Daniel Boulud's Café Boulud Cookbook by Daniel Boulud

Cajun cooking seems largely to have faded from the popular conscience, but if you ever want to know what it was all about, this is the place to learn. There had been restaurant cookbooks before, but this was the book that turned them into a marketing category. “Paul Prudhomme’s Louisiana Kitchen” – An oldie but goodie. Also recommended, “Ad Hoc at Home,” “Bouchon Bakery” and – for you deep-end divers – “The French Laundry.” The photography is terrific, the writing is evocative and, mirabile dictu, the recipes are surefire. “Bouchon” by Thomas Keller – Keller puts the same attention to detail in producing his cookbooks as he does almost everything else. It’s also one of the best and most useful introductions to Mexican street food you’ll find. In the end, I figured since it represents the food served at Bayless’ Frontera Grill, I’d include it. “Authentic Mexican” by Rick Bayless – This was a tough choice, not because it’s not a great book, but because it’s not strictly a restaurant cookbook. And in this book, he shows you how to work that magic. Richard is one of the most creative cooks around, a guy who can take everyday ingredients and see something in them none of the rest of us can. “Happy in the Kitchen” by Michel Richard – From another old friend, I think this is a sadly overlooked book.

It is an education as much as a recipe collection. The late San Francisco chef (she died last week) painstakingly explains every step of almost every one of her classic dishes. “The Zuni Café Cookbook” by Judy Rodgers – Am I being sentimental when I think of this as my favorite restaurant cookbook ever? Maybe, but it certainly belongs in the conversation. To make my task even harder, I arbitrarily narrowed my list to only a dozen - meaning I had to make some tough choices and leave off some really good books. For example, my old friend Deborah Madison qualifies as a chef writer for her “Greens Cookbook,” which was based on her San Francisco restaurant, but not for her epic “Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone,” though it may be an even better book. Nor was I asking about people who had once been chefs and later became writers.

Daniel Boulud's Café Boulud Cookbook by Daniel Boulud