Classic Cookbooks: Which Ones Are Actually Worth Your Shelf Space
We own seventeen cookbooks. We use three of them. The rest live on a shelf in the kitchen, arranged in a way that suggests I'm the sort of person who regularly consults Larousse Gastronomique before making dinner. This is a lie. The last time I opened Larousse Gastronomique was to press a flower, and even that felt like I was using a sledgehammer to crack a walnut. But here's the thing about classic cookbooks: some of them actually deserve their reputation. They're not just beautiful objects that make your kitchen look thoughtful. They're genuinely useful—clear, reliable, and written by people who understand that most of us are trying to make dinner, not recreate the French Revolution in our kitchens. Others are classics for reasons that have nothing to do with whether you'll ever cook from them. Here's a guide to the ones that matter, the ones that are useful, and the ones you can admire from a distance without feeling guilty. The Actual Classics (That ...
