Techniques & Theory Books on Food & Drinks

Cocktails and mixed drinks
1

I was unable to find another thread for this so starting this one. Apologies if it’s duplicated elsewhere but I don’t believe this fits into any of the canon discussions.

What is believed to be the most influential books, old and new, on the techniques of the food & drinks trade? I believe collecting these could be quite interesting as a reference guide for future industry learning and training materials.

I believe the major formal works defining not just recipes but techniques begins with Harry Johnson on the drinks side (1882, New and Improved Bartender’s Manual) and Auguste Escoffier on the food side (1903, Le Guide Culinaire), but I must admit I am unsure of this.

To start off the list, I’ll add these to get the ball rolling. I appreciate some of these are strictly cooking science while others are more hospitality manual styles.

  • 1882 - Harry Johnson - New and Improved Bartenders Manual
  • 1903 - Auguste Escoffier - Le Guide Culinaire
    (BIG GAP HERE…)
  • 1976 - Jacques Pépin - La Technique
  • 1984 - Harold McGee - On Food & Cooking (CANON - Revised in 2004)
  • 2002 - Dale DeGroff - The Craft of the Cocktail (CANON - Revised in 2020)
  • 2003 - Gary Regan - Joy of Mixology
  • 2011 - Nathan Myhrvold - Modernist Cuisine (CANON)
  • 2012 - Sandor Katz - The Art of Fermentation (CANON)
  • 2012 - Tony Conigliaro - Drinks
  • 2014 - Dave Arnold - Liquid Intelligence (CANON)
  • 2014 - Jeffrey Morgenthaler - The Bar Book
  • 2014 - Alex Day, David Kaplan, Nick Fauchald - Death & Co Book
  • 2017 - Matt Whiley - The Modern Cocktail
  • 2017 - Samin Nosrat - Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat
  • 2017 - Jim Meehan - Meehan’s Bartender Manual
  • 2018 - Alex Day, David Kaplan, Nick Fauchald - Cocktail Codex
  • 2024 - Arielle Johnson - Flavorama
  • 2024 - Bart Miedeksza, Valentino Girotto - Bubbles: A Guide to Carbonated Cocktails (CANON)

I am aware this is equally as opinionated as the “right way” to make a Martini, and it suffers from the same boundary paradox of what does and doesn’t qualify, but collecting these somewhere would certainly be beneficial.

2

With such a broad scope, there would be a great big mountain of them on the food side stretching back at least to the 17th Century, and it will quickly surpass the scope of this forum. However, some of those older cookbooks are actually quite relevant here because they offer essential information on various beverages of the era, such as possets and remedies. We have already captured at least some of the latter on this thread.

The world of wine has its own great big pile of literature with which I am largely unfamiliar—almost entirely out of scope, here.

“Influential”, “theory” and “technique” are all a little loaded. For example, Johnson mainly wrote about operating and managing a bar (theory?), although there’s some technique sprinkled in there for handling beverages, mixed or not. Exactly how influential he was is—in his era—is something @Splificator has questioned. Obviously, he’s considered quite important to us now. The Hoffman House guides cover some similar territory starting in… 1903? Kappeler (1895) has been hugely important (at least retroactively) for understanding 19th Century mixology by spelling a lot of things out in prose. In terms of mixed drinks theory, David Embury (1948) obviously has to be added to your list. Jeff Berry’s books have to go on such a list, along with the Smuggler’s Cove book. Again, scope is problematic here. How low is the bar for “theory” and “technique”? If you allow Johnson, then why not Trader Vic?

There are some non-English language books that probably belong on the bar side. I’m not sure which, offhand, but some of the early bar books (Lefeuvre?) make some attempt to explain what the hell is going on and what the result is supposed to resemble.