Go to the Article: Books That Inspire: Plating
I recently picked up Le Cinq and totally agree.
Have been back and forth on Le Livre Blanc as I'm not sure there is much a home cook could actually cook, but you may have swayed me. Plus I guess Le Cinq is probably similar in difficulty.
I'd add Alleno's "4 Seasons at Table no. 5", George Blanc's "The Natural Cuisine" (for history and some ideas. it's interesting), "Manresa", Daniel Boulud's new book, "Daniel: My French Cuisine", and "L'Astrance: A Cook's Book." GREAT essays in there, thought processes, and pictures. How did Chefsteps not recommend it?! Didn't Grant work there for a little, haha.
Also, Passard's "The Art of Cooking Vegetables" has ZERO pictures, but more like paper machè collages for each dish. Truly helps with the creative process when doing those dishes but you still feel some freedom.
Yannick Alleno also has a magazine written in French called YAM. I really enjoy it and just use google translate to do the recipes.
Some of the above is completely different from the others but I find being able to make connections or categorize styles in my head helps when it comes time to approach my own dish designs.
Great additions, thanks Robert. When I was talking to Nick about Le Livre Blanc, he mentioned how he thought the combinations of textures in that book really inspired him. It's also so pretty.
I want to get my hands on YAM.
As far as omissions go, this is definitely not a comprehensive list—more like the books that are inspiring us right now. We'll probably add to it in the future.
Thanks for the insight to Le Livre Blanc! I definitely added it to my amazon.com cart.
That's awesome if you keep adding it to the future. Especially as new books are released if you happen to get them in your hands before everyone else you could give some insight.
The Astrance cook book is interesting too because there really aren't that many recipes. Just essays on each dish. An experienced cook could probably cook from most of those essays, but I'm working up to that. Part of me wish I knew that before I bought it, but for the most part I'm happy I grabbed it.
I have an obsession with all things Icelandic...I came across this book, North: The New Nordic Cuisine of Iceland by Gunnar Gislason..it looks promising. Does anyone have it?
http://www.amazon.com/North-The-Nordic-Cuisine-Iceland/dp/1607744988
Also, great selection! What would be great in the future is maybe showcasing more "obscure" or "less popular" gems if you guys come across any
White Heat, Marco Pierre White
Your libary is great. A wonderful addition would be Joachim Wissler's book.
http://www.joachimwissler.com/kochen-und-geniessen/?action=jw-kochbuch
http://www.schlossbensberg.com/de/kulinarik/restaurant-vendome/kueche
Hey Chefsteps crew, I saw you mentioned you're really into the new book, "Alexandre Gauthier: Chef, La Grenouillère." Could you talk a little about that. What it is like? There is no "look inside" option on Amazon for it. Is it sorta French cuisine meets Noma plating style? Accessible at all for home cooks, or just plating inspiration? Thanks so much!
Nice one, Mira. "North:" was already on my wishlist somehow (late night amazon window shopping?), but it's been moved up top with a couple more from this thread.
Thanks, I'm not sure how I came across it either, I was probably zombie shopping like you. On my wishlist too
The books are beautiful, but from a narrow conceptual lineage. When I'm tired of these approaches I reach for The Fine Art of Japanese Food Arrangement or Martí Guixé: Food Designing.
An astounding collection, but I'm a bit surprised there are no books on Daniel Boulud?
RE: the Michel Bras, I thought to mention that Michel Bras was about to receive the Silver Spoon award, in the October issue of Food Arts magazine, but the magazine has just been closed, after 25 years of inspiring the professional food community, so the tribute will not see light of day--and another important print food magazine is gone. But the good news is there are great new minds out there, like you guys at ChefSteps, and you--the ChefSteps community-- stepping up to fill the void.
I mentioned his new one so at least it exists on this page. I'm sure they could have recommended over 25 books, but probably didn't feel like writing them all up for this page. Understandably.
edit: I have not seen inside Le Livre Blanc, and I am still not sure I really want to buy it as I hear it is practically useless from a home cooking standpoint in any respects aside from the pictures, but I wonder if the plating styles are similar to Boulud's. I found after looing through Le Cinq, Astrance, and Yannick Alleno sources, I see a lot of similar stuff from Boulud. Not that there is anything wrong with it, but maybe they were trying to highlight various styles for each book, and Le Livre represented that style.
Could you talk a bit about Food Designing? I have never heard of it and never came across it. What is it like? Amazon doesn't have a "look inside" feature for it. Thanks for your additions!
Ooh, Robert. You should get it. There are awesome cutaways images—the CS chefs are actually thinking about breaking our plates at some point; that's how inspiring they are. (See below. Crappy phone photo, but you get idea).
There are great shots of the rustic environment around the restaurant, which tells the story of how they were inspired to create the gorgeous dishes. We always like behind-the-scenes shots of the kitchen team—in this case, it's a pretty small one, which is impressive.
It does have a sort of French-meets-Nordic them, which begs the question: Are the French finally starting to question their methods? The fact that the restaurant is housed in a farmhouse from the 17th century, and yet the dishes are so cutting edge, tells a really beautiful story. The paper stock is also hella nice. We fight over this book.
Aw thanks Ann. As a serious food magazine junkie, I was really dismayed by that news about Food Arts. RIP.
Edward and Robert: I asked Nick to give me some examples of the books that he turns to a lot to design dishes—it's definitely not an exhaustive list. I'm getting the feeling, from the community response, that cookbook recs and conversations about cookbooks are a popular thing. What other cookbook-related content should we do?
Love the obscure books idea, Mira. noted.
I'm looking at Nordic right now. From a writing standpoint, I appreciate that it's pretty recipe focused—there are beautiful photos, but it's a pretty practical book for ambitious cooks.
Thank you so much for the pictures and details! Would you say the actual recipes are at least somewhat approachable? My issue with NOMA is that I can't really cook from it. The ingredients are not available.
This and Le Livre Blanc have been in and out of my Amazon cart mulitple times the past few days. I like pictures, but I also like being able to use the book as a cookbook in some way.
Maybe a small section or weekly (monthly) post about cookbooks that are being used in the ChefSteps kitchen at that moment, why, and some details about them (similar to the details above, but maybe a little more, like one more paragraph than what is above). I like the idea of highlighting more obscure cookbooks too or "hidden" gems (along with new releases from major chefs), but as always a quick write up on why and what makes them worth mentioning. Finally, and this is most important for me, some idea of how applicable things in the cookbook would be for the average ChefSteps home cook, meaning you can assume we're willing to put in the time, have a DIY sous vide set up at least, but probably not own a PacoJet or Thermomix (but definitely want both!). Books like NOMA and D.O.M. are fantastic inspiration books, but due to their very, very selective ingredients, not very useful in the cooking department. Am I making sense?
After saying all of that, maybe people here don't care about being able to cook from the books? I learned to cook by using The French Laundry and still really enjoy cooking and learning by doing elaborate recipes like those and others found in some of the above cookbooks. I'm starting to get comfortable where I can take all of those things I've learned and apply them to my own original dishes, but I still enjoy and need useful cookbooks that have things aside from food porn plates to share with the reader.
This may just be me though as a lot of ChefStep members may be past the point of doing recipes out of a book. I'm just trying to save myself some (all) of my money! I need a book to offer a little more than just nice pictures. They are cookbooks to me, not coffee table books.
I'll have a closer look at the recipes next time I can wrestle the book away from Nick. They looked straightforward enough but I want to double check.
I think the hardback magazines, Art Culinaire, are a fun resource. They stay on top of trends, have clear, full page pictures, and are tastefully done. With a subscription they come 4 times a year which will give you a fresh look at what chefs from around the world are doing more often than just buying one book.
>We always like behind-the-scenes shots of the kitchen team
I know just what you mean! Watching puppies and other CS staff taste recipes is a lot of fun.
What is the difference between the "Fat Duck Cookbook", and the "Big Fat Duck Cookbook"? Besides it's case of course.
All these books are amazing... My new personal favorite is Quay. A few others not on the list are Manresa, North, COI, and a day at ElBulli
Hi,
I am having trouble finding dishes that I like. I was wondering which brands of dishes you use, or do you have any suggestions where I can other dishes and plates
Sincerely
I would add Volt/ink to the list of books that inspire.
D.O.M from Alex Atala is a great book too. And also the Apicius magazines are insanely goood . They have articles written by the best chefs in Spain (Adria, Roca, Eneko Atxa, Quique Dacosta, Martin Berasategui, etc), and tons of recipes from them with great images. The ones I read were in spanish but im pretty sure you can get them in english , and they ship to the US.
The Big Fat Duck is simply, much larger, crisper prints, finger proof pages, a magnificent book, but anyone on a budget the Fat Duck cookbook is amazing.
Absolutely not. Volt was a serious let down.
I know this list is a little old; obviously you have evolved from 5 years ago, wich books would you recomend today?
If so, a new list would be appreciated. I really love to read and books inspire me to write essays. You can see some of my work here https://www.grabmyessay.com/samples/category/communicationsmedia and if you are a student these examples will inspire you. And you will be able to write a better essay.
bumP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
