Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat — Samin Nosrat

Nosrat distills all of cooking into four elements and teaches you to use your senses instead of measuring cups. The hand-drawn illustrations by Wendy MacNaughton are works of art. The accompanying Netflix series brought the philosophy to millions, but the book goes deeper — explaining how salt penetrates proteins over time, why acid brightens flavor, and how fat carries aroma. It won the James Beard Award and is widely considered the best cooking book of the 21st century so far.