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Artisan Breads Every Day
I do not bake often. Some of it is due to calorie-counting; mostly it's because New York has such excellent bakeries. But since there is nothing like your own home baking, this is my go-to baking cookbook. I use it for pizza dough, crackers, and focaccia. It will also help you make your own bagels, English muffins, sweet Danish pastries, and many other favorites that you may have only bought and not baked yourself. The recipes had more than 500 testers and the book is touted for its reliability. 
Best Recipe
This is the cookbook I usually turn to when I'm making something for the first time whether it's a roast, Caesar salad, or a blueberry pie. If you have the patience to read all their research on why they recommend what they do, then you will learn a huge amount about cooking – knowledge that will make you a far better cook. If you just skip those parts and go directly to the recipes, you'll do just as well, still getting the benefit of all their research. I have the original Best Recipe, but the "New" is also excellent.
Book of Soups: More than 100 Recipes for Perfect Soups
When I wanted to learn how to make soups and never having much success with the occasional recipe, I did a lot of research about soup cookbooks. This one emerged as one of the best. It includes a variety of types of soups, instructional basics, and typical of the CIA's cookbooks, photographs to demonstrate technique. My husband is crazy about their Senate Bean Soup, made with a ham hock and garlic croutons. Recipes go from simple to fancy.
Bouchon
If you're getting more courage and confidence and want to try to make a masterpiece, Keller is a modern master to turn to. After overcoming some intimidation I learned that if you go slow and read the recipe carefully enough to understand how he thinks and works, you can do this. Plus these are not all big deal, difficult recipes. For instance the Veal Roast on page 225 is actually simple. Simple with details. And simple like the Hope Diamond is simple.
Classic Italian Cookbook
I am very biased about Marcella Hazan's books because her Classic Italian Cookbook really taught me about Italian cuisine – and because I had the honor and privilege to take a master class with her, one that changed my cooking life. Ms. Hazan is a great teacher and there is no recipe of hers that is not a total success. Most of her other volumes are also excellent, especially Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, which includes some of the more popular recipes from her earlier volumes. Put yourself in her hands and you will be a triumphant cook of Italian food.
Fat
Named cookbook of the year by the James Beard Foundation the year it was published, this book's subtitle is "An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient, With Recipes." Its 100 eclectic and tempting recipes are organized by type of fat -- butter, pork fat, poultry fat (duck anyone?), and beef and lamb fats. But it will also make you a better cook because it teaches you how to cook and enjoy one of our most common and essential ingredients.
Fish Without A Doubt
Seafood can be one of the most vexing ingredients for home cooks. But not with this cookbook by Chef Rick Moonen and respected author and editor Roy Finamore. It's friendly, comprehensive (250 recipes), and while nothing is dumbed-down, it puts the most complex fish and shellfish flavors within reach of the home cook. There's also much much to learn about buying seafood, which to avoid because they're over-fished, and how to make substitutions. If you could only have 3 cookbooks on your kitchen shelf, I think this should be one of them.
Made In Spain
Martha Stewart's Hors d'Oeuvres Handbook
This book works for several reasons: first and foremost, there is a photograph of every single hors d'oeuvre in the book. And isn't presentation a huge part of what these little finger foods are all about? Second, the selection is huge, from classic little canapes to cheese boards to cocktails. Finally, the book is done in two sections: the front is all photos and the back is all recipes, with two book-bound ribbon bookmarks included so you can flip back and forth between what you're doing and what the result is supposed to look like.
Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume One
Patricia Wells at Home in Provence: Recipes Inspired by her Farmhouse in France
Ms. Wells puts herself into her cookbooks and maybe because, like Julia, she was an adult American amateur who became a superb French chef, she writes cookbooks that let us into this great cuisine. I also love her Bistro and Paris cookbooks but this one is more core to me. It includes very accessible recipes that don't dumb down great dishes like daubes and gratins, and more than most French cookbooks, it conveys the French palate.
Roasting: A Simple Art
As with her other books about microwave cooking, soups, and vegetables, Barbara Kafka's volume about all things roasted is comprehensive, meticulous, and inspiring. It includes recipes for roasting nearly every type of ingredient and is one that you can easily turn to for both everyday cooking and also major meals, including Thanksgiving. In my view this cookbook is a city kitchen essential.
The Balthazar Cookbook
I am happy to have this on my cookbook shelf if only for their Brandade de Morue, which for me would be high on the short list for a last meal. Most of the recipes are in the bistro-classic category and some are a bit fancy to make. But in my experience the recipes are well crafted and really produce the same result as if you're in the restaurant (just with less noise!).
The Cooking of Southwest France: Recipes from France's Magnificent Rustic Cuisine
She is the master of Mediterranean and Moroccan cooking. If you are interested in knowing how to cook duck there is no better volume to have. Wolfert writes well, is a good teacher, clearly loves this cuisine, and also provides lots of background about ingredients that will expand your kitchen right into Southwestern France.
The Splendid Table: Recipes from Emilia-Romagna, the Heartland of Northern Italian Food
I first learned of this book one day when I was at the gym, distracting myself from treadmill boredom by watching Mario Batali on TV. In the midst of his own program he reached for this volume and pronounced it the best Italian cookbook ever written. Many others agree (although no one trumps Marcella for me). I love this cookbook for antipasto, vegetables, and of course, everything you want to know about Emilia-Romagna's famed ragu.
The Way to Cook
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