Other People's Cookbooks

This is (a very poor cellphone shot of) the library in the offices of Le Bernardin, Eric Ripert’s four-star temple to seafood in Midtown Manhattan. We did our interview for the book in the conference room, which is underground in the labyrinth below the restaurant. The books, which are the overflow from Ripert’s extensive home cookbook collection, lined an entire wall, and my eyes kept going to them, trying to read the spines and get a sense of his tastes, which range from the giant (and in my experience impenetrable)  tome from NOMA to Molly O’Neill’s homey New York Cookbook. He doesn’t cook from them, of course. They are there for Ripert and his staff to get inspiration or enjoy some armchair travel. This makes me feel better about my own over-stuffed cookbook collection, which already contains more recipes than I could prepare in a lifetime. Unlike Chef Ripert, I do cook from books, often. But even though I have shelves full, I keep returning to a few favorites (some of which I can spot in this photo).  What are some of yours?