The Charlie Trotter Cookbook that Everyone Should Own
Charlie Trotter's 1997 seafood-centric cookbook was ahead of its time.
Getting a chef to pick a favorite cookbook is like asking a parent to choose her most-loved child. But F&W pressed great cooks around the country to reveal their top picks of all-time.
The Chef: Daniel Wright
The Book: Charlie Trotter’s Seafood by Charlie Trotter, 1997
“It was my first splurge on a serious book,” Wright says. “I was working as a poissonnier at Gordon. It predates The French Laundry and the Alinea books—it came out when nobody was spending $50 on cookbooks. The photography was intense, the combinations of ingredients. It had a glossary on what vegetables were in season when, what seafood was sustainable, what wines paired well with what types of fish. It was so incredibly—I don’t want to say ahead of its time, but on the cusp.”