We asked the experts in Food Networks Kitchens what their all-time favorite cookbooks are. Limiting it to 25 was a major challenge for these culinary aficionados, but after much deliberation and debate, they came up with this list (in no particular order).

1. Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, Deborah Madison (1997). Think of this not as a vegetarian cookbook -though you won't find any meat here - but as the ultimate guide to buying, storing and cooking vegetables. The original chef at San Francisco's famed Greens restaurant, Madison spares us the dogma and instead offers hundreds of simple but brilliant ideas for pairing flavors and improvising with ingredients. A great reference for the home cook.

2. The All New All Purpose Joy of Cooking, ('97 edition), Marion Rombauer Becker, Ethan Becker, Irma Rombauer. Every year another 5 pound, 1,000 page monster of a cookbook comes out, advertised as the only cookbook you'll ever need. While we can't imagine any cookbook ever fitting that description, The Joy of Cooking, since it's first publication in 1936, has come about as close as you can get. While we think all the editions are worth owning, we consider the '97 edition the most essential, the most authoritative, and the most in tune with the way we cook today.

3. Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, Marcella Hazan (1992). If you are to own one Italian cookbook, make it this one. An absolute classic. Hazan, more than anyone, is responsible for introducing American cooks to authentic Italian cuisine. Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking combines Hazan's two previous works into the ultimate Italian kitchen manual; a generous guide to fundamental techniques, terminology and ingredients. Each recipe is a classic unto itself. Suited to cooks of all skill levels.

4. Zuni Cafe Cookbook, Judy Rogers (2005). With this book, one of the West Coast's finest chefs proves herself one of our finest food writers. A natural-born teacher, Rogers shares the accumulated wisdom of a culinary life well-lived. This book will make a better cook of anyone who dips into it. Recipes may not always be simple, but they are written with such care and attention that they become accessible even to the kitchen novice.

5. Field Guide to Produce, Aliza Green (2004). An outrageously useful pocket guide to fruits and vegetables. You'll find yourself consulting it constantly. Great tips, great information, easy to use. Don't go to the grocery store without it.

6. Chocolate Bar, Matt Lewis and Alison Nelson (2004). From the couple behind New York City's beloved sweet shop, Chocolate Bar. Part cookbook, part entertaining book. Brims with ideas for having fun with chocolate: chocolate fondue parties, chocolate martini soirees, chocolate body scrubs. Features great, simple recipes, both retro and modern, from some of the chocolate world's brightest stars.

7. The Africa Cookbook, Jessica Harris. A terrific introduction the little known cuisines of Africa. Harris' book takes pains to go beyond recipes and offer a glimpse at the cultures they've sprung from.

8. The Foods & Wines of Spain, Penelope Casas (1982). The best, most comprehensive treatment of traditional Spanish cooking that we know of. A joy to read and cook from.

9. Simple French Food, Richard Olney (1974). Among the most widely admired cookbooks on any cuisine. There are probably chefs that could recite it from memory. Olney's is not shortcut cooking, but for anyone interested in real French cooking, you won't find a better guide.

10. The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook, Matt Lee and Ted Lee (2006). An utterly charming cookbook from two of our favorite young food writers. You'll find great storytelling and fantastic recipes that span the South, from the Low Country to the Bayou.

11. An Invitation to Indian Cooking, Madhur Jaffrey (2003; first published 1973). With this book, Jaffrey went a long way towards erasing the popular conception of Indian cooking as too complicated and expensive for the Western home cook. A recent inductee to the James Beard Cookbook Hall of Fame.

12. Great Tastes Made Simple, Andrea Immer (2002). If you'd like to integrate wine into your mealtime but don't know how, this book is an invaluable resource for pairings, flavor combinations and more.

13. The American Century Cookbook: The Most Popular Recipes of the 20th Century, Jean Anderson (1997). This is cultural history in cookbook form. Anderson's painstaking research has yielded an enormously fun romp through the highs (Chiffon cake!) and lows (Perfection Salad) of a century of American cooking. Full of trivia, humor and well-tested recipes.

14. The Art of South American Cooking, Felipe Rojas-Lombardi (1991). Our favorite book on oft-overlooked cuisines of South America.

15. The Key to Chinese Cooking, Irene Kuo (1977). Kuo's been called the Julia Child of Chinese cooking, and this book is the reason why. Takes readers by the hand with clear and careful explanations of tools and techniques. A classic.

16. Fish, Mark Bittman (1994). From the author of the NY Times' popular 'Minimalist' column, Bittman is a genius at turning minimal effort into maximum flavor. Here he offers a basic guide to the fruits of the sea. Easy to use, with no-fuss recipes, clear instructions on basic techniques, and helpful lists of fish substitutions.

17. Rick Bayless's Mexican Kitchen, Rick Bayless (1996). This is Bayless the teacher at his best - authentic and accessible, instructive and entertaining. Every page brims with Bayless's profound knowledge of Mexican regional cooking, surely one of the world's most undervalued cuisines.

18. The Cooking of the Eastern Mediterranean, Paula Wolfert (1994). From one of our foremost experts on the foods of the Mediterranean. This book is one of Wolfert's best. The recipes collected here were the product of five years of travel and exploration, and Wolfert takes you along for the ride, making this book nearly as fun to read as to cook from.

19. The Breakfast Book, Marion Cunningham (1987). This book inspires devotion like few others around here. Cunningham, best known for overseeing the revision of the Fannie Farmer Cookbook, celebrates that most American of meals with some of our all-time favorite recipes for biscuits and doughnuts and pancakes and sticky buns...You'll never skip breakfast again!

20. Baking: From My Home to Yours, Dorie Greenspan (2006). Already hailed as a classic, this is the latest book from one of today's most highly respected authorities on baking. Covers everything from breakfast quick breads to cookies, cakes to custards. Greenspan writes recipes you can rely on.

21. How to Boil Water, Food Network Kitchens (2006). Our how-to-cook manifesto explains everything you might want to know to get started (or get better) in the kitchen.

22. The Barbecue Bible, Steven Raichlen (1998). The depth and breadth of this book are without peer. Raichlen serves up the world on a grill.

23. Feast, Nigella Lawson (2004). This book's love and joy for both food and community are inspirational. The food's warm and comforting, without ever being "comfort food."

24. Pot on the Fire: Further Exploits of a Renegade Cook, John Thorne with Matt Lewis Thorne (2000). Not a cookbook per se, but essential reading for anyone interested in becoming a cook - not a chef, not an at-home gourmet, but a full citizen of one's own kitchen. Thorne is the poet laureate of the home cook. In Pot on the Fire, he offers collection of passionate, personal and literate essays on life in the kitchen. This book offers further proof that Thorne isn't just one of the best foods writers at work today, he's one of the best writers, period.

25. Classic Home Desserts: A Treasury of Heirloom and Contemporary Recipes from Around the World, Richard Sax (1994) - The product of ten years of research, this is a must-have collection of international home desserts. Recipes are uncomplicated and well-laid out. Sax takes pains to offer the reader plenty of help with tips and techniques, while leavening the proceedings with lively bits of history, literary quotations and personal anecdotes.