinnertoday.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/spanakorizo.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanakorizo

fasolakia
http://www.mygreekdish.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Traditional-Greek-green-beans-recipe-Fasolakia-giaxni-prep1.jpg?ad92dc

Araka (Green peas with Tomato sauce)
http://cdn-1.kopiaste.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/pizeli-giahni-small.jpg

Fakes (Greek Lentil Soup)

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/greek-lentil-soup-fakes/


Yemistes (stuffed peppers/tomatos)

http://www.mygreekdish.com/recipe/gemista-stuffed-tomatoes-peppers-and-onions/

Those are some of the traditional stuff I remember from my childhood.

This cookbook has LOADS of greek veggie recipes, and I recommend it, it's where i learned my kickass youverlakia recipe.

http://www.amazon.ca/Vefas-Kitchen-Vefa-Alexiadou/dp/0714849294

All her recipes are pretty good but they stray from traditional* stuff. Granted every household will have their ways of cooking their food.

Some cookbooks that I use or are on my wishlist:

• The Fat Duck
  
  
• The French Laundry
  
  
• Alinea
  
  
• Eleven Madison Park
  
  
• Quay: food inspired by nature
  
  
• Room for Dessert
  
  
• Murgaritz: A Natural Science of Cooking
  
  
• Saison
  
  
• Rasoi: New Indian Kitchen
  
  
• Le Cinq
  
  
• Coi: Stories and Recipes
  
  
• Massimo Bottura: Never Trust a Skinny Italian Chef
  
  
• Atelier Crenn: Metamorphosis of Taste
  
  
• El Celler De Can Roca
  
  Great British Chefs also has some recipes from Michelin starred restaurants.

Fair point. I have never watched Masterchef before until this season so I really have no idea what they're looking for in terms of a face for the brand and what's sort of expected of that person. However, looking at last years champion whose cookbook just came out, it seems like there has gotta be more at play than just a cookbook.

http://www.novelrank.com/asin/1617691038

It's ranked 2035 on Amazon right now, although the sales figures aren't included, but I can't imagine they're flying off the shelf. However, if the winner could open a restaurant, work in a famous restaurant, make cameos on other cooking shows, and really promote the masterchef brand beyond selling a few thousand cookbooks then to me at least, it just seems having a personality would be a better asset in a champion than someone who sells a few cookbooks and that's all we get.

edit: sales figures now available on Amazon, he has sold 12 copies in August.

Here are all the local Amazon links I could find:


amazon.com

amazon.co.uk

amazon.ca

amazon.com.au

amazon.in

amazon.com.mx

amazon.de

amazon.it

amazon.es

amazon.com.br

amazon.nl

amazon.co.jp

amazon.fr

Beep bloop. I'm a bot to convert Amazon ebook links to local Amazon sites.
I currently look here: amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.ca, amazon.com.au, amazon.in, amazon.com.mx, amazon.de, amazon.it, amazon.es, amazon.com.br, amazon.nl, amazon.co.jp, amazon.fr, if you would like your local version of Amazon adding please contact my creator.

Anthony Bourdain already wrote it.. Great cookbook, by the way. But it's all French food, so Nucleix still can do the Italian version.

Jose Andres is one of the best chefs in the world. He hosted a PBS show called Made in Spain, that is a great basics of Spanish cooking show, which goes from region to region with history and easy to follow recipes. There's also a cookbook to use after watching.

I've eaten at a few of his restaurants. He's my absolute favorite chef. This is a great opportunity to learn from a master.

i suggest les halles cookbook

i have it, most of the recipes are reasonable and the end results are fantastic.

Wow, generous contest! I've been wanting to make tapas at home but don't have any of the right cookbooks yet. P.S. You can come over for dinner! conviviality

https://www.amazon.com/Classic-Russian-Cooking-Molokhovets-Housewives/dp/0253212103/ref=sr_1_26?ie=UTF8&qid=1518020138&sr=8-26&keywords=russian+cookbook

Not Soviet era, but if you enjoy Russian cooking, this is the Fanny Farmer of Russian cuisine and is the most popular cookbook of classic Russian fare. It's definitely THE most important Russian cookbook, hence it's republishing by a University press.

http://www.amazon.com/Please-Table-Anya-von-Bremzen/dp/0894807536/ref=sr_1_4?

http://www.amazon.com/Classic-Russian-Cooking-Molokhovets-Housewives/dp/0253212103/ref=sr_1_24

http://www.amazon.com/Russian-Heritage-Cookbook-Preserved-Authentic/dp/1590201167/ref=sr_1_1

I have a small collection of English-language German cookbooks, so here's a few examples from the ones I have:

https://imgur.com/a/y24aW

--

https://smile.amazon.com/German-Cooking-Complete-Preparing-American/dp/1557882517

https://smile.amazon.com/Cuisines-Germany-Regional-Specialties-Traditional/dp/0671631977

https://smile.amazon.com/German-Cookbook-Complete-Mastering-Authentic/dp/0394401387

profit motivated enough to ruin the enjoyment in watching a cooking competition. profit motivated enough to make competitor's efforts, creativity, and talent mean nothing. the funny thing is, they're so up their own asses and don't realize they would sell more books from genuinely awesome chefs who the people liked watching (for this season derrick, stephen).

case in point from season 4 : https://www.amazon.com/My-Italian-Kitchen-Favorite-MasterChef/dp/1617691038

to now: https://www.amazon.com/Claudias-Cocina-Mexico-Winner-MasterChef/dp/1617691895

> Yup, I remember having some awesome Indian food there.

And the thing that always isn't widely understood (don't know if you're aware already or not, but for conversation interest...) is that good "Indian" food in Britain isn't simply a case of "so decent foreign cuisine is available, so what, any civilised country has quality foreign restaurants". It is essentially a British 'genre' of cookery. Not to take away from it's subcontinental roots of course, I just mean it is different to Indian food in India - it was developed by south Asian immigrants over here. And the average curry house is just as if not more likely Bangladeshi than Indian anyway - just they got called Indians because back in the day it was all part of British India.

> It's just the traditional English cuisine (or lack thereof)

Well, I wanted to quote Jamie Oliver here, but google is letting me down. I'm sure I remember him having a nice soundbite about how traditional English cuisine has a bad rap but it's actually potentially great and we should be proud of it etc.

The thing with traditional English cuisine is that it's sort of 'peasant food'. If you look at the phrase 'haute cuisine' - high cuisine - it suggests something about that tradition developing, class-wise, amongst the rich elites; whereas traditional English staples like pies and stews are of more of a low culture background. Other countries cuisine's are similar, for example I'm thinking of rural Italy, but have a stronger reputation for their cuisine - I might venture because they have had a stronger ability to keep passing cooking skills down the family? Maybe I have a romanticised view of Itay (and Spain and so on), I'm not sure, but I can imagine people there my age taught to cook by their parents who were taught by their parents so on back to Napoleonic times. Whereas here we have been pretty shit at that and I think there is probably near total discontinuity of oral cookery culture over that period.

Also, I think that English sort of 'low culture' cooking is undoubtedly quite unsophisticated, as per the "meat and two veg" stereotype. It is undoubtedly a little crude as compared to more complex blends of herbs / spices / flavours encountered in, say, Mexican or Oriental cuisines. However, in its defence, I would suggest that "meat and two veg" can be awesome - if you have awesome meat and awesome veg. As such, I think the general trend to industrialised farming, frozen food etc has really not helped, not to mention rationing in and after WW2 was a real set back more specifically. Basically, if you have some horrible factory farmed meat served with pesticiser-laden veg imported from miles away weeks ago and so on, and cobble it together badly with a microwave & nasty electric cooker, with no skill, serve it up with hideous lumpy-watery instant gravy out of a tin, it obviously comes out terrible. Which is what was widely encountered in the past, in the earlier days of common international travel, leading to the terrible rep it has worldwide now. However, if you get a really great array of fresh, local, organic meat or game, vegetables, etc, and a bit of knowledge to make really nice gravy, apple sauce / mint sauce for that pork chop or lamb shank, cook everything just right... well then the meal may still be ultimately gauche, but still culinary heaven in its own way.

I think what we've seen over the past few decades is an increasing move towards better food, with (some) Brits spending more on quality / organic (etc) ingredients and spending more time cooking. However, ironically, it has been mostly driven by foreign or at least foreign-fusion cuisines. People have been inspired to go seek out fine pancetta and olive oil to make a better carbonara, or whatever, but have looked upon "their own" (traditional English) cuisine with something of the same negative light as the rest of the world and not really bought into applying the same ethos to them. I think now we are maybe finally starting to see a turnaround and people taking seriously the idea that you can do a roast beef and yorkshire pudding or fish and chips but do it really well and it's not inherently shameful. For example, Heston Blumenthal - In Search of Perfection

> traditional English cuisine ... like haggis

Scottish :P

> or ulster fry

Irish :P

(well, presumably, I'm not familiar with it)

Glad to hear you got this figured out! I actually just bought a Polish cookbook that I think is the closest thing I'll get to my grandma's (famously lost, of course) pierogi recipe. If you want to try an authentic paczki recipe, one of these might be a good place to start... My coworkers have been asking if it's paczki season yet, so I'll probably try one myself. http://i.imgur.com/1ZMQzqo.jpg

http://www.amazon.com/Pork-Sons-Stéphane-Reynaud/dp/0714847909/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420822982&sr=8-1&keywords=pork+and+sons

Buy this and do them all.

I have several recipes that have grated potatoes, from the book, The Cuisines of Germany by Horst Scharfenberg The Cuisines if Germany

Did your Mom's recipe included with the grated potatoes either,

1. Fried bread cubes/croutons -- I have several with variations of this
   
   
2. Bacon (cut into squares) and bread crumbs
   
   
3. Just grated potatoes

I can't speak for the one-pot thing, but if you are wanting a cookbook that isn't full of tofu or mock meats, Crossroads is exactly what you need. Those people have the same food philosophy as I do and celebrate the hell out of vegetables. When I have friends and family over for dinner, I will only ever use recipes from this book.

Edit: I should note that the recipes aren't always cheap or fast, I just threw the recommendation out there because I had a hell of a time finding a cookbook that purposefully tried not to do "meaty" dishes or tacos and things like that, and I hope it helps someone.

My mom passed away in 2004. When cleaning out her house I found the original version of this book.

Treasured Polish Recipes For Americans

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1626549494/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_zhxPCb1658PVR

In the orig book from like the 1950s/1960s, I saw a recipie called Beggars Cake. It's a cake made from a ton of cake batter that is ladelled on a cone-shaped spit roasting over a fire and built up in layers.

When a beggar comes by, you would give them a healthy slice to eat while you talk with them a while so they rest while they eat and another to take with them for the road when you wish them well.

The recipie starts out with something like "150 eggs. But for a lighter version use only 100 eggs..." Doing it from memory. Made me laugh through my surprise at the recipe. But it did sound like an awesome recipe.

Might want to find a modern version to try on a smaller scale of course. Even bake a few or even a few dozen of your fav baked goods like cookies, cupcakes, etc., individually wrap them, and drop them off at your nearest homeless shelter or domestic violence shelter/home. I'm sure they'd be very appreciative to get some sweet treats like that.

Either that or lots of creme brulee!

Good luck!

There's the Blumenburger, although it apparently wasn't worth the effort. Blumenthal's books, In Search of Perfection and Further Adventures in Search of Perfection have some very long, complicated recipes, in addition to stories about how he came up with them.

If you have Amazon, there are a couple books that you can read with a kindle app (both low cost - free w/ Kindle unlimited - the Mediterranean Diet cookbook, and one for beginners) that are pretty good - both have details to read about, recipes, and sub options for budget shopping.

If you are also learning how to cook, I recommend Alton Brown's Good Eats - he explains the science behind why you should cook the way you do, and it's also entertaining.

Bistro Cooking by Patricia Wells is a good one for Provençal food, which tends to be more down-to-earth and simpler. It's basically country food and I believe has some food from Nice and Lyons in there. Speaking of which, Nice is the big French coastal city, so if you're looking for French dishes incorporating fish, try cookbooks about Niçoise cuisine.

There's two of them: 1 2

The only thing that's ever worked for me is to put about 3/4 of the total amount of pecorino and pepper in a mixing bowl, ideally steel, and slowly whisk in the pasta water in the last thirty seconds of the pasta cooking, stirring rapidly. Then I use my tongs to take the spaghetti directly out of the pot and put it into the bowl, tossing vigorously. Then I put the bowl back over the pot of water to keep the pasta from losing too much heat, and I keep tossing while sprinkling in the rest of the cheese. Works perfectly about 85% of the time.

Edit: your recipe looks terrible, tbh. The whole reason cheese clumps is the heat. Dumping a cheese like pecorino into a pot of simmering water sounds like asking for trouble. Do it my way. I got the basic technique out of this book.