Can someone recommend me a good Cooking Bible?

[Darth Wagtaros]

The Cook Illustrated books are pretty decent too.

[Pedrito]

If you want to know how's the career and life of an apprentice cook, I'd recommend Bill Buford's Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany : the real life adventures of a journalist who tried to become a cook.

http://www.amazon.com/Heat-Adventures-Pasta-Maker-Apprentice-Dante-Quoting/dp/1400041201

For Italian cuisine, The Silver Spoon is THE book. I think every italian family owns a copy of it.

http://www.amazon.com/Silver-Spoon-Phaidon-Press/dp/0714845310/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1302627758&sr=1-1

L.