For the culinary and pastry students at San Francisco Cooking School, learning doesn’t stop after class lets out. We encourage our students to broaden their knowledge base and read all they can. I don’t know about you, but a cooking student’s reading list is way more enticing than anything I ever got from my college professors. Check out what our students are reading and add some culinary inspiration to your own summer reading list:
CULINARY
On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen (Harold McGee)
On Food and Cooking is the bible for understanding where our foods come from, what exactly they’re made of, and how cooking transforms them into something new and delicious. This tome is actually on the reading list for both culinary and pastry students. If you are working to be a more intuitive cook, as our students always are, McGee helps by diving well beyond just a recipe.
Kitchen Spanish (Michael Friend & T.J. Loughran)
This is the second book that is on the list for all SFCS students. If you’re going to work in a professional kitchen, knowing a little Spanish could go a long way. Get a jumpstart with this quick phrase guide of kitchen and culinary terms.
The New Food Lover’s Companion (Herbst & Herbst)
This reference guide defines and explains everything from unusual ingredients to meat cuts, cooking tools, and techniques.
Cooking for Geeks: Real Science, Great Hacks, and Good Food (Jeff Potter)
More than just a cookbook, Cooking for Geeks digs into the science behind what happens to food while it’s cooking. Once you discover what makes a recipe work, you can improvise and start creating your own unique dishes!
Heat (Bill Buford)
Bill Buford left his job at The New Yorker to pursue adventures as kitchen slave, line cook, pasta-maker, and apprentice to a Dante-quoting butcher in Tuscany. An entertaining and accurate tale of what it’s really like to throw yourself into the heat of a professional kitchen, Heat is a fun read for an aspiring cook.
How I Learned to Cook: Culinary Educations from the World’s Greatest Chefs (Witherspoon/Meehan)
Tales from the trenches, personal stories of culinary discoveries, back of the house follies, and moments of triumph, this colorful collection of stories is proof that even masterful chefs started somewhere.
Jacques Pépin’s Complete Techniques (Pépin/Perer)
A comprehensive, instructive, presentation of classic cooking techniques you’ll be learning in class, complete with step-by-step photography. This is a great resource to turn to when you need a little lesson refresher on how to de-bone a chicken, or want to find a recipe to pair that perfect béarnaise sauce with.
Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking (Michael Ruhlman)
At SFCS, we believe in teaching students to rely on culinary intuition rather than recipes. Knowing some basic ratios and fundamental techniques is a big part of that. Ratios are the starting point from which a thousand variations begin.
Sauces: Classic and Contemporary Sauce Making (James Peterson)
One of our most popular rec classes is Sauce Fundamentals, and we’re not surprised. The right sauce can elevate a dish from good to unforgettable.
Slow Food: The Case for Taste (Carlo Petrini)
What began as a protest against the building of McDonald’s near the Spanish Steps in Rome has grown into an international Slow Food Movement that is as much about food policy and social reform as it is about rediscovering the pleasures of la dolce vita.
Zuni Cafe Cookbook (Judy Rodgers)
An incredible teaching cookbook, the Zuni Café Cookbook shows you how to think about cooking, not just how to follow recipes, although of course, there are some phenomenal recipes in there too (famous Zuni Roast Chicken, we’re looking at you).
Taste What You’re Missing (Barb Stuckey)
One of the first workshops all of our professional students go through is a lesson on tasting with food developer, Barb Stuckey, because we think it’s important to understand how taste works before you can delve into how to balance flavors and make delicious food. This book demystifies the science of taste and reveals truths about flavor perceptions you’d never believe.
PASTRY
How Baking Works (Paula Figoni)
When it comes down to it, the essence of baking is chemistry. Understanding the principles and science behind baking could very well be the difference between an airy, mile-high biscuit and a biscuit that could be used as a hockey puck.
The Pastry Chef’s Companion (Glenn Rinsky)
The Pastry Chef’s Companion is like a cross between a dictionary and encyclopedia for all things pastry, baking, and confections-related. It even gives phonetic pronunciations for all those fancy French terms.
Jane Grigson’s Fruit Book (Jane Grigson)
When we’re at a loss on what to make with all that in-season fruit we hauled from the farmer’s market we turn to this cookbook. With recipes for 46 different fruits, Jane Grigson’s Fruit Book is great for discovering new fruits and ways to use them.
Bread: A Baker’s Book of Techniques and Recipes (Jeffrey Hamelman)
With explanations of complex techniques, helpful illustrations, and nearly 150 detailed, step-by-step recipes, Bread is the ultimate resource for almost any variety of bread you can imagine.
Nancy Silverton’s Breads from the La Brea Bakery (Nancy Silverton)
Nancy Silverton divulges all of her bread secrets in this cookbook. If it’s specifics and painstakingly detailed and through instructions you want, you’ll find pages and pages of it here, from how to nurture your natural sourdough starter to how to transform that starter into brag-worthy bread.
Nancy Silverton’s Pastries from the La Brea Bakery (Nancy Silverton)
From crisps and cobblers, to cookies, doughnuts, and confections, this book is a treasure trove of familiar, uncomplicated, and satisfying recipes. Our copy is well worn and earmarked.
Down and Out in Paris and London (George Orwell)
Our pastry chef instructor Nicole Plue majored in English Lit in college, and her love of words and writing is apparent in the addition of this Orwell title on her reading list. Down and Out in Paris and London was actually on the reading list Plue was given on her own first day of culinary school. “It gave me some comfort that I was on the right path,” she remembered. “Orwell worked as a cook and dishwasher and there are a few passages about the grueling nature of the work that I love. There are also some insights in there about class and diner versus staff that resonate. There’s one story about a dishwasher who runs out and steals a peach to meet a dining request that’s the ultimate act of hospitality.”
Have a favorite piece of food writing or cookbook you can’t live without? Add to our list!
