John Becker

Food publisher

https://www.thejoykitchen.com/all-about-joy/john-becker-and-megan-scott

Biography

John Becker and Megan Scott are the 4th generation of the Rombauer-Becker family to continue revising the Joy of Cooking, originally self-published in 1931 by Irma Rombauer. John has a background in literature, research, and critical writing; Megan’s background is in French, cheese making, and the pastry arts. For the past several years, John and Megan have been hard at work creating a digital version Joy (now an app for iOS) and are currently planning the next revision of the book, currently in its 8th edition. They maintain Joy’s website, social media presence, and develop recipes. Both are devoted to teaching people how to cook, without dogma or flash-in-the-pan food trends, striking a balance between America’s rich culinary heritage and its ever-expanding tastes. They live in Portland, OR, with their gigantic orange tabby Loki.

Tartine Bread

Chad Robertson

Changed the way we make bread at home and allows home cooks to make bakery-quality bread without dumbing down the process.

Jane Grigson's Fruit Book

Jane Grigson

We are equally enamored of her book on vegetables and appreciate the wealth of information, historical anecdotes, and thoughtful recipes.

Saving the Season

Kevin West

West's take on preserving is elegant and creative without being gimmicky. Historical asides and poetry are interspersed throughout, and I often find myself fully absorbed in the book when I was really just looking for a recipe for apricot preserves.

Talk About Good!

Junior League of Lafayette and Louisiana

One of the best examples of the community cookbook, a form that captures local cuisines like no other. Stripped of extraneous adornment, this is simply a collection of recipes that represents a distinct branch of southern cooking in an honest way.

660 Curries

Raghavan Iyer

Iyer's recipes introduced us to the complex and delicious use of spices in Indian cuisine--toasting, blending, tempering, using them whole or ground--and his recipes just work.

Every Grain of Rice

Fuchsia Dunlop

A corrective to the American view of "Chinese food." Her recipes result in incredibly flavorful, complex, and authentic dishes.

Odd Bits

Jennifer McLagan

McLagan's books are so wonderful because she tackles difficult subjects without squeamishness or apology.

Vegetable Literacy

Deborah Madison

This is part reference book, part recipe book delivered in Madison's easygoing style. Her recipes are very clean, and she approaches vegetables by family. This is an unusual organization strategy, but it teaches you how to treat entire families of vegetables rather than going at each one in a disjointed way.

Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking

Marcella Hazan

Marcella is simply the authority on Italian cooking. This is always the first book we turn to when we have a question about authentic Italian food.

Jerusalem

Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi

This book encapsulates what is so vibrant about the food of this region. In a sense, this is an aspirational cookbook, but it's accessible enough for home cooks.

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