Looking for a cooking 101 textbook

While sadly unable to take courses from cantankerous French chefs at prestigious American culinary institutions, I am still interested in upping my game in the kitchen. To date, I've been cooking based on what I learned from my parents and what tastes good intuitively. However, I want to develop my technique and expand my limited repertoire of standards.

To that end, I'm looking for your food book recommendations; searching the forums didn't turn up what I wanted. I'm not looking for just a cookbook full of recipes, but rather something that also explains how to prepare fundamentals, knife skills, which ingredients combine well and why, etc.

I've been doing some of my own research and a few titles have popped up:

The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons, and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution by Alice Waters

Cook with Jamie: My Guide to Making You a Better Cook by Jamie Oliver

Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan

and of course

Mastering The Art of French Cooking by Julia Child

Thoughts on these? Others? Your experiences as ambitious amateurs?

I don't think that there is any better book for knife skills than http://www.amazon.com/Jacques-Pepins...2435714&sr=8-3 . Alice Waters is great, but she can barely use a knife herself, so using her books would be about ingredients and good, traditional recipes. If you've ever been to her restaurants, you can expect her books to be a bit like them. Mastering is great, but, at least in my opinion, more because it is a cultural icon than a fantastic cookbook. A lot of the recipes strike me as good for the foodstuffs available in the US in the late 60s or early 70s, and the recipes tend to be much heavier than what people eat nowadays. The best cookbook author since Jacques Pepin is James Peterson. His Essentials of Cooking would be a great place to start. There are a lot of pictures of proper knife skills, and the recipes are simple and very good. He is one of the few cookbook writers who seems to get the cooking times right in the book, so you are less likely to end up with disasters as you learn to have a feel for correct doneness. Once you want more, his Fish, Vegetables and Sauces are the absolute best for those particular types of food. He is, in my opinion, miles better than any working chef writing cookbooks. Writing a good one is really a different skill than cooking or running a kitchen, so often the best chefs do not put out the best books. Edit: This is new, and probably great. All his stuff is, and this seems to be his attempt at a cooking bible. http://www.amazon.com/Cooking-James-...2436212&sr=8-1

That looks great. Thanks for the tip, iammatt.

You seem already decided. And quite right you are. But +1 on 'Cooking' by Peterson.

Try Cooking by James Peterson. It's good enough to teach someone the basics of cooking but should still hold some interest for someone more advanced. It's got a lot of photos of technique, which I think is helpful for some folks.

It is also a stepping stone to his other books (all of which are great) should you want to delve deeper into french cooking, soups, sauces, etc.

edit: apparently, I am late to the game on this recommendation and my reading comprehension skills are missing this morning. Consider me a +1k on this - it's a great, great book.

Originally Posted by CDFS

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You seem already decided. And quite right you are. But +1 on 'Cooking' by Peterson.
I wasn't initially, but it's looking like the forum is unanimous on Peterson. If so, who am I to ignore the recommendation?

Originally Posted by SantosLHalper

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It is also a stepping stone to his other books (all of which are great) should you want to delve deeper into french cooking, soups, sauces, etc.

edit: apparently, I am late to the game on this recommendation and my reading comprehension skills are missing this morning. Consider me a +1k on this - it's a great, great book.

Yes, his Sauces book is very comprehensive to say the least, and a good future addition as well.

Originally Posted by Spatlese

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Yes, his Sauces book is very comprehensive to say the least, and a good future addition as well.

I read Sauces cover to cover, if you can believe that. Glorious French Food and Fish and Shellfish are both great. Splendid Soups and Vegetables are both a little less necessary, but still good as references.

Thanks for the recommendations. 'Cooking' should arrive in 4-5 days.

Originally Posted by holymadness

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Thanks for the recommendations. 'Cooking' should arrive in 4-5 days.

I'm a little late to this conversation, but I'll echo the reccomendations of others for "Cooking". The picture layouts showing each step are amazingly helpful. It's far and away my go-to-for-everything cookbook. You chose wisely.