By Ryan Snyder, Writer for Foodgeeks.com and Winegeeks.com

Every Christmas for at least the past decade I've put together a number of cookbooks on my wishlist for the family. Some of the books were great, and others I donated to Goodwill. Here is a list of 10 of my personal favorites... books that I refer to time and time again (or in the case of the Silver Spoon, a book I will refer to time and time again after someone gifts it to me).

The Silver Spoon This is the mother of all Italian cookbooks. My one wish from Santa this year is The Silver Spoon (does anyone have an email address for the North Pole?). It covers traditional dishes from each of the Italian provinces, and maintains the authentic Italian style of cooking, which means simple recipes that focus on quality ingredients and taste outrageous!

Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking The first roasted chicken I ever made was directly from this book: Poulet Roti a la Normande. I still salivate thinking back to this first experience, and any time I want to make a poultry or meat dish Julia's treasure is the first book I pick up to look for inspiration.

The Food Lover's Companion I love food, which is why I love this book. It's my companion. Seriously, I refer to this book about once a week, any time I'm looking for ingredients I've never heard of, like Galanga. I found out it tastes a lot like ginger, used it in a Thai dish I was preparing and my dinner guests couldn't have been any happier.

Mangoes and Curry Leaves With a name like Mangoes and Curry Leaves, I was sold before I even touched the book. It's a heartwarming journey of a couple through southeast Asia, and their experience of the food culture that is unlike anything I can imagine living here in the States. Hey, it's a lot safer to just cook the food in your own home and let someone else do all the dirty work.

The Joy of Cooking Sometimes we need a book that covers the basics, whether we're cooking an old favorite or trying a new recipe or ingredient for the first time. The Joy of Cooking covers meat temperatures, provides a recipe for each ingredient covered, and even tells you how to do something as simple as cooking rice. It sounds silly, but I still open up this book every time I need to make rice, I just can't remember the rice to water ratio for the life of me.

The Professional Chef The Culinary Institute of America made this book a notch above the rest, for those who know they're good in the kitchen and looking to step up their game a little bit. It explains why chefs do the things they do, like making a roux step by step by step with the scientific reason behind each step. It'll make you feel like Alton Brown when you read it. At least it did for me. For 2 months, every time I ran into a friend I asked, "What's my name?" They said, "Uhhh... Ryan?" I said, "No. It's Alton Brown. That's how much I know about food now."

In The Sweet Kitchen Mom mastered the art of baking pies. As a kid, I would lay in bed smelling her apple pie baking the night before Thanksgiving, knowing the next day I would skip the turkey and head straight for the dessert table. Well making pies is old school now. This book will teach you how to make truffles and caramelized sugar twirls that stand 10 inches tall from your plate. You'll stop making people Oooh and Aaah, and simply leave them speechless.

The Bread Baker's Apprentice Let's face it: Cooking is easy compared to baking. With cooking, we toss in a little of this, a handful of that, and a shake-shake of that mystery ingredient that we can't pronounce. But with baking, we have to perform measurements, kneading, shaping and scoring with exact precision. This is the book that you need to help you graduate from banana bread to French artisinal breads.

The Pie and Pastry Bible Ok, so sometimes fancy carmelized sugar twirls are a little too fancy schmancy and all we want is a good ol' blueberry pie. Well, here is the cookbook for you. You'll make the best damn pies this side of the Atlantic. Buy it for someone you love. So they can make you some goo-ood pie.

The Cafe Cookbook From the London River Cafe. You know, the one where Jamie Oliver got his start. Say no more!