The cookbooks that inspired the chef’s culinary career

Love cookbooks? Possibly not as much as Neil Perry, whose collection runs into the thousands. He lets us in on his current reading list.

I still have the first cookbook I bought, in 1978. It was called Great Chefs of France and recorded fabulous recipes of a cuisine that I love. What really thrilled me though was how this book told the stories of the people and the passions behind the food. I’ve been madly collecting cookbooks from all over the world ever since and now have about 2500 in my library. I revisit them often because knowing recipes and ingredients is one thing but the inspiration to tell a story with food is what makes a great cook. At the moment, I’ve got four wonderful books on my desk at home (yes, they’re all open). Carnivores who love cooking should have their own copy of Meat: The Ultimate Companion (2018) by Australian butcher and entrepreneur Anthony Puharich and food writer Libby Travers. It’s a fantastic reference for all things meat – the history, breeds and cuts, with beautifully shot recipes and techniques covering birds, sheep, pigs, cattle and wild animals – but it’s also a good read. The thoughts of Puharich and his butcher father, Victor, after whom his famous Sydney shop, Victor Churchill, is partly named, have been put into lovely words that make it so much more than a cookbook. Etxebarri (2018) by Juan Pablo Cardenal and Jon Sarabia tells of “the master of the flame” Bittor Arguinzoniz, chef and owner of the Michelin-starred Etxebarri restaurant in Spain. There are a number of awesome – and I mean awesome – recipes at the back but the first 196 pages are about who Arguinzoniz is as a person, which is really inspiring. I read it having had several great meals at Etxebarri – it’s one of my favourite restaurants – but I promise you’ll feel excited about firing up the barbecue. It’s no surprise to chefs that fermentation is a growing trend. Apart from the probiotic health benefits, playing with fermentation in the kitchen is fun and eating your own kimchi, sauerkraut and bread is a joy. The Noma Guide to Fermentation (2018) was written by luminaries of the food scene René Redzepi, chef and co-owner of Noma in Copenhagen, and David Zilber, the genius who runs the restaurant’s acclaimed fermentation lab, but their book makes the process of fermentation so easy that even amateur cooks will become accomplished in no time. I have long considered Fuchsia Dunlop my go-to writer for depth of understanding of Chinese cooking. In Land of Fish and Rice: Recipes From the Culinary Heart of China (2016) she beautifully explores the food of the lower Yangtze region, which is also known as Jiangnan. When you get to the recipes, they are wonderful: the photos jump off the page and I want to cook and eat the meat, poultry, vegetables, tofu, soups, rice, noodles and dumplings immediately. This is Chinese cooking at its best – prepared in the home. When you can confidently cook 20 to 30 of the book’s more complex dishes, you’ll be cooking like a master. But even masters can aspire to something greater in their kitchen. That’s the beauty of a new cookbook and why I’ll keep my collection growing forever.