Matt Goulding

Co-founder of Roads & Kingdoms and author of Rice, Noodle, Fish: Deep Travels Through Japan’s Food Culture

Biography

Matt Goulding is the editor and co-founder of Roads & Kingdoms, an independent journal of food, travel, politics and culture. He is also the author of Rice, Noodle, Fish: Deep Travels Through Japan’s Food Culture and the co-creator of the New York Times bestselling series Eat This, Not That. Before writing about food, he cooked his way around the world, from culinary school in San Sebastian to an oyster bar in Raleigh to a fishing boat in Patagonia. He divides his time between the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona and the open skies of rural North Carolina.

Southern Food

John Egerton

Egerton's work proves the most important rule of enduring culinary writing: that food is nothing without context.

Chez Panisse Café Cookbook

Alice Waters

All of her cookbooks are exceptional, but I just happened to fall in love with this one first. This is the book that taught me about the importance of voice when writing recipes.

Fäviken

Magnus Nilsson

Magnus is the ultimate polymath, and this video showcases his skills not just as a visionary chef, but also as a tremendous writer, storyteller, and photographer.

The Cuisines of Mexico

Diana Kennedy

The ultimate expression of one person's dedication to a single cuisine.

The Babbo Cookbook

Mario Batali

I grew up as a Molto Mario junkie, so it was natural that this book sleighed me. Still one of the great restaurant cookbooks of all time, thanks to Mario's inimitable voice and extraordinary ability to create delicious food.

The French Laundry Cookbook

Thomas Keller

The benchmark by which all other restaurant cookbooks shall forever be judged, filled with gorgeous photography, fantastic writing, and the kinds of deep kitchen thinking that will forever alter the way its readers cook.

Natura

Albert Adria

Ferran may be one of the world's greatest chefs, but Albert is without a doubt one of the greatest cooks, and this book—a stick of dynamite that blew up the world of desserts—is all the evidence one needs.

The Food Lab

J. Kenji López-Alt

A classic before it even hit the shelves. This book takes everything Kenji's excelled at during his reign at Serious Eats—sharp, compelling writing, impeccable technique, a penchant for destroying deeply-embedded kitchen myths—and turns it up a dozen notches. It's rare that I cook a meal without his voice whispering some reminder about heat distribution or Maillard reactions or seasoning strategy into my ear, and this book has only made that voice all the louder.

Hot Sour Salty Sweet

Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid

Nobody conveys a richer sense of environment and culture than Naomi, and this book is the pinnacle of her collaboration with Jeffrey. It's the cookbook I most wish I had written myself.

Pok Pok: Food and Stories from the Streets, Homes, and Roadside Restaurants of Thailand

Andy Ricker and JJ Goode

One of the few cookbooks whose recipes I try to follow to the letter, because you know that the results will be exceptional. And they always are. Add to that Ricker's (and Goode's) gift as a writer and storyteller and you have the makings of a classic.