Where to Start with Ross Dobson
Ross Dobson is an Australian chef and cookbook author with thirteen books to his name, including best-sellers on grilling, Asian cooking, and South American cuisine. He runs restaurants in Western Sydney and writes cookbooks that are practical without being plain. His approach is to take cuisines he loves and make them genuinely achievable for home cooks, with clear instructions, honest ingredient lists, and the kind of recipe testing that means things actually work the first time you try them.
Start here
The Food of Argentina
Ross Dobson & Rachel Tolosa Paz · 256 pages · 2018 · Easy
Themes: Argentine cuisine, asado, empanadas, dulce de leche, home cooking
A beautifully photographed survey of Argentine cooking that covers the full range of the cuisine, from asado and empanadas to pastas, stews, and dulce de leche desserts. Co-authored with Rachel Tolosa Paz, who brings genuine Argentine roots to the project, this book makes the case that Argentine food is far more than grilled meat.
Why Start Here
This is Dobson’s most distinctive book, the one where his skill at making unfamiliar cuisines approachable meets a food culture that most people only know through stereotypes. More than eighty recipes cover street food, family meals, celebration dishes, and sweets. The empanada chapter alone gives you several regional variations. The asado section teaches chimichurri and grilling technique without requiring a fire pit. The pastas and gnocchi reflect the deep Italian influence on Argentine cooking that most English-language cookbooks overlook.
The photography is a real asset. Every recipe is accompanied by images that show both the finished dish and the context it comes from: markets, family kitchens, street stalls, and the Argentine countryside. It makes the book feel like a food-focused travel guide as much as a cookbook.
What to Expect
A hardcover at 256 pages with full-color photography throughout. The recipes are beginner-friendly, with clear instructions and widely available ingredients. This is not a deep-dive specialist book. It is a broad, confident introduction to a cuisine that deserves more attention outside South America.