The cookbooks highlighted below have earned a place on the bookshelves of some of Los Angeles\u2019s top chefs and restaurateurs \u2014 and are worthy of adding to your personal collection, whether you\u2019re a dedicated home cook sharpening your skills or a casual food lover gleaning dinnertime inspiration. Listed in alphabetical order.<\/p>\n
‘A Platter of Figs and Other Recipes’ by David Tanis<\/p>\n
Recommended by: Luis Sierra of Picala in West Adams<\/p>\n
Chef Luis Sierra keeps two dozen of his most prized cookbooks on a shelf above the pass at Picala, a Spanish restaurant in West Adams<\/a> that opened in April. Raised in New Mexico on a steady diet of red and green chilies, the chef relied on cookbooks and food magazines like Lucky Peach to provide a window into cultures and cuisines unavailable locally.<\/p>\n Though a heavily tabbed copy of Colman Andrews’s Catalan Cuisine ranks near the top of Sierra\u2019s most-used cookbooks, he returns time and again to David Tanis\u2019s seminal ode to simple and seasonal cooking in A Platter of Figs and Other Recipes<\/a>; the chef worked under Tanis at Lulu at the Hammer Museum before opening Picala. <\/p>\n \u201cIt is quintessential California cuisine. It’s that ethos that fine dining does and some of the best mom-and-pop places do. Find really good ingredients and don’t mess it up. Just treat it fairly, don’t try to make it something it’s not,\u201d Sierra said. \u201cIt took me years to figure out what [Tanis] was trying to say.\u201d<\/p>\n ‘Death & Co: Modern Classic Cocktails’ by Alex Day, David Kaplan, and Nick Fauchald<\/p>\n Recommended by: Avish Naran of Pijja Palace in Silver Lake<\/p>\n Pijja Palace’s cookbooks include the influential cocktail guide from Death & Co.<\/p>\n At Avish Naran\u2019s boisterous Indian sports bar, Pijja Palace, in Silver Lake<\/a>, a tightly curated stack of cookbooks is located near the kitchen pass. Titles like Kricket: An Indian-Inspired Cookbook by Will Bowlby and chef Atul Kochhar\u2019s Benares serve as education and inspiration for the restaurant\u2019s mostly non-Indian staff. A copy of Khushbu Shah\u2019s Amrikan, left over from a cookbook launch hosted at the restaurant a few years back, shares a similar diasporic sensibility to Pijja Palace.<\/p>\n Anchoring the teetering titles are a pair of cocktail bibles from the acclaimed New York City bar Death & Co. \u2014 Modern Classic Cocktails <\/a>and Welcome Home <\/a>\u2014 that Naran considers indispensable guides. <\/p>\n \u201cThey teach you the fundamentals of making cocktails. They’re not using hydrocolloids and centrifuges. It’s about appreciating the bottle and the classics,\u201d he said. \u201cWe use them from time to time for inspiration at our restaurant. They give you a blueprint of all the classic cocktails and even encourage you to swap shit out.\u201d<\/p>\n ‘Ducksoup: The Wisdom of Simple Cooking’ by Clare Lattin and Tom Hill<\/p>\n Recommended by: Heather Sperling of Botanica in Silver Lake<\/p>\n Cookbooks subtly add to the ambience at Botanica in Silver Lake<\/p>\n (<\/p>\n Heather Sperling <\/p>\n \/<\/p>\n Courtesy Botanica<\/p>\n )<\/p>\n Heather Sperling, the restaurateur behind Botanica<\/a> and Bar Besito in Silver Lake<\/a>, is a self-proclaimed bibliophile with a penchant for restaurant cookbooks. Stored above Botanica\u2019s bar and service station is a curated collection of her favorites. These titles come from like-minded restaurants that share Botanica’s dedication to simplicity and seasonality, including works from Prune in New York City, Lula Cafe in Chicago, and the Bay Area\u2019s Zuni Cafe and Chez Panisse Cafe. <\/p>\n \u201cI love having those around as a way to remind us of the places that we view as both peers and inspiration,\u201d Sperling said. Additionally, Sperling uses the cookbooks to facilitate conversations around food and cooking with her chefs.<\/p>\n Of the hundreds of cookbooks that Sperling has come across, it\u2019s the collection of recipes from the restaurant Ducksoup in London that\u2019s made a lasting impression. <\/p>\n \u201cDucksoup: The Wisdom of Simple Cooking<\/a> is the one that I’ve given to every chef who has ever worked for me,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is a simple and quietly excellent book of great cooking with some lovely simple stories and unbelievably good food that just captures a sensibility that I aspire to, which is just cooking lovely, thoughtful, compelling, unfussy food in a way that feels very full of heart and full of intention.\u201d<\/p>\n Support Southern California’s food scene<\/p>\n \n From neighborhood gems to can’t-miss restaurants, your donation helps LAist bring you the latest discoveries, guides, and flavors that make Southern California unique.\n <\/p>\n ‘Josey Baker Bread’ by Josey Baker<\/p>\n Recommended by: Tyler Wells of Bar Betsy in Altadena<\/p>\n Ever since the Eaton Fire wiped out restaurateur Tyler Wells\u2019s cookbook collection, he\u2019s been intentionally rebuilding it with mostly secondhand copies and displaying the titles on the shelves at his all-day restaurant Bar Betsy in Altadena<\/a>. Wells described his growing collection as \u201cquite aspirational,\u201d consisting \u201cmostly of restaurants that I adore and look up to\u201d and written by experts with a singular perspective and style. <\/p>\n Among his most prized cookbooks is Josey Baker Bread <\/a>by Josey Baker, the chef and owner of The Mill in San Francisco<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI really adore baking, and it was something I never really had formal training in, so I’m largely self-taught. This book just takes you from nothing \u2014 here’s how you make the simplest loaf pan loaf with yeast \u2014 all the way to free-form bread,\u201d Wells said. \u201cIt’s so down to Earth; it’s not geared for a professional baker. I learned more from that book than probably any other cookbook I’ve read.\u201d<\/p>\n ‘The French Laundry Cookbook’ by Michael Ruhlman, Susie Heller, and Thomas Keller<\/p>\n Recommended by: Dave Beran of Seline in Santa Monica<\/p>\n Seline’s salute to gastronomic literature includes over 100 cookbooks.<\/p>\n When chef Dave Beran conceptualized his \u201cbook wall\u201d \u2014 an expansive library with over 100 cookbooks prominently displayed in the open kitchen at Seline in Santa Monica<\/a> \u2014 providing inspiration and education for him and his team, as well as creating a sense of home, comfort, and curiosity for diners, was at the forefront.<\/p>\n While Beran admits that The French Laundry Cookbook,<\/a> a comprehensive collection of recipes and philosophies from chef Thomas Keller\u2019s legendary restaurant in Yountville, California, feels dated in many ways, its impact can\u2019t be understated. <\/p>\n \u201cI remember reading it when I first started working in 2003. It was just such a clear defining point of this is why it’s important to teach, and this is why it’s important to pay attention and be a sponge in a kitchen,\u201d Beran said. \u201cI think if you’re completely blind to fine dining in a sense of \u2018Where’s the value in this thing that I feel like I’ve had 100 times,\u2019 that’s the book to read.\u201d<\/p>\n ‘Six Seasons: A New Way with Vegetables’ by Joshua McFadden and Martha Holmberg<\/p>\n Recommended by: Cl\u00e9mence de Lutz of Petitgrain Boulangerie in Santa Monica<\/p>\n Take a peek beneath the gleaming pastry case at Santa Monica’s Petitgrain Boulangerie <\/a>to spot a few of chef-owner Cl\u00e9mence de Lutz\u2019s tallest cookbooks. Selected from her personal collection that numbers more than 400, these oversized titles pull double duty: they elegantly separate the bakery\u2019s kitchen from the storefront while hiding unsightly coffee supplies. As a self-taught baker, de Lutz leaned heavily on cookbooks for foundational knowledge. <\/p>\n \u201cI would buy used cookbooks from the Culinary Institute of America or some of the other more professional culinary schools, and I would tool around and give myself a curriculum,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n These days, de Lutz favors cookbooks rooted in West Coast ingredients, especially Six Seasons<\/a> by Joshua McFadden and Martha Holmberg. <\/p>\n \u201cI appreciated when I first saw the book that it said \u2018six seasons\u2019 because here in California, there’s so much overlap between summer and fall. We shouldn’t just think about winter, spring, summer, and fall,\u201d she said. \u201cI appreciate that it’s not precious; it’s good, succinct information. We should all be cooking more vegetables for their flavor at their peak.\u201d<\/p>\n ‘Zahav: A World of Israeli Cooking’ by Michael Solomonov and Steven Cook<\/p>\n Recommended by: Eric Greenspan of Mish Delicatessen in Mid-City<\/p>\n At Mid-City\u2019s Mish Delicatessen, chef-owner Eric Greenspan says the cookbooks tell \u201cthe story of the evolution \u2014 past, present, and future \u2014 of the Mish menu.\u201d<\/p>\n (<\/p>\n Courtesy Mish Delicatessen<\/p>\n )<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787782449_360_.png\")
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