Any cookbook by The Culinary Institute of America is gold. "Atelier Crenn: Metamorphosis of Taste" looks pretty darn cool--but it looks like it's geared toward a cooking crowd that is very talented who has access to more uncommon ingredients, so be warned! "Cooking for Geeks" by Jeff Potter came out recently and looks promising, too. "Asian-American: Proudly Inauthentic Recipes from the Phillipines to Brooklyn" by Dale Talde is a really fun, brutally honest book with some great ideas (and graphics--let's just face it: pictures are important these days for the cookbook crowd).