Best baking and cookbooks to buy

I own too many, heavy on the coffee-table ones with gorgeous photos of France and Italy, plus many books of Indian, Middle Eastern, and vegetarian recipes. Then there are my "chef" cookbooks, from Tyler Florence, Ina, Julia, etc. Plus "TV" ones, as from QVC.

And you know what, OP? I use the Internet now.

That's my recommendation.

I like books like these.

I was able to venture into cooking Indian/Pakistani food with this cookbook, and Arabian cooking with the Complete Middle Eastern Cookbook.

Plus being a pasta fanatic, I have way to many Italian cookbooks to single out only one or two.

Bump.

"The Harry's Bar Cookbook" by Arrigo Cipriani

"The New York Times Cookbook" by Craig Claiborne

"The Frugal Gourmet Cooks American" by Jeff Smith

"The Fanny Farmer Cookbook" by Marion Cunningham

The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum will teach you everything you ever wanted to know about cake making.

Maida Heatter's book on cookies does the same for cookies. I've never had one of her cookie recipes fail.

Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone for, yes, vegetarian cooking without the lecture, but lots of useful advice as to what seasonings go with which vegetable.

Steve Raichlen's Barbeque Bible for grilling anything from anywhere.

Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Basics if you have no idea what you're doing and are tired of take-out.

Julia Child's The Way to Cook is good if you have to make a big traditional meal that.cannot.fail. Lots of pictures, lots of easy-to-understand explanations of why you're doing what you're doing.

I do use the Internet a fair amount, but if you don't know what you're doing, it's good to have a few reliable cookbooks. The Internet tends to skew toward photogenic food that may or may not taste good.

Anything by Nigel Slater.

He writes so beautifully and his recipes are wonderful. He's just a joyous, talented and wonderful man.

Agree about Nigel Slater, and Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, which is amazing. For baking, David Lebovitz excellent.

Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cooking has recipes ranging from very simple to complex yet easily attainable. She taught me how to cook rice well and make flavorful vegetable side dishes. There are no duds in this cookbook.

Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking is indispensable.

R1 here. Oops! I just bought Stanley Tucci's cookbook (I had to get the recipe for Mama Rosa's Sauce, from the Tuscany episode)!

But at least this one went straight to my Kindle!