So, branching out from Cookware…
I’m curious about Onions’ favorite books on cooking techniques. Yes, I know technique instruction frequently features prominently in cookbooks, but what I mean is books whose primary focii are the techniques themselves or cooking tips, or the broad underlying knowledge beneath the techniques. Is it Pepin’s Ma Technique? Gisselin’s Professional Cooking, Bittman’s How to Cook Everything?
My personal favorite has to be Chef James Peterson’s What’s a Cook to Do? What I love about this book is that it offers hundreds of succinct nuggets any one of which can be read and reflected upon in just a few minutes. Very straightforward and approachable, too. I think Chef Peterson may be one of the planet’s most underappreciated culinary talents. His Sauces and Fish & Shellfish are materpieces.