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Our collection started with a lucky find at Costco: Phaidon's cookbooks for Japan and China. We picked them up because they were simply beautiful books, the kind you want to leave out on the counter, and they ended up starting something. One book at a time, the shelf has grown into a small library of the world's kitchens, and we've been slowly working our way toward the rest of the globe.
We don't really cook from these books the way you'd follow a recipe card. We read them for inspiration: the ingredients, the techniques, and the stories behind how a place eats. Then we cook our own way. That's why most of our books focus on a single country or region, and why we tend to choose ones that are as beautiful to page through as they are useful in the kitchen.
The map brings in another interest of ours, GIS. Laying the collection out geographically makes it easy to find the right book when we're craving a particular part of the world, and it shows at a glance where the gaps are. Switch the map to Our shelf to see what we have, or Wishlist to see what we're hoping to add next.