[zappo2938]

I was a professional chef for 17 years, 11 in Michelin star restaurants and 6 as a private yacht chef. I used Cooks Illustrated America's Test Kitchen's[0] cookbooks on the yacht, mostly The Best Recipe. [1] That set of recipes was perfect for what I was doing and freed me from having to think about what to make. There are was so much available I was doing a different dish every night and day for months on end. I always enjoy doing stuff I haven't done before. Bobbing around in the ocean one week in from the last supermarket and another week before access to another decent one, it is nice to have a reliable source of new recipes to plan with. What is really important is that it is one thing that every recipe in a cookbook works, often they don't, and it is another thing that not only does every recipe work but they always have fantastic results. More or less that set of cookbooks made my life so easy, I found a new hobby on the yacht writing code. As for a monthly source, Cook Illustrated and Cooking Light are my favorite sources. As a private chef, I can't make restaurant food everyday for my clients because restaurant food is more or less an unhealthy drug that makes people fat so I'd use Cooking Light for inspiration although the recipes are not as guaranteed for perfect results as the Cooks Illustrated recipes.

[0] https://www.americastestkitchen.com/

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Recipe-Editors-Cooks-Illustrated-Maga...

[ghaff]

Second the recommendation. It's been my go to recipe book for a good decade now. Nothing too adventurous but very solid and reliable. (I think ATK has generally pushed a little further out of a traditional American comfort zone since Kimball departed.)

If I have a criticism of them, it's that they make some things more complex than they need to be for little gain in the final product. They have you cook everything three different ways as a friend puts it. I think they've probably gotten a bit better on this front as well.