Many people try to learn cooking from cooking shows. While they are an excellent way to learn to cook at home, the best way to develop a repertoire is with cookbooks. Many people have asked me what cookbooks are essential to have in a collection. (okay, I lied - nobody asked me that. But I wanted to tell you about it anyway.) I have broken them down into four main categories.

The first category, I will call "Reference." Within this category, the most important and considered by many to be the culinary "bible" is called LAROUSSE GASTRONOMIQUE. This 1350 page book is a monster, but is a fount of culinary knowledge. Covering everything from Abaisse (a French term for a sheet of rolled out pastry) to Zuppa Inglese (a custard dish with cake, liqueur and meringue), this is a must have for any serious chef. As a bonus, since it weighs about a thousand pounds, you'll get your weightlifting in just by moving it around the kitchen.

The second category, I will call "Celebrity Chefs." Nearly every celebrity chef has at least one cookbook out there. For this, I recommend purchasing a few, based on the cuisine you enjoy cooking or based on the chef. Personally, I have two by Ming Tsai, two by Gordon Ramsay, one by Michael Mina, Jon Georges Vongreichtan, Rick Bayless, Bobby Flay, Laurent Tourendel and Emeril Lagasse.

A subset of this category could be a famous restaurant. For example, I have a book called BREAKFAST AT BRENNAN'S from the famous New Orleans restaurant. Who is the head chef? Without googling it, can you answer that? But, I bet you've heard of Brennan's.

The third category, I will call "Cuisine." Pick a cuisine (possibly more than one) that you truly enjoy cooking and eating. Then get a few books with that cuisine in mind. It's possible that the "Celebrity Chef" book you chose will fit the bill here. But you want to expand a little and get something else. For example, I love Mediterranean Cuisine. I found a fantastic book by Matthey Kenney that is simply titled MEDITERRANEAN COOKING. It has excellent recipes from Mediterranean countries other than Italy and France (there are more cookbooks for those two cuisines than you can imagine). A "cuisine" can also be "healthy." Shelves of bookstore space are stocked with cookbooks that cater to people looking to control their intake of something, such as low calorie, low carb, diabetic, low salt, etc...

The final category, I'm going to call "Special Trips." These are souvenir cookbooks that are indicative of some place that you go to on vacation. I have several of these. One is all about food in Provence that I got on a vacation to France. Vacations to Spain, Italy and Russia also yielded me cookbooks. I have been on two cruises, one with Princess and one with Holland America. For those of you that haven't been on a cruise, let me tell you - the food is spectacular. Most of them, including the two that I mentioned, sell a cookbook onboard with some of their specialties. The Princess one I even got signed by the Executive Chef. So, in closing, the number one rule for cookbooks is to get what you want. Thumb through the book before you purchase. If you love French food, but every recipe in the book has two hundred ingredients, it may not be for you. That way, you can be sure that the cookbook will be used and not just look pretty on your bookshelf. Sadly, I can say that I have a few that fall into that category.