Books like Grand dictionnaire de cuisine by Alexandre Dumas

A comprehensive French culinary encyclopedia and cookbook, the Larousse Gastronomique offers detailed entries on ingredients, techniques, and classic dishes, enriched with illustrative photographs, making it an essential reference for chefs and food lovers alike.

A practical guide showing how classic French dishes can be made using readily available American ingredients and appliances.

Seasoned generously with literary wit, The Diner's Dictionary is a veritable feast, tracing the origins and history of over 2,300 gastronomical words and phrases. John Ayto spreads across our table a veritable cornucopia, from common fruits and vegetables (apples, cherries, apricots, and broccoli, to name a few), to exotic foreign dishes such as gado-gado, nasi goreng, satay, and dashi, and even junk foods such as doughnuts, brownies, and candy. Thoroughly revised, the second edition boasts 1,000 new entries, including the word origins of affogato, bento, cava, goji berry, jalfrezi, mocktail, rugelach, vache qui rit, and zigni. In addition, Ayto has expanded the coverage of vocabulary from foreign cuisines, such as Thai, Korean, Vietnamese, and parts of South America. Throughout, Ayto provides fascinating capsule histories of the various foods. He tells us, for instance, that cantaloupe was introduced into Europe from Armenia and was apparently first cultivated at Cantaluppi, a former summer estate of the popes near Rome. We learn the ingredients of haggis and that the name of the Scandinavian drink "aquavit" ultimately derives from Latin aqua vitae or "water of life." From jambalaya and callaloo to arrowroot and shiitake, The Diner's Dictionary is a food-lover's dream, filled with information and fascinating lore.--publisher's description.

An encyclopedic reference covering 2,650 food-related entries – from ingredients and cooking terms to cultural habits, traditions, and chef biographies – compiled over twenty years by Alan Davidson.