You have them in all sizes, colors, types of cuisine and I would love to have them all :-).

What people sometimes forget, is that for lots of those cookbooks you need a certain basic knowledge to be able to use them. For example if they talk about a fond, that you have to know what it is, how it is made, etc… or at least this knowledge is often expected (even though you can almost buy everything nowadays). So you should basically always check the degree of expected knowledge of the cookbook before buying it and not only buy the book because of the incredible pictures. Make sure you first have a good basic knowledge for cooking as everything stands and falls with this. If you paint a wall, it won’t be as good if the base is not done properly….

 And to get that basic knowledge, books that I love are Basic cooking(they also have basic Italian, sweet basics, etc…) or “Kookschool”. In the “Kookschool” cookbooks they have step-by-step pictures how everything should look. At first I just bought they because they looked nice 🙂 I also hoped that my girlfriend would start cooking. But I’m sure today’s they there are many more basic knowledge cookbooks available. But the most traditional and most used cookbook in all European Cooking Schools to learn the French Kitchen are Escoffier’s cookbooks!! (picture on top)

 My All-time favorite cookbooks are the ones from Anna Del Conte.  The Italian gastronomy book almost falls apart, that’s how much I used it! The Best Of Anna Del Conte is also recommended.

Made in Italy by Giorgio Locatelli is my brother’s bible 🙂so that is also a reference. If you prefer literature and cooking I would highly recommended the books from Manuela Darling – Gansser, who takes you on a journey through Italy and Switzerland. She does this per season and one by one, all her books are amazing to read! You will not only be hungry, but you will also feel like going on holiday

Mmm, you guys probably think I only like Italian cookbooks … Sorry, but Italian food is just so great 🙂

No no, it is just a joke. A chef I like both for his television appearances and his cookbooks about Belgian cuisine, are the books from Jeroen Meus. One of the books I ‘ve got from him is Jeroen Kookt. It is really a great book!

 High class cookbooks for the more refined cuisine that I also like are: Pure Provenceby Wout Bru; Guy van Cauteren’s ‘t Laurierblad; Rick Stein’s Seafood Odyssey(or any of his seafood books) ; Cees Helder’s Cees Helder, etc….

And there are many many more. But as I said before, pick up that book before buying it!

What’s your favorite Cookbook?