14 Cookbooks Anthony Bourdain Highly Recommended – Tasting Table

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Whether you’re a cookbook fan, an Anthony Bourdain fan, or both, a perusal of Bourdain’s highly recommended cookbooks is quite a culinary journey. They’ll take you behind the scenes of some great restaurants and showcase all sorts of classic, modern, and fusion cuisine, as well as spectacular techniques and culinary gastronomy. Bourdain cultivated friendships with many of the authors, and idolized the ones he didn’t get to meet.

Among the cookbooks on our list are those that Anthony Bourdain listed among his favorite and most-influential food-related books, ones he believed in enough to publish through his imprint at Ecco Books — some, he even wrote the introductions. In these books, you’ll see the tendrils of Bourdain’s inspiration in several as well as the books that touched him. There’s even one he was gifted during the early days of being a cook that clearly influenced his food writing style with wit, humor, and even journalistic cadence. You can’t help but think of Bourdain and see what shaped him, and how he influenced others as you peruse these 14 cookbooks that he highly recommended.

It’s not surprising that Anthony Bourdain was a fan of “Le Bernardin Cookbook: Four Star Simplicity.” After all, the author, Eric Ripert, was one of Bourdain’s closest friends. You may recognize Ripert from the episodes he did with Bourdain in the television series “Parts Unknown.”

New York’s Le Bernardin seafood restaurant is known for creating simple dishes that wow the tastebuds, and this cookbook showcases that simplicity with its classic French recipes. Ripert is a chef and co-owner, while the other author, Maguy Le Coze is another co-owner. Bourdain revered Ripert as a chef and appreciated the perfection and austereness of his recipes. Still, reviewers say that some of the ingredients and techniques may present a challenge for home chefs.

This cookbook starts out with a history of the restaurant and explains how to purchase the best seafood as well as to teach a variety of fish-cooking techniques. There are also plenty of recipes for salads, vegetable side dishes, appetizers, shellfish, and desserts.

“La Cuisine du Marche” drew on recipes from long-gone French bistros for inspiration. The chef who wrote it, Paul Bocuse, was a Michelin-starred French chef. He was also one of Anthony Bourdain’s idols. Bourdain was humbled to finally get to meet and share a meal with Bocuse when he visited Lyon, France, on “Parts Unknown.”

The recipes themselves are absolutely delicious, but Bocuse assumes you’ve already mastered many cooking techniques and doesn’t go into the level of detail you might need to be able to pull off these recipes without experience. Even Bourdain who graduated from the Culinary Institute of America said that some of these recipes were beyond his abilities. Many of the recipes he admired from the pictures continued to taunt him with their complexity, but he still held them on a pedestal. Another thing to note is that, if you find this out-of-print cookbook, it will likely be written in French, a language that Bourdain said he spoke and understood decently enough to flub through the recipes.

An older cookbook that Anthony Bourdain held in high esteem was “The Epicurean,” which hailed from 1893. The author, Charles Ranhofer, was once a chef for the still-famous Delmonico’s in New York City. Even if the average person reading the book has no intention of making and presenting foods as fancy as those that late-1800s chefs might, it’s still interesting to read about all the props and decorative elements that went into creating some of the meals that Ranhofer made. Plus, the cookbook is a historical wonder.

Not only does this cookbook contain an encyclopedic-level of culinary knowledge, it’s a brick of a book with over 3,500 recipes. It also includes wine pairings, food preparation techniques of all sorts, and explanations of meat cuts. To make it even more appealing, it’s filled with around 800 gorgeous black and white woodcut drawings to go along with the knowledge and recipes. It’s a book to sit down and read, and the recipes are written in paragraph format, which may be challenging for some modern cooks but works just fine for others.

The “The French Laundry Cookbook” is one made to inspire and feed chef’s fantasies. It is a lavish showcase of culinary ambition that awes you from the moment that you peruse the table of contents. It had been a long-held dream of Anthony Bourdain’s to get to try food from the owner and chef of The French Laundry and author of the book, Thomas Keller. So, Bourdain and Eric Ripert visited The French Laundry restaurant in Napa Valley together in “A Cook’s Tour,” where they enjoyed an impressive and beautifully-plated tasting menu.

Bourdain always admired Keller’s writing, and you get plenty of that from the cookbook as he discusses everything from blinis to Hollandaise sauce, agnolotti, and truffles to staff meals, offal, lambers, and cheesemakers. The recipes are often complex, involving multiple recipes to make up one fancy, carefully-plated dish involving stencils, molds, and sauces galore. The color photos are inspiring, and even if you don’t have the patience to make these elaborate dishes, it makes an excellent coffee table book.

“Hawker Fare” is a cookbook that Bourdain published himself, overseeing the entire production process. He also wrote the preface. In it, the author, James Shyabout, highlights street food from his childhood in Laos. While Anthony Bourdain had an appreciation for finer, fancier food, he was also a notorious fan of getting to know a new city by trying its street food.

Lao cuisine isn’t as well-known as others, but Bourdain explained that many of us have unknowingly eaten it in Thai restaurants. He was excited to see this cookbook make a bigger name for interesting and flavorful Lao cuisine. The book is also one part memoir. Bourdain says in the preface that “[t]his book will make you a better person. That’s before you even try any of the recipes.”

Shyabout explains Lao food, Laos, and his immigration story before finally delving into a wide array of recipes from the street food scene of both Laos and Thailand. The author explains many of the ingredients as well as which brands give the most authentic results. Granted, some of the ingredients like pepper wood just may not be easily available, which means you may not end up cooking as many recipes from this book as you’d like.

Anthony Bourdain was a sucker for great cookbooks from restaurants, especially when they gave behind-the-scenes glimpses at the dishes. So, Bourdain enjoyed “The Ivy: The Restaurant and Its Recipes” as a personal tour of how The Ivy restaurant in London operates. He also enjoyed the recipes. Bourdain considered the author of the cookbook, food journalist A.A. Gill, to be a loyal friend.

In “The Ivy,” Gill gushes with affection for The Ivy restaurant and tells its story at the beginning of the cookbook. He considers it a place of beauty as well as a restaurant that combines theatrics with its meals. There’s more here about the day-to-day workings of the restaurant than there are recipes. So, it’s the type of book that you sit down to read to learn about what happens in the kitchen. Still, the recipes are a delight, including classics like lobster thermidor, crab cakes, chicken masala, and sticky toffee pudding. Having been written in 1999, it may not represent everything that’s on the menu now and look a bit basic, but it’s an enjoyable cookbook nonetheless.

Another cookbook that Anthony published and promoted was Roy Choi’s “L.A. Son: My Life, My City, My Food.” Bourdain and Choi became close friends, and you can see them eating Korean food in Los Angeles’ Koreatown during the very first season of “Parts Unknown.” It’s another cookbook Bourdain supported that married the idea of a memoir and cookbook. Readers say that the cookbook itself is edgy and hard to put down, keeping you entertained and laughing throughout.

Having immigrated from South Korea to Los Angeles as a child and being exposed to many food cultures, it’s no wonder Choi’s cookbook is full of fusion food. One of Choi’s earliest claims to fame was his Korean-Mexican taco food truck, Kogi. The recipes here are often an eclectic mix of cultural flavors, like kimchi and pork belly stuffed pupusas. However, you’ll also find recipes from a variety of cultural food traditions, including dishes like satay, gumbo, curry, chicken picatta, and chili spaghetti. He even offers perfect instant ramen recipes. So, there’s something here for practically everyone.

Anthony Bourdain never shied away from eating animal parts that many of us throw out, which is why it’s no surprise he was besotted by Fergus Henderson’s “The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating” cookbook. Fellow food journalist A.A. Gill introduced Bourdain to the offal-infused dishes at St. John restaurant, and it became one of Bourdain’s favorite London haunts. Bourdain also cultivated a friendship with the restaurant’s founder. Bourdain was also the one who got his cult classic cookbook published in the U.S., writing the introduction for the 2004 version.

As you can imagine about a cookbook featuring snouts, heads, and marrow, it’s far from pretentious. Luckily, it’s not all offal-based, with other great dishes including soups, salads, ordinary meat dishes, vegetables, breads, and desserts. Bourdain argues in his introduction that this cookbook proves that some British food really is good. However, many reviewers comment on the impossibility of making many of these recipes. Luckily, even if you can’t find a butcher or Asian market to sell you the whole beast to make dishes like rolled pig’s spleen and jellied tripe, you can still manage to pull off tamer dishes like mashed parsnips or Tom’s cherry trifle. And you’ll certainly want to try the roast bone marrow and parsley salad, which Bourdain considered a top contender for a death row last meal.

Those who had visited Bowien’s Mission Chinese Food Restaurants were excited for the thrill of eating at the restaurant to translate into a cookbook:”The Mission Chinese Food Cookbook.” Anthony Bourdain was happy to publish the cookbook and write the foreword, where he explained that author Danny Bowien was an immigrant who was helping redefine American cuisine with addictively flavorful and often fiery dishes. Bowien considered Bourdain to be a mentor.

Bowien himself isn’t even Chinese, as he was adopted from South Korea, grew up in Oklahoma, and has lived both in San Francisco and New York. However, he loves Chinese food and created a bold fusion cuisine that marries many of the flavors he loves. Bowien’s fusion and complete reinvention of foods provides you with some unexpected recipes, like kung pao pastrami, matcha noodles, tiki pork belly, and sweet potato leaves with kabocha squash. Most of these recipes aren’t ones you can throw together in 15 minutes, as they’re often restaurant-level recipes. Regardless of whether you manage to cook from it or not, reviewers say it’s a cookbook that’s hard to stop reading.

While Anthony Bourdain personally knew or at least met most of the chefs who wrote cookbooks on this list, he never met Howard Mitcham. Instead, Mitcham’s 1975 “The Provincetown Seafood Cookbook” was one that Bourdain adored ever since a friend gave it to him when he started working as a cook at Flagship in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Bourdain found it so influential that he wrote the introduction for the 2018 reprint.

The book is full of stories about the people and sea creatures of Provincetown as well as its folklore. As such, you get recipes for and tales about all sorts of sea creatures you may not have heard of, like goosefish and sea serpents. The writing draws you in by being entertaining, and seems to have influenced Bourdain’s witty writing style quite a bit, even having a similar rhythm at times. The recipes are also great tasting as well as fun to read, with lots of seafood classics, like Mitcham’s famous haddock amandine. There are chapters on shellfish, crustaceans, soups and stews, seafood symphonies, and fish. Plus, you get commentary on how to do things like open a quahaug without slashing open your hand while making Phil Cook’s Portuguese quahaug pie.

“Treme: Stories and Recipes from the Heart of New Orleans” is the spinoff cookbook from the HBO TV show “Treme.” Bourdain was not only involved in writing and shooting the TV show, but he also published the cookbook and wrote the foreword. The TV show showcases New Orleans after hurricane Katrina, including much focus on its food. After all, you can’t think about New Orleans without thinking about its food. So, the cookbook was an obvious next step for New-Orleans-born Lolis Eric Elie after he wrote the show.

While not all from New Orleans, you’ll likely recognize several of the chefs and restaurants who provided recipes for this cookbook. For example, Emeril Lagasse has a recipe here for tuna and butter lettuce wraps; Eric Ripert provides Le Bernardin’s pounded tuna with foie gras recipe; and Momofuku lends its poached eggs with caviar recipe. Readers enjoy discovering more about the culinary culture of New Orleans as well as learning new cooking techniques and recipes. It’s well written and hard to put down, because it’s full of interesting stories. Plus, it contains photos from the TV series.

Anthony Bourdain might not have had a lot of patience for vegans and vegetarians, but he did stand behind José Andrés’ “Vegetables Unleashed” cookbook so much that he published it. According to the introduction, Andrés himself isn’t a vegetarian and enjoys a wide range of foods. So, this is a vegetarian cookbook that even a meat eater can love. Andrés considered Bourdain to be a mentor, and they appeared together in season 12 of “Parts Unknown.” Bourdain also published Andrés’ non-cookbook book, “We Fed an Island.” The cookbook was written with the help of Matt Goulding, a food journalist with whom Bourdain did many book and video projects.

The Spanish-American chef infuses his writing with his philosophies and passions regarding plant-based cooking. He also showcases inventive recipes that gather inspiration from Spain and around the world. Readers end up learning quite a lot from Andrés’ food wisdom and techniques, whether it’s roasting veggies to make richer stocks or how to cryoconcentrate carrot juice. However, many of the recipes are approachable and doable without expending an unreasonable amount of time, even from those who aren’t big cooks. If you’re looking for a cookbook to teach you new things about cooking vegetables and to get you excited about them, then this deserves a place in your collection. Name a vegetable, and there’s probably a recipe for it here.

“Wd~50” is another cookbook named after a New York restaurant. Unfortunately, by the time Anthony Bourdain published the cookbook, the restaurant had closed. However, it manages to capture the restaurant’s philosophy in print and its last days in vivid pictures. Chef and author Wylie Dufresne is well known for his mad scientist work with molecular gastronomy, winning a James Beard award for being New York City’s best chef in 2013 and being a Michelin-star chef. Being a wizard with eggs, it’s not surprising Bourdain featured Dufresne on an egg episode of “The Mind of a Chef.”

Dufresne’s cookbook recipes are works of art, which are featured in full-colored pictures. The chemistry behind and composition of these dishes are often complicated and the ingredient list complex. It’s the type of book you get to read and enjoy the pictures while fueling your dreams and ambitions, but there’s no judgement if you never manage to make anything from it. There are certainly good instructions for carrying out the recipes. However, readers often have to gather up unconventional equipment and ingredients to give some of these recipes a try. So, it requires forethought, time, and a little courage to tackle them.

We can’t mention influential cookbooks for Anthony Bourdain without listing “White Heat,” which he referenced often. Through his cookbook, Chef Marco Pierre White managed to make England’s restaurant scene look sexy through its black and white photos that dripped with rockstar-level cool aloofness. However, the scenes also showed chefs and cooks that looked like the ones Bourdain worked in New York with rather than poised French chefs. White and his kitchen crew looked familiar: young, stressed, lean, and heading for burnout. So, White’s gritty voice and chainsmoking habits was one Bourdain and his fellow restaurant workers needed to experience to feel seen. The two eventually met and they were mutually inspiring to each other.

Just as the cookbook’s behind-the-scenes restaurant images by photographer Bob Carlos Clarke are works of art, so are the recipes. Although, some of the ingredients may be difficult to source. Too, the recipes are quite ambitious, often requiring classic French cooking techniques that don’t spare the beginner by offering simplified instructions. So, for many, this will end up being a coffee table book, but that’s just fine.