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Cookbooks
Cookbooks are one of the few kinds of book that get used rather than read. A good cookbook ends up stained, loses its spine and survives three moves anyway.
Our selection is curated, not bought by volume. What decides is whether a book actually adds something: the standard works other books refer back to, the titles that changed how food is cooked, and the ones made so well that they work as well in a restaurant kitchen as at home.
The department is arranged in nine parts. Cuisines & Cultures sorts by geography. In Europe: Nordic Countries & Sweden, France, Italy, Spain and Britain & Ireland. Beyond it: Japan, Korea, China & Southeast Asia, South Asia, The Middle East, Africa, Latin America and USA, plus Rest of the World for what does not yet fill a shelf of its own.
Ingredients & Techniques starts instead from what is cooked and how: meat and charcuterie, fish and seafood, vegetables, pasta and pizza, grilling, fermentation and cheese. Bread & Pastry covers sourdough, patisserie, cakes and desserts. Drinks holds wine, beer, cocktails and coffee.
Reference Books gathers the reference literature, Learn to Cook the books that build the foundations, and Everyday food the dinners that have to be ready on a weeknight.
Restaurants & Chefs and Food literature stand slightly apart. These are books read on the sofa as often as they are used at the stove, meaning restaurant documents, chef memoirs, food history, reporting from the restaurant industry and guides.
The selection is in English and includes international editions that are rarely stocked by general bookshops.
Every book here is chosen by hand. We do not buy by volume and do not take a title on because it is popular, but because it adds something no other book on the shelf already does.
A number of them are marked The Kitchen Lab Selection. Those are the ones we think belong on a cookbook shelf whatever you cook. The standard works everything else relates to, the books that changed how food is cooked, a few that have not yet had time to become classics but that we would still argue belong there, and a couple that are simply too good not to own.
Every book in our range is selected by hand. We do not buy for volume and we do not stock a title simply because it is popular, but because it adds something that no other book on the shelf already does.
A selection of them are marked The Kitchen Lab Selection. These are the books we believe should be on a cookbook shelf regardless of what you cook. The standard works against which everything else is measured, the books that changed how food is cooked, some that have not yet had time to become classics but which we nevertheless insist belong there, and a couple that are included simply because they are too good not to own.
