Restaurant Mimicry – Best Cookbooks for Professional Chefs

cateringcookbookprofessionalrestaurant-mimicry

It's fair to say most cookbooks are designed for the home cook. Not just in terms of quantities but also in terms of technique; it's very common to see recipes – even those written by giants in the catering world – edited "so you can prepare them at home".

Even a high-level book such as Thomas Keller's The French Laundry Cookbook boasts that "all [recipes] have been thoroughly tested in home kitchens".

Do recipe books for restaurant-level chefs exist? I'm not talking about catering or bulk-cooking recipes which focus on event cooking but rather books where the author assumes that you have access to professional-level equipment, unusual/exotic/technical ingredients. Books which actually document the way a restaurant chef would prepare and cook their own food every day.

Best Answer

Disclaimer: Not a professional

Look at what organizations that train professionals use. For example, the Culinary Institute of America publishes The Professional Chef. My understanding is this an instructional text for the institute.

From the introduction of the 8th edition:

The Professional Chef is suited to a variety of teaching situations... Chapter One covers the history of cooking as a profession and examines the skills and attributes of a professional chef and other members of the foodservice profession.