There are countless chefs, TV shows, websites, and cookbooks that inspire me. On the one hand, they inspire me to cook, to get to know new dishes and techniques, and to find joy in this hobby. On the other hand, many of them also give me actual recipes, which we try, either like or do not like, and some of them even make it onto the blog. I’ve gathered them all here in one place. Naturally, I will keep updating this page, and whenever I come across another gem that I think deserves a place here, I’ll expand the list.
Since I also mean this page as a kind of tribute to these people, books, and blogs, I do not want it to be just a dry list. I want to write about them too, some more briefly and some at greater length. This is not a numbers-based list or a link directory either. I am really only introducing the people and works that have had, and still have, a major influence on me and on what I do in the kitchen.
Under each topic, I linked the chef, book, or blog in question. If you are more interested, you can click on the small image or the name and read more about them. Since the goal of my blog is to introduce dishes from international cuisine, these pages are usually not in English.
Chefs
- Emeril Lagasse. I may have gotten the most inspiration from him, this American chef-entrepreneur-TV-star personality who is unfairly less known than he deserves to be in many places.
Emeril’s cooking style is shaped mostly by the cuisine of the southern states of the U.S., but that is not what made him popular. Among other things, he may well be one of the reasons why the now-familiar TV-cooking obsession first spread in America and then in Europe. And I do not mean the little cooking shows of the ’80s, but round-the-clock channels devoted entirely to cooking. Food Network, which launched in the U.S. in the early ’90s, owed part of its popularity to him when, in 1997, he started filming and airing a cooking show that was completely unusual at the time, one I could best compare to a big studio talk show. A large studio audience, huge sets, a live band, guests, and daily broadcasts all helped teach the American public how to cook. Here is a clip from one of his 1999(!) shows:Emeril currently has 12 restaurants that are famous across the United States. He still regularly films TV shows, and his cookbooks also continue to come out on a regular basis. Beyond that, with his own kitchenware brand offering affordable quality, he has carved out a major role for himself in that market as well. In America, there may hardly be a household where Emeril has not somehow made his way into the kitchen. - Jamie Oliver. Jamie mainly inspires me with his attitude toward cooking. I think he was the one who, despite his young age, showed Europe a good decade or so ago that cooking does not necessarily have to mean something exhausting or hours spent in the kitchen. I also find his attempts in recent years to raise the standard of food culture sympathetic, efforts aimed at improving the general state of eating habits in England — which, believe me, can be even more dismal than what many people are used to at home. I have cooked a lot from his recipes, but only a few of them will make it onto the blog. That is because Jamie — and he does not hide this — tweaks almost every recipe a little to fit his own taste. So when you see him make spaghetti carbonara, know that while the result may be very delicious, it is not the original dish.
- Gordon Ramsay. Gordon won me over above all with his persistence and his belief in his goals. It is enough to watch the show where he tries to save failing restaurants, and to see the attitude of the owners and managers of those places, as well as Gordon’s own attitude toward business. You quickly understand why some companies do well and others do not. Why nearly every initiative succeeds for some people, while the same cannot be said for everyone else. Beyond that, of course, his recipes are inspiring too. Beef Wellington and a breakfast salmon croissant are already lined up, waiting to be included on this blog.
- Sonia Peronaci. Sonia started writing a food blog in 2006 as an Italian home cook, and since then it has become incredibly popular in Italy. On Facebook, she now has more than 86,000 fans, a number surpassed among famous chefs only by those who are also internationally well known. I introduce the blog itself (GialloZafferano) below as well, so here are just a few words about Sonia. To me, she conveys the making of Italian dishes, among other things, with incredible simplicity and authenticity. She includes not just a written description and photos, but also an easy-to-follow video with almost every recipe. And this is especially important! She does not try to reinvent traditional recipes. That is something people nowadays tend to forget. With her, Bolognese lasagna is definitely Bolognese lasagna, and spaghetti carbonara is most definitely spaghetti carbonara. Go, Sonia!
Blogs
- Giallo Zafferano. Sonia Peronaci’s blog presents recipes from all over the world. Even so, I mainly follow it for the Italian dishes, and in this case the word follow is especially accurate. That is because she not only describes and illustrates these recipes with photos, as we have come to expect from food blogs, but also uploads videos for most of them. The blog itself, by the way, is so polished in both design and organization that you would think there must be a multinational company behind it. But there is not (although since this article was originally written, it really has become a huge business as well). It is worth watching how a dish is made, even if you do not speak Italian, because you can still learn a lot from it. The videos speak for themselves. Some of them are also available on YouTube in English.
Books and Cookbooks
- Golden Book of Chocolate Delights. This book is tempting even at first glance. I am very picky about cookbooks, because I have seen plenty where the substance does not live up to the appearance, or where even the appearance itself does not meet the standard that would make me buy it. But when I saw this book, I fell in love with it instantly. The whole thing looks like a giant bar of chocolate, and the edges are sprayed gold as well (unfortunately, the publisher’s photo does not really show that). On top of that, the recipes — there are 300 of them — every single one tempts you to cook it and eat it. As the title suggests, every recipe contains chocolate, but not all of them are sweets. A few savory curiosities, such as chocolate gnocchi or turkey in Mexican chocolate sauce, also made it in.
- Le Cordon Bleu – Cooking School for Gourmets series. According to the Hungarian publisher’s website, 22 volumes of this unmatched series were published locally. Organized by ingredient (chicken, potatoes, etc.), by type of dish (pasta, desserts, etc.), by country (Italian food, French food), or by festive occasion (Christmas recipes — unfortunately this one was not published in Hungarian), they present simple and complicated but in every case mouthwatering recipes. These books do not just let you cook very delicious dishes from the series; they also contain a great deal of useful advice, through which both the beginner home cook and the more experienced kitchen master can deepen their knowledge of the subject. I recommend them to everyone, or at least one volume from the series. If you like it, you will probably end up buying the rest as well.