Let it Rip: Books to Read if You Can’t Stop Thinking About The Bear

Okay, let’s start with the obvious. Renowned late chef Anthony Bourdain walked so that Carmy could run, so Kitchen Confidential had to be on our list. Infamous New Yorker article-turned-sensational culinary memoir, Kitchen Confidential’s “don’t eat before you read this” is sage advice. Truly a wild ride from start to finish, Bourdain swings open the kitchen door and gives readers the juicy behind-the-scenes stories they’ve been hungry for. 

Samin Nosrat’s culinary prowess is in full display in Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat. Not only does she share easy-to-make recipes, but she also encourages budding chefs to understand their abilities and trust their instincts. Bridging the gap between home and professional kitchens, Nosrat illustrates the science behind good cooking—salt enhances flavor, fat delivers flavor generates texture, acid balances flavor, and heat determines texture. It’s a must-have for any home chef.  

“What if the underground could be the mainstream?” is the central philosophy that drives celebrated chef David Chang. Honest and open-hearted, he lays bare the unlikely and sometimes tumultuous path that led him to being one of the most recognizable chefs working today (Momofuku! Two Netflix shows! His podcast The David Chang Show! And most recently, as Molly’s (Maya Rudolph) personal chef in Loot!). If you know any of Dave’s work, you know his voice: a little edgy, a little blunt, and very funny, constantly challenging the ways we think about food and race, culture and success, rebellion and “bad” ideas, and mental health.  

Hailed as the world’s best restaurant, NOMA is where Carmy earns his culinary chops in The Bear, scenes from his time there cut in stark contrast to The Original Beef in Chicagoland’s kitchen. Now, we could’ve called out NOMA and NOMA 2.0: Vegetable, Forest, Ocean, which are exceptional in their own right, but we’re focusing on The Noma Guide to Fermentation because THIS is the book Marcus uses when he’s trying to make those stunning donuts as he aspires to be a world-class baker instead of the guy who makes sometimes dense bread for Italian beef sandwiches.  

Marcus Samuelsson is one of the most recognized chefs today, and as a person of color, has worked hard to share the culinary traditions of Black Americans. Before he brought us 2020’s incredible cookbook, The Rise, he shared his unique story in his 2012 memoir Yes, Chef. A story of personal discovery and the passionate, playful pursuit of flavors, his memoir chronicles his struggle to find a place for himself—in the kitchen and in the world. An Ethiopian orphan raised in Sweden, Marcus relished those Saturdays cooking in his grandmother’s kitchen and has carried his passion for food and family through his career, and those passions combined with his diverse, multicultural background shine through at his Harlem restaurant, Red Rooster.  

Erin French is a critically acclaimed chef and the proprietor of dreamy culinary destination The Lost Kitchen in Freedom, Maine, but things didn’t come easy for her. In this hopeful memoir, French opens up about the challenges she faced as a single mother struggling with addiction and identity, and the determination it took to rebuild her life—and herself—for her beautiful son through the solace she found in cooking. Hers is a story of community, courage, and reinvention.  

What does it take to master French cooking? Bill Buford sets out to answer this question in Dirt. All at once engrossing and hilarious, Buford tells the story of abandoning his life in New York City (with wife and three-year-old twins in tow) for an adventure in the gastronomic capital of France, Lyon. What was meant to be a six-month experiment turned into a five-year escapade as he apprenticed at the city’s best boulangerie, studied at a culinary school, and cooked in a Michelin-starred restaurant. Not only does Dirt shed light on the rigueur of a professional kitchen (something we definitely saw snippets of in Carmy’s flashbacks to his time at NOMA), but it also serves as an insider story of a city and its culinary culture.  

Have you ever wondered how your favorite food made its way to your plate? In Taste Makers, Mayukh Sen cleverly weaves together the life stories of seven extraordinary immigrant women whose culinary endeavors define the way we eat in America today. Stretching from WWII to the present, Sen illustrates how Chao Yang Buwei, Marcella Hazan, Najmieh Batmanglij, Elena Zelayeta, Norma Shirley, Madeleine Kamman, and Julie Sahni, each from different countries, left their mark on America’s palate and paved the way for chefs to come.  

Keith Corbin’s story is unlike any we’ve heard for a James Beard Award nominated chef, and he holds nothing back this candid memoir. Literally born into the drug game, Corbin’s life has been shaped by his unspeakable challenges and incredible achievements. It was during his stint in one of California’s most notorious maximum security prisons that he developed his culinary ingenuity, experimenting with what little resources he had during his shifts in the kitchen. After his release, he got a job at LocoL, a restaurant spearheaded by Roy Choi and Daniel Patterson designed to bring quality food and good jobs to underserved neighborhoods. California Soul takes readers inside the worlds of gang hierarchy, prison politics, and culinary achievements to tell the story of how Keith Corbin became the face of Alta Adams, a fine dining restaurant in LA. For more on Keith’s incredible story, check out his episode of the Poured Over podcast. 

If Matty Matheson looks familiar to you, that’s not surprising. Unlike Neil Fak, the hapless handyman on The Bear, he is very much allowed to both touch food and work in a kitchen. This father of three oversees five restaurants, stars in three YouTube shows, and advised on The Bear, and now he’s launched a clothing line. He’s got a big personality to say the least, and the zest he has for life really comes through in his cooking. In Home Style Cookery, any home chef can approach his bold cooking style with ease.  

And finally, a classic. No reading list about the captivating stories of revered chefs would be complete without Julia. This book is an endless joy, a love letter from Julia Child to all of us about her zest for food and life. Long before she was *the* Julia Child that we all know and love, she was a young woman in a foreign country trying to understand its customs. When she first arrived in France in 1948 with her husband Paul, she didn’t speak the language, nor did she know anything about the country, but that didn’t stop her. She immersed herself in French culture, surveying the local markets for fresh food and igniting her passion for cooking by taking classes at the Cordon Bleu.