I’m not huge on New Year’s resolutions, but this year I am vowing to slow down and read more. That means more random research, article-reading, and finally reading some of my friends’ published books. That also means actually reading more of those daily newsletters I’ve signed up for instead of skimming one quickly and eventually deleting the rest. (OR unsubscribing from them altogether – I know, what a concept!) Stuff like that.
Since pretty much my entire life is food and feeding people, I figured the best way to really motivate myself to reach my goal of reading 25 books by the end of the year would be to find books that are about food or books that will help me develop myself as a person and food professional.
Well, this week, I just so happened to stumble into a Clubhouse conversation in a room called “CHEF TALK (Sunday Service)”. They went around the entire panel of speakers asking them which books they recommend all Black chefs read. Talk about timing!
I honestly felt blessed to be there right at that moment, and anybody who knows me knows I had my Asana open and ready to get every last title. So here’s that list. If you are a home cook, caterer, baker, aspiring food business owner, or just someone who enjoys learning about food, this list is for you. There are 34 works listed here, and I have separated them into the following categories:
- Mindset
- History & Culture
- The Business Side
- Flavor & Technique
- Cannabis & Food
- Vegetarian & Vegan Food
- Nutrition, Herbs & Holistic Medicines
- Food Photography
Several of the books have free PDFs or ePub downloads available. All of them have reasonably priced new or used options for purchase on Amazon. There is a range of prices based on the type of book and its condition, but I have listed the books in each section in order from least to most expensive, approximately.
To be clear, ANYBODY who is interested in food should check out these books, not just Black people; however, History & Culture books are largely centered on food within the Black experience.
Feel free to join me on this year-long journey.
Mindset
- You are a Bad Ass by Jen Sincero – Free ePub download | Amazon
- Deep Work by Cal Newport – Free PDF download | Amazon
- Leadership Essentials by Daniel Meyer – Amazon
- Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson – Free ePub download | Amazon
- The Magic of Thinking Big by David Schwartz – Free PDF download | Amazon
- How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie – Free PDF download
History & Culture
- Good Things to Eat by Rufus Estes – Free ePub & Kindle downloads | Amazon
- Cooking with Mother Nature by Dick Gregory – Amazon
- Notes from a Young Black Chef: A Memoir by Kwame Onwuachi – Amazon
- The Cooking Gene by Michael Twitty – Amazon
The Business Side
- Planning and Control for Food and Beverage Operations by Jack Ninemeier – Amazon
- ProStart: Becoming a Restaurant and Foodservice Professional – Amazon
- Remarkable Service (3rd Ed) – Culinary Institute of America (CIA) – Amazon
- Book of Yields by Francis T. Lynch – Amazon
- Math for the Professional Kitchen by Laura Dreesen – Amazon
- Purchasing: Selection and Procurement for the Hospitality Industry by Andrew H. Feinstein – Amazon
- Modern Food Service Purchasing: Business Essentials to Procurement by Robert B. Garlough – Amazon
- Catering: A Guide to Managing a Successful Business Operation by Bruce Mattel – Amazon
- Will Write For Food by Dianne Jacob – Free PDF | Amazon
Flavor & Technique
- Texture by Khymos – Free PDF Download
- Essential Spices & Herbs by Christina Nichol – Amazon
- The Flavor Bible by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg – Amazon
- Taste & Technique by Naomi Pomeroy – Amazon
- How Baking Works by Paula Figoni – Free PDF download | Amazon
- The Food Lab by J. Kenji López-Alt – Amazon (Check out his YouTube channel too!)
- Flavor Flours by Alice Medrich – Free PDF download | Amazon
- Salt, Fat, Heat, Acid: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking by Samin Nosrat – Amazon
Cannabis & Food
- Edibles: Small Bites for the Cannabis Kitchen by Stephanie Hua – Amazon
- Cannabis Cuisine by Andrea Drummer – Amazon
- Bong Appetit: Mastering the Art of Cooking with Weed by Editors of MUNCHIES – Amazon
- The Cannabis Encyclopedia: The Definitive Guide to Cultivation & Consumption of Medical Marijuana by Jorge Cervantes – Amazon
Vegetarian & Vegan Food
- Six Seasons: A New Way with Vegetables by Joshua McFadden – Amazon
- Survival into the 21st Century: Planetary Healers Manual by Viktoras Kulvinskas – Amazon
Nutrition, Herbs & Holistic Medicines
- Back to Eden by Jethro Kloss – Amazon
- Mother Nature’s Herbal by Judy Griffin – Amazon
- Nutrition for Food Service & Culinary Professionals by Karen E. Drummond – Amazon
Food Photography
- Food Styling: The Art of Preparing Food for the Camera by Delores Custer – Amazon
- Food Stylist Handbook by Denise Vivaldo – Amazon (Also consider joining her FB Group where she and other members will help critique your food photos)
- Edible Images (an ebook from ExpertPhotography.com) – Martina Lanotte (they’re selling it here for $19, but feel free to email us if you would like access to the PDF for free)
The goal is to finish at least two of these each month, but, as you can see, there are more than 24 books here. As I finish them, I will update this post with a bit more of a review & summary.
Follow me on social media (Instagram | Twitter) to get even more immediate reactions and takeaways from my reading.
Also, check out the Instagram pages of some of the moderators from the group that collaborated to come up with this list. There are some really talented people in that room. Join the room at 12 ET every day of the week (I think).
UPDATE: Keeping up with my progress
January’s reads
- Deep Work – You may not be ready to give up social media completely, but this book goes over some key concepts and strategies that will help you structure your life in a way that encourages focus when you need it and rest when you need that.
- The Flavor Bible – This is definitely more of a reference book to be used forever and always, but I’ve read the chapter portion at the beginning and am creating flashcards (because I love flashcards) for all of the cuisines and ingredients that I really want to master.
February’s reads
- Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck – The title pretty much sums it up. Read this if you spend way too much time worry about what other people think and too little time creating, publishing, sharing your gifts with the world.
- The Cooking Gene – Somewhat of an autobiography, the author retraces his family’s roots and the food traditions of the people who came together to create him. African American culture was birthed from a variety of influences, and although each of our genetic makeups is different, this book could inspire anyone to find out more about their history, their family’s traditions, and what all went into making them, the way they eat, drink, and live today.
March’s reads
- You are a Bad Ass – Just in case you need a reminder that you have and will continue to do great things.
- Good Things to Eat – One of the very first recipe books by a Black chef (Rufus Estes). There are over 600 recipes (written in paragraph form) so I haven’t gone through all of them, but it is quite fascinating to get a first-hand look at the ingredients and techniques used in 19th-century cooking.
April’s reads
- The Magic of Thinking Big – I felt like I needed another mindset book before I start preparing for what I am sure will be a busy summer and fall. Self-belief and confidence are key components for being successful in anything – career, relationships, business. This book goes over strategies to tap into those “magic” powers.
- Texture – Similar to The Flavor Bible, Texture is a mix of textbook and reference book. It’s filled with recipes, tips, and tricks that involve molecular gastronomy – using cornstarch to make puddings and sauces, making mousses, forms, stuff like that. I’ll be making some cook refreshing ice cream recipes from this book this summer, so stay tuned!
May’s reads
- The Food Stylist’s Handbook – First of all, this book helped me realize that food styling as a career is NOT for me. All the inedible tricks of the trade were interesting, but honestly, the chef/foodie in me was a bit disgusted. From the food photography side of things, there were helpful technical pointers about camera settings, the composition of the plate, etc. There’s also some useful information about building your business, pricing, and marketing yourself as a food stylist. There were sections about soups and pasta in general, but I’d be interested in reading more about the styling of foods from different cultures, specifically.
- Edible Images – This e-book was very informative and straight to the point. It covered all of the fundamentals – lighting, color theory, camera settings – as well as some sections full of food styling tips. I can’t say if it’s any better or different than any other e-book similar to it, but I do feel like I’ve learned a lot of practical info that I’ll use.
- Notes from a Young Black Chef: A Memoir – Inspiring is an understatement. This story is about then-27-year-old Kwame and his rise to fame as the executive chef of a fine dining restaurant in Washington, D.C. I’m certainly not trying to open a fine dining restaurant, but it’s exactly what I need while I’m in the middle of rebranding Mobile Soul.
June’s reads
- How to Win Friends and Influence People – A lot of this book is about having manners and why considering other people before you act is an effective way to “win” friends and influence people – because people are selfish. It’s natural for people to be thinking mostly of themselves, what they need and want, so appealing to those things obviously works most of the time. Most of the book is common sense; however, it is a nice overview and reminder of some easy ways to build relationships and get your customer-facing business to pop! Because it’s definitely about who you know.
- Math for the Professional Kitchen by Laura Dreesen – I planned to finish this book this month, but it just arrived last week while I was planning our first Biscuit Club popup. I didn’t realize it would literally be a math textbook with a bunch of food- and kitchen-related examples, but I’m really looking forward to digging into it. You can check in around the end of July for a more complete review along with the reviews of the other two books I read next month.
July’s reads
- Math for the Professional Kitchen by Laura Dreesen – Now that I’ve gone through this… I can confirm that it is literally just a math workbook with practice problems all related to scenarios that might come up in a professional kitchen. There are six chapters each broken down into a few sections. Each section has examples and practice problems with space right there in the book for showing your work. The answers are in the back with other reference materials like a selection from the Book of Yields. It is basic math for most adults, but having a handle on concepts like unit conversion and recipe costing is priceless.
- The other books I read this month are a part of Octavia Butler’s Patternist series. Wild Seed, Mind of My Mind & The Patternmaster were the sci-fi break I needed! Can’t wait to finish the series.
August’s reads
- Catering: A Guide to Managing a Successful Business Operation by Bruce Mattel (CIA) – Another Culinary Institute of America standard textbook, Catering was about just that – catering. Its chapters dived into the details of starting, managing, hiring for, marketing, and scaling a successful catering business. It includes sample menus, kitchen setups, intake and invoicing forms, and checklists that will be extremely useful if you ever want to start up a catering business. Even if your food business, takes on another form than traditional catering, this guide will be useful for learning standard serving practices, how to handle billing discrepancies, and more.
- World Travel by Anthony Bourdain & Laurie Woolever – Again this month, my second read was a bit of a detour from my list above; however, this book was full of useful food & travel information. Anthony Bourdain’s no-nonsense, but somehow still nonjudgmental attitude has always inspired me, and the quotes in this book (many of which were taken directly from show segments) remind me that there is a larger world out there. I won’t lie, the fact that traveling isn’t as safe as before the pandemic started has kept me out of an airplane for the last year and a half. This peek into all of “Tony’s” favorite (and not-so-favorite) places to be has helped a bit with that feeling, even if it’s just been giving me a list of places to start planning trips to in the future.
September’s reads
- Nutrition for Foodservice and Culinary Professionals by Drummond & Lisa M. Brefere – A textbook-style book with a “check out quiz” as well as other activities that they suggest to really drive home the concepts in each chapter. It begins with overview descriptions and by defining the key systems involved with nutrition in our body, the categories of nutrients, and how nutrition recommendations and guides come to be. Then it moves into the specifics of each type of nutrient: carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins, minerals, and water and how they each affect the body. There are also chapters dedicated to nutrition, health, and obesity. Make sure to get an updated edition because what we know about health and nutrition and the standards are constantly changing.
- The Quick & Easy Way to Effective Speaking by Dale Carnegie – This has nothing to do with food, but more with personal development and becoming a better public speaker. I think we all get a little nervous when we have to address a crowd, but learning to prepare and harness the anxiety and turn it into something useful. As a business owner, leader, or someone seeking to effect change in any way, some of the points in this book may seem redundant or like common sense, but they serve as a wonderful reminder of some simple, key ways to get your points across whether it’s in front of a business conference or just a group of friends.
October’s reads
- How Baking Works by Paula Fignoni – This should’ve been one of the first books I read this year, but better late than never! If you’re a food nerd or interested in the science behind food, this textbook may be of interest to you. There are 17 chapters that cover: (1) the basic chemistry and processes involved in baking and (2) many of the common ingredients used in a bakeshop – their properties and how those properties interact with other ingredients to make the baked goods we all know and love. There are also questions for review, discussion, and suggested experiments to conduct at the end of each chapter. We’ll be running through a couple of those experiments in the Mobile Soul kitchen very soon, so stay tuned!
- Cannabis Cuisine by Andrea Drummer – A great cookbook for a chef just getting into infused foods and drinks. It begins with instructions for clarifying butter then goes into a variety of appetizer, entree, vegetarian, and dessert recipes that you can infuse and experiment with.
November’s reads
- The Food Lab by J. Kenji López-Alt – For anyone who is interested in WHY certain foods cook the way that they do, this book is a great place to start. It covers most of the large groups of food – eggs, dairy, soups, stews, stocks, steaks, chicken and other fast-cooking foods, vegetables, pastas, sauces, salads, breads, and more. The explanations are technical and you may need to listen twice to really grasp the concept, but the author’s story-telling keeps things interesting.
- Will Write for Food by Dianne Jacob – I am working on changing my primary focus from catering to recipe development and publishing so I felt like I needed to add this book to my reading list. It is filled with writing examples, detailed job descriptions, and first-hand accounts from all kinds of successful food writers. Food writing is presented as a discipline that is no different than regular writing, something that takes daily practice AND passion to truly master. Each chapter ends with writing exercises to help get the creative writing juices flowing.
December’s read
- Salt, Fat, Heat, Acid: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking by Samin Nosrat – I thought I was in love with food science after reading The Food Lab. Salt, Fat, Heat, Acid breaks down food in a similarly entertaining way but there are loads of handdrawn graphics and cool visual tools to help you really grasp the concepts. It is a cookbook so there are a bunch of protein, dessert, and vegetable recipes to use as “training wheels”, but the vast majority of the book seeks to help you get a handle on the good practices and overarching ideas that will dictate everything you make. Lessons on how to season food and why, how different kinds of fat work in your dishes, and how to make well-balanced sauces fill the book so it’s easy to see why people read this book over and over again.
Recap of the year
After going through this list, I am so much more prepared for everything that I face both inside and outside of the kitchen. My business has grown and pivoted in ways I didn’t expect and all because I had the confidence that comes with knowing. But with that confidence comes even more curiosity. If I’ve been missing these things so far, there must be much more out there for me to learn.
So here’s to next year and to learning constantly. See you in 2022!
