BOOKS WE LOVE : Tops of the Pots

In this issue we talk about the volumes we most admire in the current crop of cookbooks. But in the interest of fairness, we called up some of the country’s most famous cooks and asked them to name their own all-time favorites. “If you could have only one cookbook for the rest of your life,” we asked, “which would it be?”

Most of the chefs demonstrated the generosity characteristic of truly great cooks. A single book? With this crew, that was asking the impossible.

* Rose Levy Beranbaum, cooking teacher and author of “The Cake Bible” and “Rose’s Celebrations”: “There is a difference between my favorite books and the ones I use the most. For Italian, it’s the Marcella Hazan books. When I need a reference for some basic thing--how long do I cook lobster, how much salt do I put in the water--it’s ‘The Doubleday Cookbook.’ I use ‘Joy’ too. Jacques Pepin’s ‘La Technique’ and ‘La Methode,’ are bibles for most people who teach cooking or who want to know basic technical things. Of course, I love Julia Child’s ‘The Way to Cook,’ but I don’t use it a lot these days. I’ve done some great things from Paula Wolfert’s books. I love the way Maida Heater writes. Another brilliant book, but I don’t do much Mexican cooking, is Rick Bayless’ book. Also, of course, Madeleine Kamman.”

* Giuliano Bugialli, noted food historian, cooking teacher and author of three cookbooks, including the recent “Foods of Tuscany”: “I can’t count mine, no? I think it did not really affect my cooking, but I admire Julia’s (Child), very much.”

* Craig Claiborne, former New York Times food editor and restaurant critic, author of many cookbooks, including “The New York Times Cookbook”: “I think one of the greatest I know is Marcella Hazan’s new book, ‘Essentials of Classic Italian Cookery.’ I found one of my favorite recipes in there that I had never seen printed before, swordfish in salmoriglio sauce. Zarela Martinez, I like her Mexican food book too. I think the all-time cookbook, for God’s sake, is ‘Joy of Cooking.’ Can you believe how many copies of that book have sold? It’s something like 8 million copies. I looked it up several years ago.”

* Nathalie Dupree, television cooking teacher and author of many cookbooks: “The ones I find myself going back to most are the set of books I trained with at the London Cordon Bleu, the ‘Grande Diplome’ series that Anne Willan edited many years ago. Other favorites: I like Flo Braker’s miniatures book, it charms me. The all-time Chinese favorite of mine is that big red Chinese cookbook, ‘The Thousand Recipe Chinese Cookbook,’ by Gloria Miller. It’s an oldie but a goody. Marcella Hazan’s first book too. My favorite Julia Child is ‘The French Chef.’ And Richard Olney, how can one forget Richard Olney when talking about favorite cookbooks? ‘Simple French Cooking,’ of course.”

* Carol Field, author of “The Italian Baker” and “Celebrating Italy”: “Of course Marcella (Hazan) and Giuliano (Bugialli). I’m a great fan of Paul Bertolli’s Chez Panisse book, it’s wonderful food and wonderfully written. I love Joyce Goldstein’s first book. I love to read Mary Simetti. Patience Gray’s ‘Honey From a Weed’ is one of the most fabulous books. Another book I don’t cook from very much, but is really overlooked, is ‘We Called It Macaroni,’ (by Nancy Verde Barr). It’s a lovely, lovely book. Flo Braker’s baking book is fantastic too.”

* Ken Hom, author of many cookbooks including “The Taste of China”: “Probably Escoffier. It has everything in there that you need to know about making anything. I’ve cooked my way through it; it’s my bible.”

* Barbara Kafka, food writer and author of this year’s “Party Food”: “If I were on a desert island and had a kitchen and had to restrict myself to one cookbook, it would be Ali-Bab; the formulas for grand cuisine are the ones I don’t know by heart. It would keep me from going totally dotty. Without a kitchen? Probably something like the old Jim Beard-Helen Evans Brown ‘Outdoor Cooking.’ ”

* Madeleine Kamman, director of School for American Chefs in Napa Valley, and author of many cookbooks including “Making of a Cook” and “In Madeleine’s Kitchen”: “If I had only one book, it probably won’t be a cookbook, but some food history thing. If I had to pick, it would be Freeland-Graves and Peckham’s, ‘Foundations of Food Preparation’--that’s food technology, chemistry and so on. If it’s for recipes, it would be ‘Le Grande Livre du Cuisine,’ by Prosper Montaigne. It’s all the classic cuisine, but with still some of the influences of the terrain in it. From there, you can improvise just about anything you want.

* Wolfgang Puck, chef/owner Spago, Chinois, Granita and author of three cookbooks: “ ‘Larousse Gastronomique.’ It’s the book with the most information in it. Also, I like Waverly Root’s books, where you can just read about food.”

* Alice Waters, chef/owner Chez Panisse and author or co-author of three cookbooks: “If I didn’t have any of Elizabeth David’s books, I don’t know where I’d be. And, of course, I love Richard Olney’s books. If I could have another, it would be Roy Andries de Groot’s ‘The Auberge of the Flowering Hearth.’ ”

* Paula Wolfert, author of four cookbooks including the classic “Couscous and Other Good Food From Morocco”: “I guess I would take my own cookbooks because I would want to save them for my grandchildren. But I don’t know which one--it’s like trying to decide between four children. Actually, I’m the person who’s always waiting for the new cookbook out there. I’ve been through all the classics and absorbed them, but I love reading new books. This year I’ve loved Barbara Kafka’s ‘Party Food,’ Ayla Algar’s ‘Complete Book of Turkish Cooking,’ and Lynne Kasper’s ‘Splendid Table.’ ”