The Brief

In an era when countless recipes are available at our fingertips, and endless culinary hacks crowd social media, cookbooks remain refreshingly relevant by offering authoritative voices, immersive storytelling, and rich cultural context that digital feeds cannot match.

They also make for functional yet fashionable decor at some of Los Angeles’s buzziest restaurants.

Eagle-eyed Angelenos may have noticed cookbooks displayed at many local spots arranged among knick-knacks, like at chef Eric Greenspan’s newly opened Mish Delicatessen on La Brea, or in open kitchens within easy reach, as at chef Dave Beran’s Michelin-starred Seline in Santa Monica. These dog-eared, oil-stained volumes not only enhance a space's visual appeal but often map a chef’s heritage, pedigree and community.

“It just brings this energy to a space; these are my icons, my idols, my people I've learned from, whether through books or in real life, and it's a big honor to be able to have them on the shelf,” says Tyler Wells, the restaurateur behind Betsy and Bar Betsy in Altadena. “I think it's more an ethos than a design decision.”

The cookbooks highlighted below have earned a place on the bookshelves of some of Los Angeles’s top chefs and restaurateurs — and are worthy of adding to your personal collection, whether you’re a dedicated home cook sharpening your skills or a casual food lover gleaning dinnertime inspiration. Listed in alphabetical order.

'A Platter of Figs and Other Recipes' by David Tanis

Recommended by: Luis Sierra of Picala in West Adams

Chef Luis Sierra keeps two dozen of his most prized cookbooks on a shelf above the pass at Picala, a Spanish restaurant in West Adams that opened in April. Raised in New Mexico on a steady diet of red and green chilies, the chef relied on cookbooks and food magazines like Lucky Peach to provide a window into cultures and cuisines unavailable locally.

Though a heavily tabbed copy of Colman Andrews's Catalan Cuisine ranks near the top of Sierra’s most-used cookbooks, he returns time and again to David Tanis’s seminal ode to simple and seasonal cooking in A Platter of Figs and Other Recipes; the chef worked under Tanis at Lulu at the Hammer Museum before opening Picala.

“It is quintessential California cuisine. It's that ethos that fine dining does and some of the best mom-and-pop places do. Find really good ingredients and don't mess it up. Just treat it fairly, don't try to make it something it's not,” Sierra said. “It took me years to figure out what [Tanis] was trying to say.”

'Death & Co: Modern Classic Cocktails' by Alex Day, David Kaplan, and Nick Fauchald

Recommended by: Avish Naran of Pijja Palace in Silver Lake

Pijja Palace's cookbooks include the influential cocktail guide from Death & Co.

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Avish Naran

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LAist

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At Avish Naran’s boisterous Indian sports bar, Pijja Palace, in Silver Lake, a tightly curated stack of cookbooks is located near the kitchen pass. Titles like Kricket: An Indian-Inspired Cookbook by Will Bowlby and chef Atul Kochhar’s Benares serve as education and inspiration for the restaurant’s mostly non-Indian staff. A copy of Khushbu Shah’s Amrikan, left over from a cookbook launch hosted at the restaurant a few years back, shares a similar diasporic sensibility to Pijja Palace.

Anchoring the teetering titles are a pair of cocktail bibles from the acclaimed New York City bar Death & Co. — Modern Classic Cocktails and Welcome Home — that Naran considers indispensable guides.

“They teach you the fundamentals of making cocktails. They're not using hydrocolloids and centrifuges. It's about appreciating the bottle and the classics,” he said. “We use them from time to time for inspiration at our restaurant. They give you a blueprint of all the classic cocktails and even encourage you to swap shit out.”

'Ducksoup: The Wisdom of Simple Cooking' by Clare Lattin and Tom Hill

Recommended by: Heather Sperling of Botanica in Silver Lake

Cookbooks subtly add to the ambience at Botanica in Silver Lake

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Heather Sperling

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Courtesy Botanica

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Heather Sperling, the restaurateur behind Botanica and Bar Besito in Silver Lake, is a self-proclaimed bibliophile with a penchant for restaurant cookbooks. Stored above Botanica’s bar and service station is a curated collection of her favorites. These titles come from like-minded restaurants that share Botanica's dedication to simplicity and seasonality, including works from Prune in New York City, Lula Cafe in Chicago, and the Bay Area’s Zuni Cafe and Chez Panisse Cafe.

“I love having those around as a way to remind us of the places that we view as both peers and inspiration,” Sperling said. Additionally, Sperling uses the cookbooks to facilitate conversations around food and cooking with her chefs.

Of the hundreds of cookbooks that Sperling has come across, it’s the collection of recipes from the restaurant Ducksoup in London that’s made a lasting impression.

“Ducksoup: The Wisdom of Simple Cooking is the one that I've given to every chef who has ever worked for me,” she said. “It is a simple and quietly excellent book of great cooking with some lovely simple stories and unbelievably good food that just captures a sensibility that I aspire to, which is just cooking lovely, thoughtful, compelling, unfussy food in a way that feels very full of heart and full of intention.”

'Josey Baker Bread' by Josey Baker

Recommended by: Tyler Wells of Bar Betsy in Altadena

Ever since the Eaton Fire wiped out restaurateur Tyler Wells’s cookbook collection, he’s been intentionally rebuilding it with mostly secondhand copies and displaying the titles on the shelves at his all-day restaurant Bar Betsy in Altadena. Wells described his growing collection as “quite aspirational,” consisting “mostly of restaurants that I adore and look up to” and written by experts with a singular perspective and style.

Among his most prized cookbooks is Josey Baker Bread by Josey Baker, the chef and owner of The Mill in San Francisco.

“I really adore baking, and it was something I never really had formal training in, so I'm largely self-taught. This book just takes you from nothing — here's how you make the simplest loaf pan loaf with yeast — all the way to free-form bread,” Wells said. “It's so down to Earth; it's not geared for a professional baker. I learned more from that book than probably any other cookbook I've read.”

'The French Laundry Cookbook' by Michael Ruhlman, Susie Heller, and Thomas Keller

Recommended by: Dave Beran of Seline in Santa Monica

Seline's 100-plus cookbook library

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Courtesy Seline

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When chef Dave Beran conceptualized his “book wall” — an expansive library with over 100 cookbooks prominently displayed in the open kitchen at Seline in Santa Monica — providing inspiration and education for him and his team, as well as creating a sense of home, comfort, and curiosity for diners, was at the forefront.

While Beran admits that The French Laundry Cookbook, a comprehensive collection of recipes and philosophies from chef Thomas Keller’s legendary restaurant in Yountville, California, feels dated in many ways, its impact can’t be understated.

“I remember reading it when I first started working in 2003. It was just such a clear defining point of this is why it's important to teach, and this is why it's important to pay attention and be a sponge in a kitchen,” Beran said. “I think if you're completely blind to fine dining in a sense of ‘Where's the value in this thing that I feel like I've had 100 times,’ that's the book to read.”

'Six Seasons: A New Way with Vegetables' by Joshua McFadden and Martha Holmberg

Recommended by: Clémence de Lutz of Petitgrain Boulangerie in Santa Monica

Take a peek beneath the gleaming pastry case at Santa Monica's Petitgrain Boulangerie to spot a few of chef-owner Clémence de Lutz’s tallest cookbooks. Selected from her personal collection that numbers more than 400, these oversized titles pull double duty: they elegantly separate the bakery’s kitchen from the storefront while hiding unsightly coffee supplies. As a self-taught baker, de Lutz leaned heavily on cookbooks for foundational knowledge.

“I would buy used cookbooks from the Culinary Institute of America or some of the other more professional culinary schools, and I would tool around and give myself a curriculum,” she said.

These days, de Lutz favors cookbooks rooted in West Coast ingredients, especially Six Seasons by Joshua McFadden and Martha Holmberg.

“I appreciated when I first saw the book that it said ‘six seasons’ because here in California, there's so much overlap between summer and fall. We shouldn't just think about winter, spring, summer, and fall,” she said. “I appreciate that it's not precious; it's good, succinct information. We should all be cooking more vegetables for their flavor at their peak.”

'Zahav: A World of Israeli Cooking' by Michael Solomonov and Steven Cook

Recommended by: Eric Greenspan of Mish Delicatessen in Mid-City

At Mid-City’s Mish Delicatessen, chef-owner Eric Greenspan says the cookbooks tell “the story of the evolution — past, present, and future — of the Mish menu.”

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Courtesy Mish Delicatessen

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At Mid-City’s Mish Delicatessen, diners are welcome to linger in the second-floor lounge to peruse the restaurant’s many cookbooks featuring titles from classic New York City delis, more modern collections penned by contemporary culinarians like Jake Cohen and Adeena Sussman, and everything in between.

Each cookbook tells “the story of the evolution — past, present, and future — of the Mish menu,” said chef-owner Eric Greenspan. “It was really important for us to focus on the entirety of the Jewish culinary diaspora.”

Zahav, the cookbook from Michael Solomonoff's acclaimed restaurant in Philadelphia by the same name, deeply influenced Greenspan’s vision for Mish.

“Michael's such an inspirational chef, both in his take on modernizing and elevating classic Middle Eastern Jewish food, but also the fact that he pulls it off from a deep, personal relationship with the food,” Greenspan said. “And that's what inspired me to do the whole damn thing. I wanted to finally have a restaurant where I could cook something personal to me from a cultural and traditional sense.”

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Duane “Keffe D” Davis is set to be sentenced Tuesday for orchestrating the murder of rap icon Tupac Shakur, who was gunned down off the Las Vegas Strip over 30 years ago.

Davis, 63, was convicted in August of first-degree murder with the use of a deadly weapon. He is the only person ever charged in the death of Shakur, whose popularity was peaking at age 25. Davis faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.

On the night of Sept. 7, 1996, Shakur was in the passenger seat of a black BMW with music mogul Marion “Suge” Knight when a white Cadillac pulled up at a red light, and shots erupted. Shakur was shot multiple times and died six days later, while Knight survived.

Shakur is considered one of the most influential and versatile rappers of all time and had a burgeoning film career as an actor at the time of his death. His legend has only grown since. His songs still resonate among fans with themes of hardship, love and Black struggles.

The killing went unsolved for years until Davis, a former leader of the South Side Compton Crips, gave interviews and published his role in the shooting in his 2019 tell-all memoir. He explained how Shakur and his entourage beat up Davis’ nephew hours before the shooting in Las Vegas. He said he sought retaliation, and that he was in the passenger seat of the Cadillac and passed the gun to the backseat, where shots were fired. Davis had spoken to detectives years before but avoided prosecution because of an agreement he made with law enforcement.

During the weekslong trial, prosecutors relied on Davis’ own statements he made to law enforcement and documentarians. They argued Davis orchestrated the shooting and provided the gun used in Shakur’s death, which was the result of a rivalry between the South Side Compton Crips and Mob Piru. Davis’ defense attorney pointed to a lack of physical evidence that connected his client to the 30-year-old crime, and he portrayed Davis as a liar who was trying to make money.

After nine days of hearing testimony in August, the jury deliberated for three hours before turning over the guilty verdict. Davis said in court that he plans to appeal.

Shakur was an icon, a brother

Shakur’s family is expected to speak at the sentencing, including his siblings Maurice “Mopreme” Shakur and Sekyiwa “Set” Shakur.

Following the verdict, prosecutor Binu Palal said that to many people, Shakur was an icon or an idea, “but to the family, Tupac Shakur was a brother, a son, a cousin, a loved person ripped from them 30 years ago.”

Palal said the family had to sit through years of Davis “bragging about killing someone they loved.”

“They loved that man. And the arrogance that Mr. Davis had in expressing his joy in killing that man ultimately was his undoing,” Palal said.

Prosecutors say they have insufficient evidence to charge anyone else

Davis is the only person to be charged and convicted in the killing of Shakur. The three other people who allegedly were in the Cadillac — including Davis’ nephew Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson who Davis said was the one who pulled the trigger — have died.

Sean “Diddy” Combs and his alleged role were brought up often throughout the trial. Witnesses testified Combs used members of the South Side Compton Crips for security for Bad Boy Records. In his book and public statements, Davis alleged Combs offered him money to kill Shakur and Knight. Combs, who is serving a four-year prison sentence after being convicted of prostitution-related offenses, has repeatedly denied any involvement in the death of Shakur.

Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson has said his office doesn’t believe it has sufficient evidence to charge anyone else.

“But like any other case, if we come into more information, more evidence, we can always consider filing additional charges,” he said following the guilty verdict. “But today, we don’t believe that’s the appropriate move to make.”

It’s taken over a decade and $1.3 billion, but Hollywood Burbank’s new terminal is finally ready for action. On Tuesday, Oct. 13, the first passengers will be taking off and arriving at the brand-new structure.

Visitors note: The new terminal entrance has moved from Thornton Avenue to the intersection of Winona Avenue and Hollywood Way. There’s also a central security checkpoint and an indoor baggage claim.

The project stemmed from Burbank’s Measure B, passed in 2016.

LAist reporter Cato Hernandez got a sneak peek inside the building last week and reported on the scope and the thinking behind the decor.