and terms. And the only recipe in the book is for veal stock. It’s a classic interpretation, but I have my own stock recipes.

I was wrong. I find myself going back to The Elements of Cooking again and again, not to discover what those terms mean, but more as a way to define them with crystal clarity for readers of this column. Much as Strunk and White’s Elements of Style belongs on the shelf of every writer, Ruhlman’s Elements of Cooking belongs on the shelf of every cook.

Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini by Elizabeth Schneider

Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini is an encyclopedia of the astonishing array of produce that’s increasingly available to cooks. But it’s much more than that. It includes not just information about all that produce, but tips and suggestions from well-known chefs, as well as recipes for each entry from Schneider herself.

Schneider’s book has a few notable omissions. For example, there’s not an entry for tomatoes. Or lettuce, except for “stem” lettuce, found in Chinese markets and used mostly for its crunchy stem, which has a texture similar to cucumbers. But the entry for potatoes is extensive, covering specialty types from fingerlings (so named because they’re long and relatively thin, like fingers) to those of various colors, from rosy-fleshed and golden varieties, to exotic blue and purple skin and flesh types. Schneider examines which types are suited to which cooking methods (boiling, roasting, sautéing, etc.).

And so it’s a compendium of both commonplace and exotic vegetables, which can now be found in farmers’ markets as well as in grocery produce displays. Perhaps you’ve enjoyed jicama at a Mexican restaurant, seen it in your grocery’s produce section and wanted to buy some, but were unsure of what to do with it. Or those sunchokes (a.k.a Jerusalem artichokes) that were at the farmers’ market and are on grocery shelves. What’s the difference between broccoli, broccoli raab and Chinese broccoli? Or the bewildering variety of winter (hard-skinned) squashes. How can they be prepared? Schneider has answers – and recipes – for all of them.

Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini is one of the most frequently referred-to books in my kitchen. In fact, it’s been used so much that it’s beginning to fall apart.

Jacques Pépin’s Complete Techniques

(compiled from two previous books, La Technique and La Methode) contains more than 1,000 cooking methods and recipes. Like Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking, it is a step-by-step, hold-your-hand encyclopedia. (So much has been written about Child’s classic masterpiece that it hardly needs my recommendation, although it must be said that it’s worthwhile for anyone with more than a passing interest in cooking. Interestingly, though it’s been a longtime cooking standard, Mastering the Art of French Cooking hit the New York Times bestseller list for the first time this summer after the release of the Julie and Julia movie, which I reviewed in IT’s Aug. 13 issue.)

Pépin is almost as well known as Child, having been featured in numerous PBS cooking shows for years, not least several in which he teamed up with Child. They had an engaging and congenial interaction that made it clear that it was a meeting of minds – although they frequently had differing opinions on the best way to prepare a specific dish.

He’s as renowned as she among cooking professionals. At one time the personal chef of Charles DeGaulle, he’s been in the U.S. since the 1960s. Of Complete Techniques, Child writes that it’s “A standard kitchen item the world over…. There has never been anything like it anywhere… a seminal work, and like no other…. For us to have all this information in our hands, fully illustrated and explained, is indeed a treasure.”

Praise, indeed, from one who spent years codifying basic cooking techniques. But while Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking has detailed instructions and illustrations, Pépin’s book goes one step further – and it’s a crucial one. Complete Techniques not only has more than 1,000 recipes – it has thousands of stepby-step photos for each of those recipes. “How to Prepare Spinach,” “Trimming and Cooking Meat,” “How to Carve a Rib Roast, or Rack of Lamb or Turkey,” “How to Trim an Artichoke,” “How to Make Cream Puff Dough.” In short, photos that illustrate pretty much any and every cooking technique you or I can think of. Even cooks who think they pretty much know it all can learn from this book.

Contact Julianne Glatz at [email protected].