Ah, cooking—one of the most joyous parts of life! Some of us are born with natural talent, but not all of us can be so lucky.
For those in desperate need of help in the kitchen or those who already know how to cook but need new recipes, the world of high-end cookbooks welcomes you.
Host your friends for a French food night, or try a sumptuous steak recipe. Bring the tastes of fine dining to your own table and travel the world with these 12 fine dining cookbooks every home chef just has to try.
See also: Weekly Recipe: H Woo Lee's Bone Marrow Pappardelle
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So, you’ve become familiar with your kitchen and you’re ready to step up your game. This five-book series helps adventurous foodies take their culinary skills to the next level. From Nathan Myhrvold, Chris Young and Maxime Bilet, this veritable encyclopedia is a guide to the contemporary cooking technique that instructs and inspires you to use sous vide machines, vacuum-chamber sealers, centrifuges and torches, high-precision scales and other equipment that before its time was not often seen in households. Thousands of photographs help explain the science and make sense of the art of cooking.
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Based on the fine dining restaurant in NYC’s Flatiron District imagined by chef Daniel Humm, Eleven Madison Park: The Cookbook captures Humm’s delicate cuisines so you can recreate the flavors in your own home. The book is divided into four seasons, with recipes to match. Dishes include the restaurant’s signature black and white cookies, honey-glazed duck with apricot and fennel, and sturgeon with smoked cream cheese and caviar.
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Noma: Time and Place in Nordic Cuisine is inspired by the 12-table eatery Noma near Copenhagen. Chef Rene Redzepi has imagined dishes unique, complicated and delicious, but you can decide which ones you like best. Create his sous vide reindeer shoulder with celery root, or try the carrot cake-coated lingonberry sorbet. His dishes may not be easy to make, but they’ll definitely be delicious.
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Grant Achatz’s award-winning Chicago restaurant is recreated in Alinea, which innovates on the familiar tastes of diners. These recipes are also categorized by season, with exciting dishes like yolk drops with asparagus, lemon and black pepper, bison with beets, and the truffle explosion.
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With a name this comedic, you know you’re in for a good time and some delicious food. A tribute to the three-star Michelin restaurant Osteria Francescana in Italy, this book highlights how original and creative chefs truly can be. These recipes aren’t for the shy, but if you’re ready for some osso bucco or aubergine parmigiana, roll up your sleeves and dig in!
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This book is full of David Chang’s Asian cuisines as featured across three of his restaurants. Combining Japanese, Korean and Chinese cuisines for a Western audience, Chang and partner Peter Meehan bring you step-by-step instructions to make the ramen broth from Noodle Bar, lychee and shaved foie grass from Ko, and much more.
See also: Weekly Recipe: Croque Madame by Nice Matin's Chef Eric Starkman
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Thomas Keller has several restaurants and is an expert in fine dining. His book offers 150 recipes from the French Laundry kitchen in Napa Valley. Some of his meticulously-detailed recipes include smoked sturgeon rillettes on an everything bagel, celery root pastrami, steak and potatoes, and more.
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A New Napa Cuisine isn’t just great recipes. It also details Christopher Kostow’s journey to becoming a master chef in North America. The mind behind The Restaurant at Meadowood (which has three Michelin stars) has created an extensive cookbook spotlighting the artisans, gardeners and landscapes of Napa Valley. Impress your friends with his snapper artichoke tiny greens, coal-roasted sturgeon fermented quince, and the chocolate cherry tart.
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Heston Blumenthal is known for combining weird science with fine dining. His restaurant The Fat Duck in the U.K. has three Michelin stars and has been awarded by critics and fine diners alike. Leave your passport at home and try the fantastic cauliflower risotto and flaming sorbet wherever you find a kitchen.
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David Kinch has elevated seemingly unreachable recipes served in Manresa. They’re heavy on seafood and Japanese-influenced. Some of the dishes include the arpege farm egg, fava bean risotto and fig and wild fennel confit.
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Magnus Nilsson is based in Sweden and produces dishes very simple in appearance but complex in taste—perfect for an at-home fine dining experience. Impress yourself by making his capercaillie and coniferous forest, or fermented carrots with grains and grain vinegar.
This text doesn’t address food, but what good is a top-shelf menu at home if it doesn’t come with an exciting cocktail pairing? Winner of the 2015 James Beard Award for the Best Beverage Book and the 2015 IACP Jane Grigson Award, Dave Arnold demystifies the balance of a perfect beverage, taking a look at everything from the shape of your ice to the bubbly content in your spirits and mixers. With recipes that help you deck out your bar cart with homemade additions and step-by-step guides to creating simple sips and pitchers alike, Liquid Intelligence is all you need to master the bar and impress your guests.
Want more recipes and educational instruction but in video form? Check out some of our favorite vegan YouTube chefs, or get inside the mind of Mario Carbone with our rapid-fire interview.
Photography by: Marko Jan / Getty
