Every once in a while, a great cookbook comes along! And it's almost time for spring baking.

Buy Tartine  

This year, in our house, we're cooking our version of Suzanne Goin's succotash. Of course Suzanne Goin doesn't call it succotash; in her book Sunday Suppers at Luques, she calls it sweet corn, green cabbage and bacon. We call it succotash because we throw in some lima beans and way more butter.

As Recommended by Nora Ephron

Buy Sunday Suppers at Lucques
 

I've said it before, but I'm in awe of Alice Medrich. She was an early chocolate evangelist in the Bay Area, who brought us luscious desserts and truffles, inspired by what she had tasted and learned in France. Over the past few years she has written several terrific and award-winning books on chocolate including Bittersweet, Chocolate and the Art of Low-Fat Desserts, and Chocolate Holidays.

Her latest book is a bit of a departure, it's not just about chocolate, but an exploration into the world of high quality ingredients. The chapters in Pure Dessert are focused on the flavors of Milk, Grain, Nuts and Seeds, Fruit, Chocolate, Honey and Sugar, Herbs and Spices, Flowers and Herbs, and Wine, Beer and Spirits. Intriguing, don't you think?

My favorite all time shredded barely holding together cookbook is: The Classic Italian Cookbook by Marcella Hazan.  As far as I'm concerned, you can't make Bolognese without Marcella. (Katherine Reback)

Buy The Classic Italian Cookbook

The cookbook that made people think even dimwits were excellent cooks and 25 years later, it’s still moderne.  Decadent Chocolate Cake, Marbella chicken, it’s that little extra something they always add, whether it’s raisins to the stuffing or olives to the chicken, that just makes things seems a little extra-ordinary and all you have to do is follow the incredibly easy to read and prepare recipes.

Buy The Silver Palate Cookbook

The best for entertaining.  There’s something fanciful about the dips, the colors, the whole way she approaches food.  And it’s all brilliantly simple.

Buy The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook

If we didn’t live in New York or LA (or Tokyo or London), we would have to make something from this cookbook at least once every two weeks, even if we did have to ship some of the ingredients in by mail order.  But it’s the concept of the fusion of the East and West that he does in a way that no one else does, fascinating to read and to experiment with.

Buy Nobu West

Sometimes my husband reads this before he goes to sleep.

Buy Maida Heatter’s Book of Great Chocolate Desserts

Cook What You Love is the closest I may ever get to Melinda and Robert Blanchard's restaurant in Anguilla, but it's close enough. These are, they promise, "simple, flavorful recipes to make again and again" -- and I do. Nothing takes very long; "Reggae Pork" requires 36 minutes of preparation, and 30 of that is the marinating. It calls for just eight ingredients, all easily available. And, oh yeah...delicious.

As Recommended by Jesse Kornbluth on the Huffington Post

Buy Cook What You Love  

In addition to hundreds of brand-new recipes, this Joy is filled with many recipes from all previous editions, retested and reinvented for today's tastes.

Buy The Joy of Cooking

one of the founders of New American cuisine, brought California cookery to the East Coast

Buy A Great American Cook

What a great thing for the fall, a potato cookbook. -ae

Last week I went through a box of recipes I had clipped from the San Francisco Chronicle. I found recipes dating back to the late 90's! I wish I was as good at organizing as I am at hoarding. Reviewing all those clippings, I can safely say I had saved more recipes written by Marlena Spieler than from anyone else. Spieler has been a writer for the Chronicle for ages and has written tons of cookbooks to boot.