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Yotam Ottolenghi's Top Book Recommendations

Want to know what books Yotam Ottolenghi recommends on their reading list? We've researched interviews, social media posts, podcasts, and articles to build a comprehensive list of Yotam Ottolenghi's favorite book recommendations of all time.

1

The Pie and Pastry Bible

The Pie and Pastry Bible is your magic wand for baking the pies, tarts, and pastries of your dreams—the definitive work by the country's top baker.

-More than 300 recipes, 200 drawings of techniques and equipment, and 70 color pictures of finished pies, tarts, and pastries

-Easy-to-follow recipes for fruit pies, chiffon pies, custard pies, ice-cream pies, meringue pies, chocolate pies, tarts and tartlets, turnovers, dumplings, biscuits, scones, crostadas, galettes, strudel, fillo, puff pastry, croissants (chocolate, too), Danish, brioche, sticky buns,...
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Recommended by Yotam Ottolenghi, and 1 others.

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2

Star Desserts

Recommended by Yotam Ottolenghi, and 1 others.

Yotam OttolenghiI don’t know much about Emily Luchetti, apart from the fact she was the pastry chef at a very famous restaurant in San Francisco called Star during the late 80s and the 90s. She also wrote another book, Four-Star Desserts; I have a very warm place in my heart for both. One of my first placements was as a pastry chef, and I loved using those books, because they were a breath of fresh air after all... (Source)

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3

Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone

The tenth anniversary edition of this landmark cookbook, with more than 325,000 copies in print, includes a new introduction from Deborah Madison, America’s leading authority on vegetarian cooking.

What Julia Child is to French cooking, Deborah Madison is to vegetarian cooking—a demystifier and definitive guide to the subject. After her many years as a teacher and writer, she realized that there was no comprehensive primer for vegetarian cooking, no single book that taught vegetarians basic cooking techniques, how to combine ingredients, and how to present vegetarian...

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Recommended by Yotam Ottolenghi, and 1 others.

Yotam OttolenghiA few years ago, I got the brief to write a vegetarian column for The Guardian.  I’m not a vegetarian, so I wanted to write the column as a challenge – and I must say it was a bit of a challenge. The idea of having to cook exclusively with vegetables was initially a difficult concept. To start with, I had plenty of ideas, but after about six months I realised I was sort of running out of things. (Source)

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4
Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking is a kitchen classic. Hailed by Time magazine as "a minor masterpiece" when it first appeared in 1984, On Food and Cooking is the bible to which food lovers and professional chefs worldwide turn for an understanding of where our foods come from, what exactly they're made of, and how cooking transforms them into something new and delicious. Now, for its twentieth anniversary, Harold McGee has prepared a new, fully revised and updated edition of On Food and Cooking. He has rewritten the text almost completely, expanded it by... more

Rose Levy BeranbaumHe explains how cooking works and gives you the freedom to create your own things, to know when things go wrong. (Source)

Yotam OttolenghiMcGee is very clear and to the point. Despite the fact that he is quite technical, it’s never boring. (Source)

Chris YoungMy career starts with [this book] in many ways. There wouldn’t be any of this modern cooking movement without [this book], I don’t think. (Source)

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5

The River Cottage Meat Book

First published in the United Kingdom, THE RIVER COTTAGE MEAT BOOK quickly became an underground hit among food cognoscenti around the world. Now tailored for American cooks, this loving, authoritative, and galvanizing ode to good meat is one part manifesto on high-quality, local, and sustainable meat production; two parts guide to choosing and storing meats and fowl; and three parts techniques and recipes for roasting, cooking, barbecuing, preserving, and processing meats and getting the most out of leftovers. With this thought-provoking and practical guide, meat eaters can knowledgeably buy... more
Recommended by Yotam Ottolenghi, Giles Coren, and 2 others.

Yotam OttolenghiHe looks at how the animals are reared, and allows you to make an informed and moral choice about what you are eating. (Source)

Giles CorenThis book is crucial because it ties together the ethics of food production with what you put in your mouth. (Source)

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