All great chefs have their favorite texts, books that have marked their experience in their youth, or even later, books that are loved and respected. Some even have entire specialized libraries with hundreds and hundreds of titles. The reasons given by each to motivate the choice are very varied: some opt for a book discovered in their youth, perhaps precisely the one that directed them towards a career, or, if they were already working as apprentices, the one that confirmed their determination to become cooks. Others cite works by revered teachers from whom they learned, often even mentors with whom they have studied personally throughout their careers. Jenny Linford authoress of recipes, gastronomic articles and travel reports in the most important English newspapers, e coordinator of Guide 1001 "Restaurants you must experience before you die" he thought well of contact over 70 starred masters of the international culinary art, from the Basques Andoni Luis Aduriz, Juan Mari Arzak, to the Spanish Joan Roca of Girona, from the Italians Massimo Bottura, Enrico Crippa, Massimiliano Alajmo, and Niko Romito to the Australian Bill Granger, from the English Sat Bains, Richard Corrigan and Michel Guerard and Tom Kerridge to the Italian-Argentinian Mauro Coagreco of Mirazur, from André Chian in Singapore, to the Chinese Ken Hom today at the Mee in Rio de Janeiro to the Indian Vivek Singh.
He asked everyone for guidance on their sources of inspiration and drew one “Bible of cookbooks”, a sacred text of world gastronomy dedicated to cooking, but also to all its products, now published in Italy by Slow Food Editore.
The 1384 manuscript that investigated the relationship between human beings and food
The various chefs contacted by Linford cite different reasons to motivate their choice and the results themselves are very varied. They range from charming Catalan manuscript written in 1384 by Francesc Eiximenis “Com Usar Beh de Beure e Menjar“ (How to drink and eat in the right way), an excursus on the relationship between human beings and food, which is proudly displayed in the famous Celler de Casa Roca, in freshly printed works such as Nordic Cookbook - La cucina nordica di Magnus Nilsson. Some choices focus on specific figures of masters, others revolve around Chinese French Indian Italian national cuisines.
One chapter is devoted to “Influential Books” and takes stock of the texts related to the names of illustrious restaurants or great chefs. Readings that help to understand how difficult and demanding the journey of a chef determined to assert his own personal perspective is, such as Murgaritz by Andoni Luis Aduriz, La Tante Claire by Pierre Koffmann, Faviken by Magnus Nilsson, Origin by Ben Shewry in which the authors they limit themselves to compiling recipes but articulate a real culinary philosophy and talk about how their personal approach to food was born and how it developed.
Escoffier the great cook who codified the kitchen brigade system
Among the influential books is the gallery of immortal classics such as the Culinary guides of the great French Auguste Escoffier who codified the system of the Brigades still in use today to contemporary works such as Too Many Chiefs Only One Indian by Set Bais or the testimony The Dane René Redzepi who tells step by step with frankness and generosity how his restaurant the Moma works for years at the top of the world rankings of The World's 50 Best Restaurants giving away a book full of creative stimuli. There is no doubt that the last twenty years have been a period of great ferment in the world of haute cuisine, the influence of modernist cuisine, an increasingly widespread desire to explore the potential of the territory in in-depth and imaginative ways, the progressive advent of a new informality made itself felt all over the world. And it is undoubtedly positive that such a vital renewal has left documentary traces. Moreover, reading books by chefs allows you to see for yourself how much effort and how much determination it takes to make a restaurant work in the kitchen or from behind a desk. Finally, a last chapter is an international guide to cookbooks there are voices from all over the world America Australia Denmark France Great Britain Italy Korea Spain Sweden Taiwan.
