(Part 2) Top products from r/Chefit

I'm a bit of a cookbook junkie, so I have a bunch to recommend. I'm interpreting this as "good cookbooks from cuisines in Asia" so there are some that are native and others that are from specific restaurants in the US, but I would consider these legit both in terms of the food and the recipes/techniques. Here are a few of my favorites:


Pan-Asian

• Asian Dumplings - the masterpiece on all things dumpling
  
• Asian American - Dale Talde's (Top Chef) book with lots of Asian cultures' food in the US
  
• Asian Pickles - pickles and fermented foods from throughout Asia
  
• Lucky Rice - recipes from the Asian festival of the same name
  
• The Asian Grandmother's Cookbook - traditional cooking passed down to American cooks
  
  Burmese
  
  
• Burma:Rivers of Flavor - good focus on difference in Burmese cuisine from other regional
  
  Cambodian
  
  
• Num Pang - Cambodian sandwich restaurant in NYC
  
• Cambodian Cooking - GREAT book on Cambodian cuisine, supporting refugees
  
  Chinese
  
  
• Ken Hom Complete Chinese Cookbook - great primer for cooking Chinese food using ingredients commonly available in US
  
• China Moon - classic SF Chinese restaurant food
  
• Feeding the Dragon - modern culinary journey through all of China
  
• Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking - omnibus focused on the home chef
  
• Breath of a Wok - focus on wok technique at home
  
• Every Grain of Rice - wonderful Sichuan food for home cooks
  
  Indian
  
  
• Madhur Jaffrey Indian Cooking - actually, any of her cookbooks are wonderful for Indian cooking
  
• Savour Mumbai - looks at Indian cuisine as a melting pot in Mumbai
  
• The Indian Family Cookbook - modern South Indian food
  
• Indian Harvest - Vikas Khanna's family cookbook
  
• Made in India - classic Indian food, from street to home
  
  Indonesia
  
  
• The Food of Indonesia - everything you need for a rijstaffel!
  
  Japanese
  
  
• Japanese Farm Food - authentic rural Japanese cooking
  
• Preserving the Japanese Way - how to make awesome Japanese pickled vegetables
  
• Sushi Chef - not strictly speaking a cookbook, but "Jiro Dreams of Sushi" book in English
  
• The Japanese Grill - authentic hibachi and Japanese grill recipes
  
• Japanese Comfort Food - lots of traditional Japanese recipes
  
• Nanban - Japanese "soul food"
  
• Tokyo Cult Recipes - hip modern urban food from Tokyo
  
• Yum Yum Bento Boxes - updated modern take on bento boxes
  
• Ivan Ramen - traditional ramen for a Western audience
  
• Izakaya - traditional Japanese pub food & small plates
  
• Nikkei - emigrant Japanese food culture in South America
  
• Donabe - traditional Japanese hot pot recipes
  
• Kyotofu - very unique Japanese dessert cookbook
  
  Korean
  
  
• K Food - modern take on Korean street food
  
• Maangchi's Real Korean Cooking - great resource for Korean cooking in a non-pro kitchen
  
• Traditional Food - omnibus of four regions of Korean food
  
• Koreatown - authentic, approachable guide to Korean food in a US context
  
• Smoke & Pickles - Edward Lee's fusion of his Korean heritage and southern barbeque
  
• The Kimchi Cookbook - many, many recipes for kimchi...
  
  Malaysian
  
  
• Malaysian Cooking - good overview of Malay cooking
  
  Middle Eastern
  
  
• The New Persian Kitchen - modern Iranian food
  
• Ottolenghi - Israeli-Palestinian collaboration
  
• Persiana - dynamic modern recipes from throughout the Middle East
  
• Zahav - modern Israeli food
  
• Sweet Middle East - traditional and modern desserts
  
  Philippine
  
  
• Filipino Homestyle Dishes - good intro to classic Filipino dishes
  
  Russian
  
  
• Mamushka - focus on Ukraine
  
  Sri Lankan
  
  
• Hidden Kitchens of Sri Lanka - beautiful photo-cookbook on Sri Lankan cuisine
  
  Taiwanese
  
  
• The Food of Taiwan - um... food... from Taiwan
  
  Thailand
  
  
• Nong's Thai Kitchen - she beat Bobby Flay in pad thai
  
• Pok Pok - Portland's most AWESOME Asian restaurant
  
  Turkish
  
  
• Istanbul:Recipes from the Heart of Turkey - lovely focus on urban Turkish food
  
• Anatolia - wonderful approachable approach to Turkish cuisine
  
• Essential Turkish Cuisine - focus on history and evolution of Turkish food
  
  Vietnamese
  
  
• The Slanted Door - great Vietnamese restaurant cookbook
  
• Vietnamese Market Cookbook - focus on simple Vietnamese from fresh ingredients
  
• Into the Vietnamese Kitchen - traditional Vietnamese home cooking
  
• The Banh Mi Cookbook - the greatest sandwich in the world!
  
• Vietnamese Home Cooking - another great overview
  
  (edit: screwed up a couple links)

Asia's a big, ancient place. Even within each nation there are unique styles of regional and ethnic fare.

With that in mind, I'd love to see some recommendations here for awesome Indian, Filipino, Hmong, Uzbek, etc. cookbooks.

Japanese

Lets get beyond sushi and hibatchi.

Shizuo Tsuji's Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art is a great starting point. If you want to get technical you should check out Ando's Washoku or Hachisu's Preserving the Japanese Way.

If you want to start simple, Hachisu also has a great book on Japanese Farm Food. Ono and Salat have written a great noodle slurping opus in Japanese Soul Cooking.

Chinese

What we've come to think of as Chinese food in the US is a natural part of human appropriation of food styles, but with all due respect to Trader Vic's, crab rangoon and other buffet staples really aren't the real deal. Food in China is extremely regional. You don't have to go very deep to see the vast differentiation in spicy Schezwan recipes and Cantonese Dim Sum culture.

For your reading pleasure:

Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking Eileen Yin-Fei Lo.

Breath of the Wok by Grace Young and Alan Richardson.

Phoenix Claws and Jade Trees by Kian Lam Kho and Jody Horton.

All Under Heaven: Recipes from the 35 Cuisines of China by Carolyn Phillips.

Some people might freak out that I'm placing Erway's The Food of Taiwan under the Chinese category, but I'm not going to get into a political debate here. Taiwan has had a lot of different culinary influences due to migration / occupation and that is really the take away here.

Go forth, make bao.

Korean

Korea is having it's moment right now and if you want the classics, Hi Soo Shin Hepinstall's Growing up in a Korean Kitchen is a good baseline. It has all the greatest hits.

You also can't cook Korean food without kimchi. The only book I've read is Lauryn Chun's The Kimchi Cookbook which is kind of underwhelming considering the hundreds of styles of Kimchi that have been documented. The process of making kimchi (kimjang) even has a UNESCO world heritage designation. With that in mind, I think it's only a matter of time before we see a English book on the subject that has depth.

Given the cuisine's popularity, there are several other cookbooks on Korean food that have recently been published within the last year or so, I just haven't gotten around to reading them yet, so I won't recommend them here.

Thai

David Thompson's Thai Food and Thai Street Food are both excellent. /u/Empath1999 's recommendation of Andy Ricker's Pok Pok is excellent but it focuses on Northern Thai cuisine, so if you want to venture into central and southern Thai fare, Thompson's the other farang of note.

Vietnamese

Nguyen's Into the Vietnamese Kitchen provides a nice survey to Vietnamese cooking. Charles Phan also has a couple of cookbooks that are quite good but I'm sure that there are zealots out there who would bemoan authenticity in either Vietnamese Home Cooking or The Slanted Door, but seriously, who gives a shit, the dude has Beard Awards under his belt for fuck's sake.

TL;DR OP means well but its long past time to bury "Asian" as a catch-all for such a large and diverse part of a continent, no?

I would suggest doing some reading on the science of baking. I don't know if Panera taught you guys any of that, but it is SO helpful to know in my own baking, and just knowing a few small facts can show that you're really knowledgeable.

Some good options, if you have access to a library or want to spend the money on amazon - How Baking Works, King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion and The Pastry Chef's Companion are all good bets. Beware, though - The Pastry Chef's Companion is super involved and interesting but the science of baking stuff isn't very prevalent. It's there, but not as much as in the first two books.

Best of luck! Be honest with the interviewers and it will go great. Keep us updated on how it goes!

I love cookbooks, and have probably fifty in my collection.

The ones I keep going back to are:

• Anything by Yotam Ottolenghi - He's an Israeli-born chef in London, and his recipes are a great combination of creative, relatively easy, and unique. He has a knack for combining unusual flavors, and I've never disliked anything I've cooked from him. If you're relatively green, don't get Nopi (too advanced). His other three or four books are all great.
  
  
• Mexican Everyday by Rick Bayless. Bayless has a PBS show and owns several restaurants in Chicago. He's a great chef and his recipes are accessible and fun.
  
  
• The Food Lab by u/J_Kenji_Lopez-Alt. I was skeptical at first, since Lopez-Alt's website is so comprehensive, but the book is absolutely beautiful and contains both recipes and explanations of technique and science.
  
  
• Modernist Cooking at Home - It's expensive and many of the recipes are challenging and/or require special equipment, but the book is truly groundbreaking and never fails to stoke my creativity. It's the home version of his 6-volume tome which many think is one of the most innovative cookbooks in the last 20 years.

Kuhn Rikon makes a great peeler...I buy them in three packs and give them to people I care about.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B001BCFTWU?pc_redir=1408081880&robot_redir=1

Also, no matter how prepped up you think you are, someone's probably going to hit you with some last minute stuff. Be ready for that and good luck!

kuhn rikon peeler? theyre cheap but it will definitely be appreciated

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kuhn-Rikon-Original-Peeler-Multi-Colour/dp/B001BCFTWU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1485647472&sr=8-1&keywords=kuhn+rikon+peeler

https://www.amazon.com/Plating-Gold-Dessert-National-Championships/dp/1118059840

I asked him and he said this is the book I was referring to. This other one is one I used back in high school. It's short, but teaches basic concepts pretty well.

https://www.amazon.com/Working-Plate-Art-Food-Presentation/dp/047147939X/ref=pd_sbs_14_img_1/138-5228499-9387854?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=047147939X&pd_rd_r=207ab7bf-9c80-49a0-93fa-37aed4a53a77&pd_rd_w=zS0nI&pd_rd_wg=sW6OI&pf_rd_p=5cfcfe89-300f-47d2-b1ad-a4e27203a02a&pf_rd_r=5WZZHFHKCRR9FBV5JWTR&psc=1&refRID=5WZZHFHKCRR9FBV5JWTR

Principles,
Foodservice Organizations,
Culinary Math are all good technical books to know.

Some already mentioned Leadership Lessons, which is a great read. Also try Setting the Table by Danny Meyers for an overall look on running a hospitality business.

So, a cleaning stone for the whetstones should be like this then? Messermeister Sand Rubber Cleaner for Whetstone

and for sharpening i should probably use something like this? King Japanese Grit 1000/6000 Combination Sharpening Stone KW-65 and King #8000 Nagura Stone : Bundle - 2 Items

You sound a whole lot like me. Try: http://www.amazon.com/The-Flavor-Bible-Creativity-Imaginative/dp/0316118400 or http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0471287857/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1452484877&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=culinary+artistry&dpPl=1&dpID=51f2cXjryYL&ref=plSrch
They are amazing resources that teach you about flavors and how they complement each other.

The cabinets are all Billy bookcases with Oxford doors from IKEA. I upgraded the knobs (cheap ones from Amazon but better than what the Billy's come with) and my husband trimmed out the sides partly because we had to and partly to give them a more custom built-in look but they're not! Just cheapos from IKEA that we doctored up a little.

Amazon link to the knobs I may or may not have reviewed ;)

A good idea would be to get a whetstone, a wet japanese one, like this one.

Then, learn how to sharpen knives with him, it's a skill he'll need lifelong if he's to be a chef.

Honestly, if it's for home use, this one is very highly reviewed and inexpensive.

https://www.amazon.com/Duxtop-8100MC-Portable-Induction-Countertop/dp/B0045QEPYM/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=1JAFLLETNIX05&keywords=induction+cooktop&qid=1565029402&s=gateway&sprefix=induction+%2Caps%2C156&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1

Yes, this one: https://www.amazon.com/Stainless-Steel-Garnish-Ribbon-Cutter/dp/B0015DI8GO/

I used this book in school and it is highly recommended.
https://www.amazon.com/Cooking-Textbook-Culinary-Fundamentals-5th/dp/013715576X

Meatpaper

Lucky Peach

History of Taste

Le Guide Culinaire

http://www.amazon.com/Secura-8100MC-Portable-Induction-Countertop/dp/B0045QEPYM/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1465250826&sr=8-4&keywords=max+burton+induction+cooktop

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0517884046/ref=mp_s_a_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1510937827&sr=8-12&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=a+history+of+food
This is a much petter read on the subject

Hard to tell, but is this it?
https://www.amazon.com/Stainless-Steel-Garnish-Ribbon-Cutter/dp/B0015DI8GO