Saveur

Madhur Jaffrey, author of Indian Cooking and other books

Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle, and Simone Beck

The Key to Chinese Cooking by Irene Kuo

Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan

Peggy Knickerbocker, author of Simple Soirées and other books

A Platter of Figs by David Tanis

The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters

Simple French Food by Richard Olney

The Food and Life of Oaxaca by Zarela Martinez  

My Bombay Kitchen: Traditional and Modern Parsi Home Cooking by Niloufer King

Michael Laiskonis, pastry chef, Le Bernardin, New York City

White Heat by Marco Pierre White
I am likely just one of many professional chefs who consider this book a sort of modern classic. The excitement and inspiration come not necessarily from the recipes—though White was an early trailblazer for what we now might consider "New British" cuisine—but rather from the gritty photography and short quotes that make up the first half of the book. White Heat documents, and to a certain degree glamorizes, the sweat, stress, and drive of a young and passionate chef obsessed with perfection. Many years after first seeing it, I still get a little pumped up when I pull it from the shelf.

Ma Gastronomie by Fernand Point
Point is often credited as the father of contemporary cooking and as the important link between the stodgy, codified technique of Escoffier's day and the generation that would come to revolutionize the way we cook and eat through nouvelle cuisine. This book should be required reading for anyone entering the field, but it can also be enjoyed by all who simply love to eat, as Point himself surely did. His many aphorisms on life, both in the kitchen and out of it, are collected here and make for a very entertaining read.

Outlaw Cook by John Thorne
Thorne's books are compilations, for the most part, of the regular newsletters he published through the 1980s and '90s, and in a way, he is the precursor to food blogging as we know it today. I admire his love of eating and cooking and his quest to discover what it is that makes a dish essential. While he can wax poetic on a humble subject like salt or bread, he doesn't aspire to tackle grand culinary peaks but rather to understand better the simple and delicious. Thorne's opening chapter to Outlaw Cook, his bittersweet story of "learning to eat", is perhaps one of the favorite bits of food writing I've ever read.

Culinary Artistry and The Flavor Bible by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg
Among all the "cookbooks" in my collection, Culinary Artistry may well be the most beaten and battered. What Page and Dornenburg catalogued in these volumes are the building blocks used in dishes, and it's basically a reference guide to what goes well with what. More than simply helping to generate ideas and flavor combinations, the books also address, from a chef's perspective, how and why these marriages work. The Flavor Bible, their latest book, builds upon the first and tracks our evolution in that ten-year interim. Every time I glance at these books, I see something new.

Au Coeur des Saveurs by Frederic Bau
I'm a pastry chef, so there have to be at least a couple of pastry-centric books on this list. While some are narrow in scope and others are quite broad in their coverage, I appreciate this French import in particular for the huge influence it had when [it was] first published, a decade ago. Bau, the corporate chef for the chocolate company Valrhona, is known for pushing the boundaries of pastry while also offering respect to its traditions. And as technical manuals to fine chocolates, few [books] have detailed the art and science involved as well as does this book, which also explores cakes and plated desserts.

The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern by Claudia Fleming
Fleming's dessert book is perhaps one of the most valued for its ability to inspire the professional pastry chef while also remaining accessible to the novice at home; her style infuses the simple and familiar with an unmatched elegance and sophistication. And few pastry chefs have been able to subtly incorporate the exotic flavors of herbs, flowers, and spices as well as Claudia. This book is deceivingly compact, considering the wealth and breadth of techniques on offer.

A Return to Cooking by Eric Ripert
This book was an instant favorite of mine, well before I had any idea that Ripert would one day be my boss. Its premise is unique and compelling: a busy chef's inward journey back to the pure act of cooking, the story seen through the eyes of not only the chef himself but also a writer, a painter, and the photographers invited along for the ride. And that ride took the group to disparate locales—the Napa Valley, Long Island, Vermont, and Puerto Rico—to cook what was available and what they wanted to eat. The brief narratives and recipes provide insight into how personal experience, technique, seasonality, and sense of place all inform the choices made by the cook.

Hot Sour Salty Sweet: A Culinary Journey Through Southeast Asia by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid
I was first exposed to Alford and Duguid through their book Flatbreads and Flavors, which explored the varied baking traditions of cultures around the world. I'm drawn to Hot Sour Salty Sweet in particular because of my own fascination with the food and cultures of Southeast Asia. As culinary detectives, they bring an authenticity to the page that can be shared only by traveling, cooking, and eating among the cultures they've documented. Alford and Duguid show us that there is much that can be learned about a people simply by paying attention to what they eat.

Great Chefs of France by Anthony Blake and Quentin Crewe
Perhaps the book that best picks up where Ma Gastronomie left off and foreshadows the "chef as rock star" portrayed in White Heat, Blake and Crewe's Great Chefs of France is a great piece of history and yet another insight into the culinary evolution that continues to this day. Chronicling the styles and personalities of a dozen preeminent chefs, from the flamboyant Paul Bocuse to the pensive Alain Chappel, this book (which was published in the 1970s) may seem dated to some, but that's where its true charm and value lies. These founders of the nouvelle cuisine movement did much to propel their craft and are in large part responsible for creating not only the spirit behind the innovations we see today but also the foodie culture at large that celebrates the culinary arts. As a snapshot in time, Great Chefs of France offers us a useful reference point as haute cuisine continues to evolve.

Larousse Gastronomique, The Oxford Companion to Food by Alan Davidson, and On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee
Of the several straight-up reference books I own, and of those I reach for the most, it's a three-way tie between these three. Each appeals to me for its own, unique scope. Larousse, of course, is the go-to when the classics are involved; it's amazing how much of it remains relevant after all these years. Davidson's Companion holds a wealth of information from the common to the obscure, and I will even pick it up on occasion just to browse for the pure pleasure of it. And finally, On Food and Cooking continues to inform and inspire chefs, especially as we increasingly consider the science behind our ingredients and methods, so much so that many consider McGee a sort of patron saint of modern cooking.