Everyone who will ever make any attempt to cook anything, should own The Joy of Cooking. I guess you really wont fully understand until you have made a few recipes from this book. But I will try to explain, in my own words, why this book is so awesome.

The style of writing is simple, recipes are not these complex page long paragraphs (Not like Martha, whose recipes can be so long and intimidating, sorry Martha – I love you). I find myself getting lost in long recipes, with my hands covered in flour and oil, trying to figure out what the next step is.

The book is like a reference guide. It gives you tips, and the recipes are broken down into basics – for example, I made a Chicken Tetrazzini (awesome), and the recipe (which is the length of my index finger, simple) calls for Sauteed Mushrooms, which is a basic, and you turn to another page to learn how to do that.. Now, sounds complex.. But next time a recipe calls for Sauteed Mushrooms, I know that basic.

This book teaches you to cook, doesn’t just blindly pull you through steps that you’ll never be able to recreate without the crutch of the recipe. Its different, and I feel – the best Cookbook that anyone will ever make. Period.