Classics
Books I used to learn to cook
My first memories of cooking are using my easy bake oven out on the patio of our house in Marin County. I assume I was sent outside to not make a mess inside.
I can’t remember if there was really any actual real “ingredients” used with the mixes they sold with the oven.
My first cookbook, I brought to Italy, although I don’t have access to the American ingredients needed to make most of the recipes.
I just realised it’s a first edition from 1965. I was 11.
When I decided to pursue cooking as a career, I couldn’t afford culinary school, so I began teaching myself using Jacque Pepin’s La Technique. It was a perfect way to practice and learn.
There was a second book as well, La Methode.
An interesting link to how he changed cooking. Old-school French training to the basics. Perhaps today, the garnishes etc are no longer used, but there are so many valid basics demonstrated in this book.
What was your first cookbook, and what is your go-to cookbook?
I will also continue with some of my other go-to cookbooks for various cuisines.
Better Homes and Gardens! Later went to The Joy of Cooking, and a still reliable oldie, the Fanny Farmer Cookbook. Now I have a wide variety, but I have finally gotten to the place where I mostly know what this or that addition will do. I hold memories of beloved books I mainly browsed, but enjoyed contemplating different ideas from, for example, Rose Eliot’s Vegetarian Christmas.