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I have a lot of cookbooks but I never cook out of them, people give them to me because they think I will like them. I have never even attempted a recipe out of this book but I love it a lot. Brooks is the chef behind NY fav veggie spot Superiority Burger, and he cut his teeth for years as one of the cities great pastry chefs. I love this book because itâs extremely readable. In between insane Michelin-level recipes, heâll have stories about his band Born Against (a band I enjoyed in high school!) touring across the world, or just Brooks letting one of his employees share a recipe for biscuits instead of making it all about him. Itâs not taking a cookbook deal as the opportunity to change his life and become the next Ottolenghi, he basically made a hardcover zine about his story and how he got to where he is. If you have someone in your life who grew up around punk music and is now old, get them this book. Theyâll form a bond with it, even if they donât know what a Kouign-Amann is. Also, the photography and graphic design are refreshingly honest.
Mar 9, 2021
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Especially ones with well known chefs or cool pictures
Mar 1, 2025
This is my go to cookbook. If you've ever been to rose bakery in Paris, youâll know why. Simple, great flavors and stunning photography.
Dec 24, 2024
Not really a recipe book (though certainly has recipes) and more of a reference bible about the chemical processes of cooking. Kenji answers questions like:
- Why does the pH of my pancake batter matter?
- Why should I add sodium citrate to mac n cheese?
- Why is my turkey dry?
- How to make can beans taste good?
and will also teach you how to butterfly a chicken, faux-tourné your carrots, and emulsify your vinaigrettes.
Kenji is extraordinarily online (linked his website for socials) and posts tons of stuff for free if you donât wanna shell out for this very expensive and very heavy book. I have a ton of respect for him and genuinely think he is the most influential living person working in food right now + will be remembered among the greats.
Canât rec this book enough!
Feb 19, 2025
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Nigella Bites was a British show hosted by home cook turned star, Nigella Lawson, in the early 2000s. It was very Sex and The City meets effortless chic ambient television and 20 years ago I wondered why I had such a crush on this woman. Watching it now, the recipes are a bit outdated and she uses this giant two-handed Medieval weapon to chop her parsley which didnât age well, but the overall message sheâs attempting to convey does. I yearn for a time in the food world where we werenât all so concerned with finding the next new thing to post about and could just enjoy the simplicity of things. One time I was at the now-shuttered LA restaurant âTrois Mecâ and I spotted Nigella having dinner with Anthony Bourdain. It made me wonder if they were always meant for each other, or just two old dogs from a bygone era trying to make sense of the new and confusing world of food. Plus, the handmade artwork is cute. The last era of television where people could kind of do what they wanted to do, hire their friends to help out, and not have data analytics drive the narrative.
Mar 9, 2021
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Bibio has been making chill electronic music for a long time. I actually donât really like any of it for the most part, but he released this record of ambient music a few years ago and itâs really stuck with me. Some of the songs are over 15 minutes long and are extremely calming and cinematic. Whenever Iâm spun out and just need to put something on, this always does the trick. Itâs straightforward ambient music that you could find from any old Eno on the shelf, but Bibâs blend of piano, pads, and strings just really put me at ease. I also always loved the juxtaposition of the artwork and title for such a calm and beautiful record. The title in all caps, the word âbrickworks,â I donât know what any of this shit means but I like it.
Mar 9, 2021
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People ask me about kitchen equipment all the time, but most often itâs about a knife. People get excited about a crazy handmade Japanese blade or think they need some gnarly-ass knife to be a real chef, but unless youâre slicing sushi on a daily basis, you really donât. I got this blade as a gift from my friend Andre, and it never left my drawer. Thereâs good clearance between the handle and the blade so people with larger hands or fat fingers will have room to chop, the tip is rounded so when youâre slicing an avocado while itâs still in itâs skin, you wonât cut your hand open, spilling blood on your eggs, and there even a hole punched in the tip if youâre the kind of person who likes hanging things on the wall. Whenever I bring my knives in to get sharpened, this Mac blade is the only one that the sharpener man feels compelled to compliment, a knifemanâs knife if you will. Also, at a hundred bucks, itâs perfect for your daily driver knife, you wonât feel the need to baby it like some hand-pounded tech bro carbon steel with a dragon engraved in the handle.
Mar 9, 2021