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The Best Cookbooks of 2023

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The internet abounds with “best cookbooks” lists, but making ours is a particularly painstaking process. Each year’s new cookbooks could form a precariously tall stack—sometimes the pile of just the latest month’s releases threatens to topple over our desks. We divvy them up and get into it: For many of us, it’s the best part of the job. Because we aren’t just glancing at the year’s most important cookbooks or reading through the chapter intros—we’re rolling up our sleeves and tying on our aprons and putting these books to the test. After months of cooking and reading and tasting, this is a list we really stand behind, the books of 2023 that delighted us most and deserve a spot on your groaning bookshelves.

There are books here that will release you from weeknight dinner boredom. And some that will transform the way you cook and bake for friends. There are books for camping trips and dumpling-folding parties, better holiday meals and more flavorful vegetables at every dinner. Grab a few as gifts for family and snag one or two to inspire your own cooking in the months to come.

The Best Cookbooks of the Year

Chili Crisp: 50+ Recipes to Satisfy Your Spicy, Crunchy, Garlicky Cravings

Chili Crisp by James Park

You might be tempted to think of chili crisp as a condiment, but in his cookbook, Chili Crisp , James Park proves that it’s more like a state of mind. The sparkly red oil isn’t just for drizzling on fried eggs or rice—it’s a dynamic ingredient that can meld with tomato juices in a summery panzanella or marry with pork fat for a glossy, rich egg yolk sauce that coats every piece of bucatini in a spicy carbonara . Whether you’re trying to use up a jar of chili crisp, expand your collection, or perfect your own house recipe for the dynamic crunchy condiment, this book will lead the way. If you’re looking for a fun project, check out the spicy pork mandu or the chili crisp focaccia. If quick gratification is what you’re looking for, Park has you covered with the tan tan Shin ramyun—an ingenious mash-up of Sichuan, Japanese, and Korean flavors. — Anna Hezel

Company: The Radically Casual Art of Cooking for Others

Company by Amy Thielen

If I had to choose just one 2023 cookbook to keep on my bedside table for reading, I’d reach for Amy Thielen’s Company . Thielen’s vivid way of describing the food she cooks in rural Minnesota makes this a worthy buy even if you don’t ever preheat your oven to make one of the menus she shares. As I wrote in my preview of the book , “The occasions you mark might not be the same as hers, but reading each of Thielen’s warm descriptions feels like opening the door of her cabin and going inside, finding the buffet table, and piling your plate high.” If you thrive on gathering your people together to eat, there are many sparks of inspiration here.

While Thielen’s tone is casual, and it’s clear that to her, a great party is more likely to have loud music than a fancy floral centerpiece, make no mistake: many of these recipes are decidedly chef-y, time-consuming projects taken on in service of a great hang. But this is a chef you wan to be with all weekend, and learn from, one recipe at a time. The food is smart: The way she tucks cinnamon sticks into a slowly burbling pan of confit vegetables gives the whole thing a subtly warm flavor that feels just right for the high-harvest moment when the tail end of summer releases into fall. She offers tricks for refreshing shrimp that have “a whiff of ‘fish washed up on the beach’” and a technique for candied walnuts that shed their wispy, tannic skins in a baking soda bath before getting a whisper-thin layer of caramel. The menus tend to be meaty and cozy, always keeping an eye on thrift. If you keep Company on your bedside table, it probably won’t be long before you start dialing up friends and inviting them over. — Maggie Hoffman

Cook It Wild: Sensational Prep-Ahead Meals for Camping, Cabins, and the Great Outdoors

Cook It Wild by Chris Nuttall-Smith

I love the outdoors. I love camping. I love cooking with a grill or an open fire. But I am dubious, to say the least, of magazines and cookbooks that claim you can make “amazing” food on a backpacking trek to Utah or even a car camping trip to the local state park. Most of the camping recipes I’ve tried suffer from one of two problems: The food is too boring or the food, despite all claims to the contrary, is way too complicated to make at a campsite. Chris Nuttall-Smith’s Cook It Wild succeeds where others have failed. He lays out easy-to-execute steps to do at home before your trip begins, then follows with easy steps that you can actually accomplish at camp with nothing fancier than a propane burner and some resealable bags of ingredients you prepped a day or two before. His deeply flavorful miso butter radishes transformed my expectations about what I can do with the foil packet cooking of my childhood, and his campfire dan dan noodles prove that following a bit of advance home prep with a cooking session on open fire out in the wild can amount to a meal that’s really special. Some of his tips—like dehydrating the pork for the dan dan noodles at home—are so smart that I plan to work them into my regular in-the-kitchen cooking too. — Noah Kaufman

Ever-Green Vietnamese

Ever-Green Vietnamese by Andrea Nguyen

As someone who has cooked extensively from Andrea Nguyen’s many cookbooks, caramelizing pork crumbles to serve on rice porridge and simmering chicken for pho , I was curious to see how Nguyen would tackle the world of plant-forward cooking. In Ever-Green Vietnamese , she proves that roasted cauliflower really can take on the sweet, crispy-edged spirit of char siu and that sate sauce belongs on baked sweet potatoes as much as it does on grilled meat skewers. I loved the herbaceous green shaking salmon bowl topped with oven-crisped chips of salmon skin. The precise, illustrative instructions about choosing the right rice flour and knowing when to flip the bánh khoái had me confidently frying, stuffing, and folding the crispy turmeric-tinted crepes with ease, and I can’t wait to bring more of Nguyen’s recipes into my weeknight rotation. — Anna Hezel

Flavor+Us: Cooking for Everyone

Flavor + Us by Rahanna Bisseret Martinez

Rahanna Bisseret Martinez is an indisputable rising talent in the food world, and her debut cookbook, Flavor + Us: Cooking for Everyone , is a testament to her creative culinary instincts. Her recipes are informed by her Haitian, Mexican, and Black American heritage, but simultaneously employ the diverse pantry of ingredients and foodways she’s had access to growing up in the Bay Area.

Some particular standouts include her Trinity Korokke , crisp and melty potato croquettes that merge the popular Japanese street food and the Cajun/Creole trio of green pepper, onion, and celery, and Oolong Tea Flan , an aromatic and nuanced riff on a classic dessert. The book offers a fun mix of dishes that skew toward snacks, side dishes, and basic staples—all of which can assemble together to form an exquisite spread for parties or family gatherings. — Wilder Davies

Let’s Eat by Dan Pelosi

Anyone familiar with Dan Pelosi’s delightful internet alter ego, GrossyPelosi, knows that with Let’s Eat , we’re all in for a good time. Beyond fun dish names like Broccolini Panini (which I have repeated, out loud, to myself at least once a day since making that gloriously cheesy sandwich) and Gay Italian Wedding Soup (made with rainbow chard, obviously), the bright colors, the family-focused stories, and the infectious smile of Pelosi himself make this book a joy to thumb through. The recipes are Italian American gone camp : tiny rainbow cookies become a large sliceable loaf , tiramisu and affogato merge into a single hot-then-its-cold dessert, and chicken gets coated in a multi-fruit mostarda that I want piled on every cheese board I eat hereafter. Halfway through the book, Pelosi stops to let you know about all the “secret sandwiches” lying within its pages: i.e., how to make the best use of leftovers. Combined with the big, juicy centerfold of an Italian hoagie dripping with giardiniera-spiked aioli, it’s reason enough to return to these pages again and again. — Joe Sevier

Made in Taiwan

Made in Taiwan by Clarissa Wei

Made in Taiwan is a cookbook with a mission. Many have long failed to acknowledge that Taiwanese food is a cuisine distinct from the broad category of Chinese food—and this book absolutely corrects that, even while China still refuses to recognize the sovereignty of this island nation. It does so through impressive research by journalist Clarissa Wei and culinary instructor Ivy Chen. Wei grew up in California, the daughter of Taiwanese immigrants, and now lives in Taiwan with her husband; she interviewed people living in Taiwan today and consulted historical documents to track the way Taiwanese cuisine evolved over time as indigenous populations, immigrants, and colonizers interacted. The book was researched, written, and photographed on the island of Taiwan, by an entirely Taiwanese team.

This book is worth reading cover to cover as a text of history and culture. But once you’ve done that, the recipes are delightful, and not to be missed. I had a blast frying crispy popcorn chicken. The recipe guided me to a shatteringly crisp crust, tender meat, and bright, complex flavor thanks to a hearty dose of five-spice seasoning and fried Thai basil. You’ll find that kind of project cooking which recreates restaurant and night market dishes in this book. But in a “Family Style” chapter, you’ll also see simpler recipes for meals like the ones Wei’s mother made at home—the kind that were quickly “chopped, sautéed, and seasoned in one go” and always served with a bowl of rice that held the meal together. — Emily Johnson

Maydān: Recipes from Lebanon and Beyond

Maydān: Recipes from Lebanon and Beyond b y Rose Previte

“Maydān,” as chef Rose Previte explains, is a word found in several Indo-European languages that describes a “central public meeting space, often in the middle of a city.” It is an apt name for Previte’s Washington, DC–area restaurant, which earned a spot on Bon Appétit’s Best New Restaurants List in 2018 and a Michelin star for its hearth-roasted meats and panoply of condiments from across Western Asia and North Africa.

Maydān the cookbook sets an equally expansive table, with recipes from Georgia, Iran, Lebanon, Oman, Turkey, Egypt, Tunisia, and Morocco—to name a few. It celebrates home cooking from all of these regions, with a spread tailor-made for large gatherings: grand mounds of rice, plentiful dips, and a trove of roasted and spiced meats. As Previte describes, it’s food “grandmas all over the world are known for.” And like in any good recipe passed down from your grandma, you might encounter some manual labor. The Georgian Chicken Satsivi required me to hand-knead ground walnuts for 20 minutes. But the payoff—a richly textured walnut sauce that covered broiled chicken like a weighted blanket—was well worth the cramped hands. — Wilder Davies

My Everyday Lagos

My Everyday Lagos, Yewande Komolafe

“Having base stocks and sauces on hand is a crucial step to building a Nigerian pantry,” writes New York Times columnist Yewande Komolafe in the early pages of this essential collection of recipes from Nigeria’s largest city, Lagos, and its diaspora. And as you begin to cook, you’ll taste how these building blocks layer deep flavor into a wide variety of dishes. You’ll want to double or triple the recipes so you can freeze a stash.

Begin with a quick, fresh purée of of sweet red bell peppers, onion, garlic, ginger, and Scotch bonnet peppers, which is a starting point for Ata Dín Dín, a luscious, gently simmered sauce that teams up with caramelized tomato paste to lend a dish of mashed beans a rich, fruity flavor that balances the savory thrum of dried crayfish. (Yes, you want the fried sweet plantains on the side.) But you could also use that fresh purée in a soup made with égusi seeds and spinach, or employ the gently cooked-down version as a sauce for speedy stewed sardines or as a dip for yam fritters.

Each element you prepare unlocks more recipes, many of which are presented with flexible protein choices—add any cooked meat you want or roasted mushrooms: “Our cornerstone flavors, such as ferments, herbs, and spices, are so crucial to our cuisine,” Komolafe writes, that “dishes can easily be adapted without meat and are no less satisfying.” When Komolafe started her career in the food industry, she says she “saw the culinary world and its narrow ideas of who gets to tell the story of food…I began to see that the food I was making for others omitted my own voice.” That voice rings through in this triumph of a book—and for that we are all lucky. — Maggie Hoffman

Pulp: A Practical Guide to Cooking with Fruit

Pulp by Abra Berens

The first time I flipped through the pages of Pulp: A Practical Guide to Cooking with Fruit from Michigan-based cook Abra Berens, I immediately walked to the farmers market and bought ingredients for dinner. That first meal—a simple red cabbage slaw, tossed with toasted pepitas, maple-lime dressing, and juicy ground cherries—would linger in my mind as I wandered around the market in the coming weeks.

Pulp is centered around fruit, but it’s not all sweet. Seared strawberries mingle with black pepper and red wine to make a pan sauce for lamb chops, while puréed strawberries and crushed meringues make an ideal sundae. With a substantial section of base recipes—a muffin batter that welcomes any fruit; a pumpernickel bread recipe that you can (and should) use to make apricot-Brie grilled cheeses—Berens teaches readers to consider her recipes as templates: Tailor them to your location and the season, showcasing the ingredients and produce available to you. — Zoe Denenberg

Simply West African

Simply West African by Pierre Thiam

I was first drawn to Pierre Thiam’s Simply West African out of a desire to eat a more diversified, sustainable, plant-focused diet—the type of diet that Thiam advocates for in his work with the United Nations World Food Programme and the International Fund for Agricultural Development. What I found cooking through the book was a wealth of comforting, nourishing, often vegan recipes that I can already tell I’ll return to frequently. The jollof rice was full of acidic warmth from the tomatoes and gentle heat from the Scotch bonnet—a starchy foil for creamy coconut collards. The peanut-based mafé sauce is my new favorite meal-planning staple: it makes a luxurious topping for root vegetables or roasted eggplant . —Anna Hezel

Sofreh: A Contemporary Approach to Classic Persian Cuisine

Sofreh by Nasim Alikhani

“Sofreh is a celebration of my roots in Isfahan, Iran, and the ones I have planted in Brooklyn, New York,” writes Nasim Alikhani in this book’s introduction. “And you, my dear home cook, are invited to the party.” With recipes all woven together by a narrative thread that is at once intensely personal and warmly inviting, this debut cookbook from the chef and owner of the acclaimed Brooklyn restaurant of the same name is as much a joy to read as it is to cook from.

If you, like me, are a devotee of Sofreh the restaurant, then you will be pleased to find many of their signature dishes laid out step-by-step here for recreating, like the Sofreh Bread and Warm Eggplant Dip with Whey that graces nearly every table, and a green salad tossed with a spicy yogurt-based dressing and strewn with warm Medjool dates that adds up to so much more than the sum of its parts. Some dishes, like the Panfried Saffron Shrimp, can be on the table in minutes on a Tuesday, but many feel celebratory, like the cinnamon-scented and crispy-bottomed Tachin Ba Morgh . Like Alikhani’s food, this is a cookbook to spend time with, to come together over, and to savor. — Alaina Chou

A Splash of Soy: Everyday Food from Asia

A Splash of Soy by Lara Lee

Lara Lee’s new cookbook, A Splash of Soy: Everyday Food from Asia, makes deciding what’s for dinner a whole lot easier. This weeknight-friendly book leans into the pantry, focusing on ingredients that can impart bold flavor in a short amount of time.

Lee somehow manages to make multistep recipes feel chaos-free, guiding you along the way as if she was right there in the kitchen by your side. In her Tabasco and Gochujang Cured Salmon Poke Bowl , the no-cook salmon quickly cures in a four-ingredient marinade while you assemble the rest of the ingredients, like blanched spinach and crumbled seaweed. In her recipe for Miso and Gochujang Roast Chicken, she helps you achieve both perfectly caramelized chicken skin and drink-worthy pan juices which get transformed into gravy. And while there are lots of easy sub 30-minute dinners in this book, Lee offers party-worthy showstoppers too. There’s something delicious here for you no matter how much effort you’re looking to put into dinner tonight. — Kate Kassin

Start Here covers both cooking and baking.

Start Here: Instructions for Becoming a Better Cook

Start Here by Sohla El-Waylly

Culinary school is unjustifiably expensive, and Sohla El-Waylly knows that all too well. So for her debut cookbook , the Bon Appétit alum and host of the History Channel’s Ancient Recipes with Sohla set out to Robin Hood that knowledge out from behind the walls of pricey culinary training institutions and into the hands of home cooks. Start Here may not encapsulate everything you’d learn at the CIA or ICE, but it is a comprehensive guide to the foundations crucial to the making of any good cook, professional or otherwise.

With robust chapters on savory and sweet, El-Waylly ensures you’re adept at wielding a whisk just as well as a knife. You’ll learn precision cuts, the science of emulsions, and the pitfalls of undermixing your batter, all in the same book—while having a boatload of fun. I got to revisit the same braising basics I learned in cooking school, but this time, through El-Waylly’s charming stuffed squid braised in a radiant saffron tomato sauce. Her heirloom tomato salad with nori powder and MSG is an umami playground. And the cheesecake-like baked maple yogurt, inspired by a jaggery-laced Bengali steamed yogurt, was a nostalgic nod to our shared Bangladeshi roots. In a sea of old guard texts on culinary fundamentals that rarely veer beyond the boundaries of European cooking, El-Waylly’s book is a revelatory addition. And it’s sure to be an indispensable resource for home cooks of all levels for years to come. — Anikah Shaokat

Tandoori Home Cooking

Tandoori Home Cooking by Maunika Gowardhan

For years, Maunika Gowardhan has been not-so-quietly widening the world’s understanding of Indian cuisine through her blog, Cook in a Curry . In 2021, she expertly captured the country’s kaleidoscopic culinary landscape in Thali . And this year, she exhibits the full breadth of South Asian barbecue through her latest project, Tandoori Home Cooking .

While true tandoori methods rely on blazing coals and large clay ovens, Gowardhan offers ways around such logistical barriers that still deliver the smoke and char. Her dhungar -smoked ghee, for example, is a nifty trick that sneaks in all the deep, dusky flavors of coal fire into naan, grilled proteins, and skewers. While Gowardhan’s book has no shortage of meaty dishes, it’s her vegetable-centric recipes, like Potato, Paneer, and Sweet Corn Kebabs and these eggplant tikkas , that I keep going back to. And come summer 2024, I’ll be deep in Tandoori all throughout barbecue season. — Anikah Shaokat

A peek inside Hetty McKinnon’s Tenderheart.

Tenderheart: A Cookbook About Vegetables and Unbreakable Family Bonds

Tenderheart by Hetty McKinnon

I’d never found the concept of “Julie and Julia-ing” a cookbook at all appealing. And then I got my copy of Hetty McKinnon’s latest, Tenderheart , and immediately started marking up the pages. Tenderheart is fresh and lovely, an ode to McKinnon’s father written in her signature immersive style: The cookbook author coaxes you into her world, sharing the way she eats with her family and how she thinks about food just as much as she imparts smart techniques and flavor combinations. So many of the dishes in this all-vegetarian book have now become a part of my regular rotation: the stewed eggplant with lentils is a great vegetarian main to serve a crowd (and has become my go-to meal-prep lunch). The white beans with carrots and yuzu bring bright flavor to winter months, and the Sesame Broccoli With Crumbled Tofu is a quick way to get a veggie-packed meal on the table without thinking too much. The black bean and tortilla bake modeled after lasagna (the tortillas stand in for the noodles) is now a staple in my household, as is the torn kimchi and kale lasagna (no layering necessary), and I’m looking forward to trying out the butternut squash one where thin slices of the squash mimic noodles in what is sure to be a cozy showstopper for holiday meals (for another showstopper, don’t skip over the striking Broccoli Forest Loaf ).

Also helpful are McKinnon’s swaps at the bottom of each recipe, which suggest ways to make the dishes vegan or to use up similar ingredients you might have in your home. In a time where more and more people are leaning into plant-based diets, this thoughtful cookbook is a must for cooks of all levels—pair it with a couple nice spices (like gochujaru or smoked paprika) for a gift any vegetable lover would be thrilled to receive. — Sonia Chopra

Veg-table: Recipes, Techniques, and Plant Science for Big-Flavored, Vegetable-Focused Meals

Veg-Table by Nik Sharma

Nik Sharma raises the bar yet again with his new cookbook, Veg-Table . Whether you’re a veggie lover and enthusiast or (especially!) a skeptic, I urge you to lay your trust in Sharma to show you the true versatility of the produce aisle .

As in his other projects, Sharma weaves together a methodical scientific approach with his mastery in the kitchen to teach you how to coax the best out of vegetables, familiar and new. As a child, I ate cassava rather begrudgingly, but I delighted in Sharma’s reframing of the tuber in the flavors of Spanish bravas. He demonstrates the perkiness of bell peppers through a spin on the popular take-out staple, cashew chicken. And sweet potatoes get the kick of kung pao, coated in a tingly Sichuan peppercorn sauce. Veg-Table is a vital addition for anyone hungry for knowledge—and flavor. —Anikah Shaokat

Vegetable Revelations by Steven Satterfield

Vegetable Revelations: Inspiration for Produce-Forward Cooking

When Steven Satterfield’s first cookbook, Root to Leaf , came out in 2014, it felt like a revelation. At the time, veg-forward cooking, now a mainstay of so many of our diets, still felt novel—most restaurant menus and cookbooks weren’t yet catering to vegetarians; the phrase “plant-based” was years away from becoming a buzzword. Satterfield’s book helped give shape to the nascent movement that’s become such a common way of life for so many.

Now, the chef is back with his second book, aptly named Vegetable Revelations . It’s a lyrical beauty of a cookbook: Satterfield and coauthor Andrea Slonecker’s prose about vegetables and their textures and cooking techniques adds a richness to the recipes and makes the book as pleasing to read through as it is to cook through. The first part of the book focuses on building blocks, like spice blends, salad dressings, and condiments, that impart big flavor. Then we move on to the recipes themselves, divided into categories by type (such as roots, leaves, brassicas, and nightshades). Look for fresh takes on Thousand Island dressing , creamed greens , and fruit crisps (Satterfield uses zucchini and ginger instead of apples), plus recipes that help decrease your kitchen waste, like this zingy tomato-peach juice that makes smart use of bruised summer produce. Whether its a weekend project (dandelion green pappardelle; celery root noodles) or a new ways to cook heavy-rotation veg (parsnips with mole crunch; sweet potatoes with seaweed-chile butter; cauliflower chaat), there’s likely something for every skilled home cook in this ambitious book, ideal for anyone who knows their way around the kitchen and is looking to find new ways to find delight in produce, no matter the season. — Sonia Chopra

The World Central Kitchen Cookbook

The World Central Kitchen Cookbook by José Andrés

As Epi contributor Megan Lloyd put it in her first look at The World Central Kitchen Cookbook , each recipe in this new book tells a story. And while that’s a gloss that a lot of cookbook authors try to give to their books, it is uniquely true here. The recipes are based on the work done by Andrés’s aid organization all over the world, and feature stories of the people who cooked these dishes on the ground for those in need. The book presents scaled-down recipes alongside images of the WCK team feeding vast numbers of displaced people in disaster zones.

Even if you’re not cooking hundreds of servings, these are the sort of comforting meals that can bring families—biological, chosen, or otherwise—together around a table. My own family relished the pork al pastor (and the leftover pork al pastor and the leftover leftover pork al pastor), which fed us for the better part of a week. — Noah Kaufman

The Best Baking Books of the Year

The Cookie That Changed My Life

The Cookie That Changed My Life by Nancy Silverton

There are countless baking books out there that claim to cover the “classics,” but this latest book from veteran chef and cookbook author Nancy Silverton does so in a way that feels at once exciting and irresistibly nostalgic. There are familiar favorites, each with their own special Silverton touch: pound cake made with nearly browned “golden” butter and a sprinkling of milk powder; banana cream pie fashioned slab-style and dotted with toasty salted Spanish peanuts; rugelach with a sugar-laminated dough that gave my grandmother’s age-old recipe a run for its money (sorry, Nannie); and, of course, the peanut butter cookies that are the book’s namesake. And then there are some new creations that are sure to become classics in their own right: scones with jam-filled craters reminiscent of thumbprint cookies; iced raisin bars, Silverton’s answer to the Fig Newtons of her youth; marzipan cake encased in a pastry shell spread with a thin line of sweet-tart raspberry jam. One thing unites these bakes, old and new: They are, indeed, life-changing. — Alaina Chou

100 Morning Treats

100 Morning Treats by Sarah Kieffer

This cookbook made me change my mind about blueberry muffins. Up until I baked a few recipes out of 100 Morning Treats , I’d only ever eaten blueberry muffins that tasted cloyingly sweet. But Sarah Kieffer’s easy recipe made me a blueberry muffin convert thanks to a simple addition of nutmeg that balanced out the sweetness of the berries and the sugar topping. And honestly, that’s how it goes with a lot of the recipes in 100 Morning Treats —there are simple and straightforward recipes here that a novice baker who often opts for boxed cakes and muffins (guilty) can make with little flourishes that elevate your baked goods into something you could never find on the back of the box.

Even the more involved recipes, like Kieffer’s chocolate hazelnut crumb cake, don’t feel susceptible to the slightest thing going wrong. (I’ll cite as evidence the nearly empty baking dish left on the counter of my family’s kitchen.) The book’s introduction helps beginning bakers avoid fumbling on the basics like making an egg wash and lining a pan with a parchment paper sling. Maybe I’ll even tackle Kieffer’s homemade Cruffins or tiramisu-inspired breakfast cake next. — Megan Wahn

Snacking Bakes

Snacking Bakes by Yossy Arefi

I simply can’t say enough good things about Snacking Bakes by Yossy Arefi. This cookbook, the author’s third, is by far my favorite of the bunch. Every single recipe perfectly conveys the theme: These bakes are snacks —meant to be made swiftly and enjoyed on the same day . No need to temper ingredients, rest overnight, or plug any equipment into an outlet.

I love the way that Arefi approaches baking: Yes, this is still chemistry, but you’re invited to riff a little and allow your creativity to take hold. If you’re looking for a gift for an avid baker or even for a loved one who has never touched a whisk, this new book will be a guaranteed hit. — Carly Westerfield

Still We Rise

Still We Rise by Erika Council

Erika Council’s Still We Rise is a comprehensive study of the Southern biscuit. It’s also an ode to the Black hands who quite literally shaped these techniques and recipes—including Council’s paternal grandmother, Mildred Edna Cotton Council, writer of the iconic cookbook Mama’s Dip Kitchen and owner of the restaurant by the same name. Council begins by walking you through every step of her classic Bomb Buttermilk Biscuit, then she provides recipes for sweet and savory varieties. I recommend following the book as it’s designed: Start with the basic recipe, then move on to the variations.

I left the book with a better understanding of the way fat and hydration works in biscuits: First I made the classic, then I tried recipes that swap buttermilk for sour cream, mayo, and yogurt. In the end, I felt confident that I could make biscuits with whatever tangy dairy I had on hand. Council tells you why to follow a step in a particular way—and why not to do it another way. You begin to understand why your fat has to be really cold, why you shouldn’t twist your cutter when you’re punching out your biscuits, and why liquid should be incorporated gradually, for example. The biscuits in this book are tender and fluffy in the center, with beautiful layers and crisp edges . It’s so satisfying to work your way through a book and come out the other side feeling like you’ve really got a handle on one category of baking. Council is just the person to lead to you to the best possible biscuit with inviting and instructive writing that also traces a rich history. —Emily Johnson

The Best Cocktail Books of the Year

Every Cocktail Has a Twist

Every Cocktail Has a Twist by Carey Jones and John McCarthy

In the interests of transparency, I need to admit at the top that I’ve known Carey Jones and John McCarthy for a long time. What has always impressed me about their work is the way they make creative, thoughtfully designed cocktails accessible and exciting to make, even for people whose experience making drinks might not have previously extended beyond store-bought margarita mix. In their new book, Every Cocktail Has a Twist , Jones and McCarthy come up with a handful of fresh riffs on a whole range of familiar cocktails, including martinis (and espresso martinis ), margaritas , spritzes, and manhattans . The recipes are pro level but not overly complicated, embedded within a how-to manual that includes truly user-friendly instructions on techniques like rimming a glass, muddling, and proper stirring. Every Cocktail Has a Twist is the book to get this year if you want not only a cool drink to impress the folks at your next dinner party, but also a thorough grounding in the construction of cocktails that you can use every night at 8 p.m. — Noah Kaufman

Juke Joints, Jazz Clubs, and Juice

Juke Joints, Jazz Clubs, and Juice by Toni Tipton-Martin

“My ambition is to ensure that African American workers who plied their trade behind the bar are not forgotten,” writes Toni Tipton-Martin, author of The Jemima Code and Jubilee, two cookbooks celebrating African American kitchen expertise through the centuries. In Juke Joints, Jazz Clubs, and Juice , she goes back 200 years, starting with the long tradition of fermented, brewed, and infused drinks like fruit wines and homemade cordials, continuing the story through the punches and batched drinks of Black caterers and food business owners, the icy smashes and highballs of 18th-century tavern owners, the dramatically layered pousse-cafés of bartenders at private social clubs, the refreshing shaken cocktails she associates with swanky jazz clubs, and stirred concoctions she links to rural juke joints. I started in that section, stirring a sweet chocolate, bourbon, and orange after-dinner drink inspired by Tom Bullock’s 1917 chocolate punch, and a perfect manhattan enriched with a bit of the liquid from a jar of Luxardo cherries . Tipton-Martin, collaborating with her bartender son Brandon Tipton and cocktail expert Tiffanie Barriere, adapts, adjusts, and rewrites the historical recipes to her own modern style, including the original inspiration alongside for comparison. You could make both versions and settle in for a very good read. — Maggie Hoffman

Saved by the Bellini

Saved by the Bellini by John deBary

With every new cookbook I feel more like Lexi Featherson. The Sex and the City character featured in the 2004 episode “Splat” famously cries “No one’s fun anymore! Whatever happened to fun?” before falling to her death after declaring “I’m so bored I could die.” But deBary’s new cocktail book , filled with wacky animations, punny recipe names, and pop culture references, reminds me that cookbooks can be fun. DeBary’s deep knowledge of ’90s culture and interest in toeing the boundaries of what others consider “good taste” has yielded a hilarious and lovable cookbook that can’t help but make you smile. He swaps serious headnotes for rib-tickling ruminations on frosted tips, standard food photography for campy illustrations of anthropomorphic cocktails, and everyday drink recipes for a Technicolored array of kooky combinations . But don’t let deBary’s style and sense of humor fool you: The cookbook is filled with inventive, creative, and easy to make cocktails that have been developed by a master of the craft. Pairing unexpected ingredients like Yoo-Hoo and absinthe and infusing smoky Lapsang Souchong tea into watermelon juice are just some of the techniques you’ll find within this new culinary camp classic. — Jesse Szewczyk

Signature Cocktails

Signature Cocktails by Amanda Schuster

This beautifully photographed collection is very international, highlighting iconic drink recipes from bars across the world. And while there are plenty of familiar classic cocktails in the early, historical pages of the book, Schuster does a great job of tracking down lesser-known drinks like the Fanciulli , a lightly bitter 1930s manhattan variation that you don’t see everywhere but totally should. That Fernet-bittered whiskey drink couldn’t be more different from the fruit-punch-like Aperol and rum combo called the Hit Me Baby One Mai Tai, which hails from Los Angeles, circa 2017—and it shows that there’s something for every mood and flavor preference in this volume.

I normally wouldn’t gravitate toward a sugar-rimmed drink, but I found myself adoring the Almond Blossom Crusta—a combination of cognac, gin, lemon, and orgeat that was the signature cocktail of a hotel in Santiago in the 1940s. I’d definitely make it again. But I’m also excited to keep sipping my way through this book to find my own new signature drink. — Maggie Hoffman

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The 23 Best Cookbooks of Spring 2023

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Reviewing the best cookbooks of spring 2023 was like attending a different kind of culinary school. I cooked through dozens of cookbooks, working my way through recipes—both good and bad—and ended up with a fridge constantly overflowing with leftovers. (I even started a mailing list to share my bounty with the other people in my building, because there’s only so much food I can eat.) I found myself happily diving into techniques that were unfamiliar to me, like incorporating clarified butter into croissant dough or making Indonesian spice pastes, and cuisines I had only ever experienced in a restaurant but had never attempted to recreate in my own kitchen. Some of the books below encouraged me to cook out of my comfort zone, while others were simply fun to cook through. All 23 of these spring releases, however, left me feeling inspired—and, most important, well-fed. 

More Than Cake by Natasha Pickowicz

I can’t be the only one who was devastated when Flora Coffee shuttered in 2021. As a young cook, I spent many of my precious days off trekking to New York’s Upper East Side for pastry chef Natasha Pickowicz ’s baked goods. She made the most magnificent sticky buns, savory scones, cookies, and loaf cakes—pastries so good I still think about them. 

Luckily for me, I can now recreate many of Pickowicz’s recipes at home. Easy, stress-free baking is all the rage these days, but I love that Pickowicz encourages her readers to think of baking “not as an overwhelming means to an end but as a meditative process to enjoy in and of itself.” Take your time making her brown butter, buckwheat, and chocolate chunk cookies (which require a 24-hour rest in the fridge to fully hydrate the dough, which is the secret to crispy edges) and the salty-sweet pecan and black cardamom sticky buns made with a no-knead honey brioche. You’ll be so pleased you did.

More Than Cake

Tenderheart  by Hetty Lui McKinnon

I’ve long been a fan of  Hetty Lui McKinnon’s recipes , which prove that vegetarian cooking is anything but boring. I continue to turn to her last book,  To Asia, With Love , often, so it’s no surprise that I’ve been cooking enthusiastically from her newest one. 

The book is an ode to her late father, a fresh produce supplier who passed away when she was just 15. I found McKinnon’s writing on love, grief, food, and identity to be incredibly touching and relatable. My mother was diagnosed with early on-set Alzheimer’s when I was just 19, and reading the book, I understood exactly what she meant when she wrote about why food is meaningful to her. “Food has always been emotional for me,” she writes. “It is tied to my identity, my heritage, my family and my community. It represents the experiences of the generations before me, and it is a legacy for my children. In food, I find my home, and in this vegetable life I have found a way to stay connected to my dad.”

What I appreciate most about  Tenderheart  is how McKinnon highlights different ways to use Asian vegetables beyond how they’re typically prepared: stir-fried, poached, or stirred into a casserole. She incorporates choy sum into her galette with feta and chars gai lan for a savory salad dressed in soy tahini. The book is divided into chapters by vegetable, and I love that McKinnon devotes so much space to taro, a starchy tuber that happens to be one of my favorites. If you’re looking for creative ways to eat more vegetables,  Tenderheart is a great place to begin.

Tenderheart

The Everlasting Meal Cookbook by Tamar Adler

This is the book I’ve been waiting for all my life! As someone who develops and tests recipes for a living, my fridge is a constant treasure trove of leftovers. While I’ve tried to be judicious about incorporating these bits and bobs into my cooking, it can be challenging to feel excited while doing it. Tamar Adler ’s book is a follow-up to  An Everlasting Meal , her book of essays on eating well while cooking frugally. The Everlasting Meal Cookbook offers a rejuvenating approach to using up odd ends and making the most of your ingredients, even ones you normally wouldn’t think twice about tossing. Cherry stems? Steep them to make tea. Banana peels? Use them in thoran, an Indian dry-fry. Leftover mozzarella or feta brine? Use it to marinate your chicken. 

Adler’s conversational tone feels like a friend cheering you on as you rummage through your fridge for dinner. On cabbage and self-doubt: “You may find yourself with forgotten or neglected or graying cabbage—which you could call ‘dubious cabbage,’ except that it is you who are dubious, not the cabbage.” If Cheryl Strayed’s Dear Sugar were a cooking column, I suspect it might look something like this book. Adler reminds me that I am not alone in my journey to repurpose and extend the life of my fridge and pantry contents, and her book has not only inspired me to be more thoughtful about the way I cook but also the way I save my scraps. Good beginnings, she advises, come from good ends. As her friend humorously suggested, perhaps the book should have been called  How to Cook Everything…Again . It’s a lesson I think we could all use.

An Everlasting Meal Cookbook

The Indonesian Table by Petty Pandean-Elliot

I’ve enjoyed my fair share of Indonesian food in restaurants, but I had never attempted to make it at home until I got my hands on this book from Petty Pandean-Elliot, a noted Indonesian chef and writer. Her book offers a glimpse into the rich, diverse culinary traditions of Indonesia, a country spanning three time zones and home to more than 700 local dialects. “The marriage of Arabic, Indian, European (Dutch, Portuguese, and Spanish), Chinese, and Peranakan influences with our indigenous ingredients has culminated in a fantastically original culinary tapestry,” she writes. Try your hand at making bumbus—spice pastes that serve as the foundation for many Indonesian dishes—then dive into the fragrant curries, braises, and refreshing salads. The bogor tempeh laksa is a deeply satisfying noodle dish, but I’m also a fan of sayur lodeh, a simple vegetable curry.

The Indonesian Table

Vegetable Revelations by Steven Satterfield

The recipes in James Beard Award–winning chef Steven Satterfield’s new book embody the way I, and I’m sure many others, want to eat all the time: seasonal, plant-focused meals filled with flavor and texture. While not strictly vegetarian, Satterfield’s goal is to get home cooks excited about fresh produce and to encourage his readers to make vegetables the star of their meals. 

One of the ways he does that is through one big (and in hindsight, obvious) lesson: Knife work is crucial in vegetable-centric dishes. As Satterfield notes in the introduction, whether you’re dicing, slicing, or grating, how you choose to prep your vegetables will change how they feel and taste. And beyond knife cuts, his recipes for “flavor bombs” (what he describes as “palate-pushing condiments”) and savory sauces, like seaweed-chile butter and carrot-top chermoula, are extremely handy for livening up your vegetables.

Some of the recipes, like celery root noodles with smoked trout and beurre blanc, certainly feel chef-y and slightly fancy, but the book is balanced by homier comforts like the roast chicken and turnip tray bake. I look forward to trying the spring and summer recipes like grilled asparagus with saffron aioli and fava bean primavera once warmer weather arrives. Until then, I’ll be continuing to make batches of the Savannah red rice with okra and smoked sausage.

Vegetable Revelations

Love Is a Pink Cake by Claire Ptak

For Claire Ptak, the owner of London’s famed Violet Bakery, cake is a love language: It’s how you show someone you care. Ptak’s baking style, which she describes as “pairing English ingredients with a Californian sensibility,” is reflective of her California roots and her time cooking at  Chez Panisse , chef Alice Waters’s legendary farm-to-table restaurant in Berkeley. 

In this book, you’ll find fruit-forward pastries like fig tartlets, a green plum cake, and a grape slab pie excellent for midday snacking. (While the fruity desserts are lovely, my favorite recipe may be the white chocolate matcha blondies.) But there’s also special occasion desserts like a peach tarte Tatin served with peach leaf custard and even the lemon and elderflower  wedding cake Ptak baked for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding. Ptak’s goal is to highlight seasonal produce and to make ingredients taste more like themselves by “lifting them with salts, sugars, acids, fats, and bitterness.” 

Love Is a Pink Cake

100 Morning Treats by Sarah Kieffer

You probably don’t need 100 different recipes for morning pastries, but I guarantee you’ll want to try every single one of the breads, muffins, and rolls in Sarah Kieffer’s latest book. Kieffer, who spent years honing her baking skills at Minnesota coffee shops like Blue Heron in Winona and Bordertown Coffee in Minneapolis, wrote this book to “celebrate the morning hours.” Though she hasn’t always been a morning person, she’s grown to appreciate those dark, early hours, when it’s quiet enough for her mind to wander and revel in the act of baking.

The book is a collection of recipes she’s developed over the past 30 years in cafés and at home, and in it, you’ll find comforting coffee shop classics like blueberry muffins, streusel coffee cake, and monkey bread. My personal favorite is Kieffer’s fluffy, tender buttermilk cinnamon rolls glazed in a tangy cream cheese frosting, but I also love her muffin recipes , which incorporate almond flour for a light crumb. Perhaps what I loved most about Kieffer’s book is the reminder that breakfast doesn’t have to be boring. Rather, it can be an opportunity to play with flavors and textures. Incorporate white chocolate (along with dried fruit) into your scones, make a breakfast cake, or top your quick breads with meringue and bake them until the tops are crisp and golden brown. I may not be a morning person, but thanks to  100 Morning Treats, I know that I am most definitely a breakfast person. 

100 Morning Treats

A Cook’s Book by Nigel Slater

I’ve always found Nigel Slater’s writing and cooking ethos to be remarkably soothing, and I’ve long considered him to be my cooking therapist. In a world where cooking has become a stressful activity for so many, the legendary British food writer reminds us that it can and should also be pleasurable. It’s not only about feeding yourself and others but also savoring “quiet moments of joy.”

Though his recipes taste like you’ve spent hours sweating away in the kitchen, most of them are fairly straightforward. The chicken with leeks, orzo, peas, and parsley—a quick braise—has become a go-to dinner on busy weeknights, while the rice with salmon and Japanese pickles is what I crave when I’m in search of something comforting but nourishing. “Casual does not mean careless,” Slater writes. His work proves that simple cooking with good ingredients will often result in a sumptuous meal if approached thoughtfully, and in  A Cook’s Book, you’ll find plenty of relaxed, intentionally crafted meals to return to over and over again. 

A Cook's Book

Cook It Wild by Chris Nuttall-Smith

I am not a big wilderness gal—in fact, I can count on one hand the number of times I have gone camping in my life. But this book from Chris Nuttall-Smith, a food writer and  Top Chef Canada judge, has so many clever, delicious  recipes fit for the outdoors that it makes me wish I was more adventurous. Perhaps the most ingenious part of the book is that his five “rules” for eating well outdoors—chopping, mixing, cooking, sealing, and freezing food ahead of time—are also applicable to everyday cooking. If you’re a camper, great! If not, don’t fret: You can still cook many of the recipes in the comfort of your home. Don’t sleep on pistachio mint noodles (which, unlike most pesto recipes, incorporates butter in addition to olive oil for an extra silky sauce) or the cidery baked beans made with balsamic-marinated shallots and both bacon and smoked ham hock. 

Cook It Wild

Tin to Table by Anna Hezel

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably noticed that  tinned fish is having a moment. For Anna Hezel, though, preserved seafood’s rise in popularity is more than fleeting. “There’s never been a more exciting or auspicious time to eat tinned seafood,” she writes. “While it might be tempting to call it a trend, I think of it more as an art form that’s still being forged and perfected, several centuries in.” 

Tin to Table proves the versatility (and necessity) of tinned fish in your pantry, whether you eat it straight from the can, as a snack, or incorporate it into your lunch or dinner. The Caesar popcorn is a delightful nosh that takes all of five minutes to whip up—just mash the anchovies, microwave the paste with butter and garlic, and toss it with the popcorn—and has all the rich, savory flavors of the iconic salad. And if you’re looking to transform pantry staples into an elegant meal, try the marinated French lentil and smoked trout salad. Hezel’s book will encourage you to treat tinned fish with the same appreciation and respect with which you might approach a fresh fillet—if not more. 

Tin to Table

Everyday Grand by Jocelyn Delk Adams

This book from Jocelyn Delk Adams, the founder of the  Grandbaby Cakes blog , almost feels like it belongs in the self-help genre, and I mean that in the best way possible. Intense joy radiates from each and every page, which brim with positive affirmations and words of wisdom. Adams wants you to celebrate the little things that make life special, no matter how small or insignificant they may feel, with comforting yet creative recipes. Think orange-and-lavender-scented popovers and salmon glazed with whiskey and sweet tea. The standout recipe of the book, though, has to be Adams’s carrot cake, which won The Kitchn’s carrot cake showdown . Made with a brown butter-cream cheese frosting and generously spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and allspice, it is one of the best carrot cakes I’ve had.

Everyday Grand

Ever-Green Vietnamese by Andrea Nguyen

Though not an exclusively  vegetarian cookbook , this volume from the noted Vietnamese food authority and cookbook author Andrea Nguyen reimagines classic Vietnamese recipes with more vegetables and plant-based proteins. “Vietnamese cuisine is not all about beef-laden bowls of pho and meaty-stuffed sandwiches,” Nguyen writes. “The cuisine—with its inherent customization, rich Buddhist traditions, and emphasis on vegetables, herbs, fruits, and plant-based proteins—is a natural mechanism for cutting back on meat and developing a greener approach to living.”

As someone who is always trying to incorporate more plant-focused meals into my diet, I found Nguyen’s book refreshing. Tofu—rather than readily available alternatives meant to mimic meat—stars as the main source of protein in the book, with assists from fresh vegetables and herbs that lend each dish vivid complexity. Though I was admittedly skeptical about the deluxe vegan pho, it proved to be one of the best things I’ve eaten in a long time. Warm with cloves, cinnamon, star anise, coriander seeds, and ginger, the fragrant broth comes together in a pressure cooker and gets an umami boost from a sheet of kombu and a touch of both  Marmite and  MSG . Pro tip: Make a batch, keep the broth in your freezer, and you’ll be able to have pho whenever the mood strikes.

Ever-Green Vietnamese

Mayumu by Abi Balingit

There are plenty of baking cookbooks out there, but you’re unlikely to find another one with as much personality as this one from Abi Balingit (a.k.a. @theduskykitchen ). She was raised in the Bay Area and the Central Valley of California, and her recipes reflect both her Filipino American heritage and the many other cultures she grew up around. She pairs her dad’s leche flan with chai, incorporates the Mexican condiment chamoy into her pichi-pichi (a steamed cassava cake), and makes her beach pie—a dessert typically made with a saltine crust and a citrusy filling reminiscent of a lemon meringue tart—with calamansi. Balingit’s bold, cuisine-defying recipes have encouraged me to think outside the box in a way not many other cookbooks have, and I suspect it will leave you feeling inspired too. I mean,  adobo cookies ? Genius.

Win Son Presents a Taiwanese American Cookbook  by Josh Ku, Trigg Brown, and Cathy Erway

Run by Josh Ku and Trigg Brown,  Win Son and Win Son Bakery in Brooklyn are known for what they dub Taiwanese American food, and their recipes—which co-author Cathy Erway describes as “weird and sometimes convoluted and nonsensical”—reflect that. Think of duck confit inspired by two Taiwanese classics, turkey rice and  lu rou fan (minced pork belly over rice); five-spiced fried chicken and waffles speckled with black sesame seeds; and satisfyingly chewy blueberry mochi muffins.  

“We came up with ‘Taiwanese American food’ because we didn’t want to purport authenticity and we didn’t want to say ‘ fusion ’ either,” Brown writes. “We wanted the food to express the culinary impression Taiwan has made on us.” Ku, Brown, and Erway’s book includes classic recipes like three-cup chicken and also showcases unconventional ways of using Taiwanese ingredients, like charring Chinese broccoli for a salad, roasting—instead of steaming—a whole fish, and incorporating fermented bean curd into mayonnaise. The book encourages you to forget what you think you know about Taiwanese food and embrace cooking the Win Son way.

Win Son Presents a Taiwanese American Cookbook

Sweet Enough by Alison Roman

Alison Roman is a controversy magnet—and a very good recipe developer whose latest cookbook is entirely delightful to use. Like the multi-hyphenate recipe developer’s previous books  Dining In and  Nothing Fancy ,  Sweet Enough is filled with fun, approachable recipes that Roman herself describes as “a little wild-looking and decidedly unkempt.” There’s salted lemon cream pie, refrigerated carrot cake sans raisins and nuts—Roman’s preferred formula for the dessert—and  “extra” coconut cake that is “tall and fuzzy like an obnoxious angora sweater.” These are the desserts—delicious without being fussy, yet still special enough for a nice occasion—that keep me coming back for more. If you don’t like to bake but would like to be the kind of person who  can bake,  Sweet Enough is the book for you.

Sweet Enough: A Dessert Cookbook

Salad Seasons by Sheela Prakash

It may be easy to think of summer as the best time for salads, but for Sheela Prakash, every season can be salad season if you know how to build a great one. In this book, Prakash, a cookbook author and contributing editor at The Kitchn, teaches you the fundamentals of salad making, like how important it is to season and taste your ingredients as you go, and she will inspire you to think outside of the sad box of salad greens you may be accustomed to. The bittersweet radicchio salad dressed in a punchy vinaigrette of pomegranate molasses, orange juice, and olive oil got me through the dreariness of winter when all I wanted was something crisp and juicy while the caramelized fennel and white bean salad has become a favorite lunch staple of mine. There are no sad desk lunches in Prakash’s world, just fabulous salads no matter the season.

Salad Seasons

On the Curry Trail by Raghavan Iyer

Before his death at the end of March, Raghavan Iyer spent much of his life researching and writing about Indian cuisine.  New York Times national food correspondent Kim Severson  wrote that he “has by some estimations taught more Americans how to cook Indian food than anyone else.” In this encyclopedic cookbook, he continues his signature intensive culinary exploration by tracing the origins of curry powder and how the ingredient has become embedded in so many cuisines around the world, all the while unpacking its complexity in terms of colonialism and also of trade, migration, and shifting borders.

Rarely do you come across a cookbook so deeply researched and comprehensive in nature. Beyond the extensive history, readers will also find recipes for curries from across the globe, like Malaysian curry noodles with shrimp, South African bunny chow, and German currywurst. Rich with coconut milk and fragrant with fresh curry leaves , the egg noodle soup from Myanmar was one of the most comforting things I had eaten in a long time. I also loved the pan-fried tofu with red curry; it’s worth taking the time to make your own curry paste for the dish, which will fill your home with the aroma of chiles, lemongrass, and galangal. Though curry powder remains a controversial ingredient,  On the Curry Trail demonstrates just how impactful this ingredient has been and continues to be. 

On the Curry Trail

Asada by Bricia Lopez With Javier Cabral

Let this cookbook, which is entirely dedicated to the art and culture of Mexican grilling, be your guide to outdoor hosting this summer. Asada, Bricia Lopez and Javier Cabral write, is more than a taco: It “means family, friends, memories, great music, cold drinks, good times, and the community you’ve built—all centered on the promise of juicy grilled meat and all the fixings that remind you of your upbringing.” The cookbook walks you through how to host your own backyard gathering, from the pantry staples and equipment you’ll need to the different cuts of meat to use, like flap steak (or ranchera) and flanken beef costillitas, which Lopez describes as the “MVP of carne asada cuts.”

I’ve often seen people wipe their grill grates with onions, and it turns out there’s an explanation for why. Onions contain plenty of allicin, an antimicrobial compound, that helps to effectively clean your grill. “For extra gunk-fighting power,” Lopez and Cabral write, “you can spray the grates with lemon juice or white vinegar first. The extra acidity helps the cleaning process. Never doubt Mexican wisdom again.” It’s perhaps the most clever and practical tip in the book—after all, no one likes a schmutzy grill. 

The grilled meats are luscious, but don’t skip the sides, salsas, beverages, and sweets—I especially love the cactus salad and grilled plantains with pineapple. Cinnamon lends a surprising warmth to the salsa roja ranchera, while the salsa frita verde relies on a secret ingredient—chicken bouillon powder—for an umami boost. Come summertime, you’ll find me hosting my own asada with recipes from Lopez and Cabral’s book.

Asada: The Art of Mexican-Style Grilling

Company by Amy Thielen

There’s nothing I love more than cooking for people dear to me, and I aspire to be the kind of person who regularly throws dinner parties where you sit and chat late into the evening over a glass of wine while picking at leftovers. Amy Thielen’s book captures that ethos so well and is refreshingly honest about what dinner parties are really about. “I probably shouldn’t say this,” she muses, “because this is a cookbook and I’m supposed to be selling the culinary dream or something, but when you’re having people over, the food doesn’t really matter. Specifically, I mean that no one else will ever care about the food as much as you and I do.” 

Still, Thielen’s book is full of thoughtful menus featuring recipes that few would be disappointed to be served, like a Friday night fish fry that stars deep-fried sour cream walleye; iceberg plate salad with green chile dressing; steamed and glazed white sweet potatoes; and a garlic-coconut-scented rice. For dessert? Pavlova with winter citrus, olive oil, and salt. Even if you don’t plan on hosting a dinner party anytime soon, it’s worth picking up the book just for Thielen’s great writing.

Company: The Radically Casual Art of Cooking for Others

Yogurt and Whey by Homa Dashtaki

This cookbook-slash-memoir not only tells the story of Homa Dashtaki and her family’s path from Iran to the United States but also the birth of her now-beloved company, White Moustache. When she was laid off from her job as a lawyer in 2008, she decided to make yogurt. If you’ve ever had White Moustache yogurt, you’ll understand why that was a genius move: It’s luxuriously creamy and has just the right amount of tang. In this book, you’ll find the recipe for this very yogurt, among many other dishes—like yogurt-marinated fried chicken, Persian egg drop soup, and an assortment of beverages—that incorporate the cultured dairy and its by-product, whey. 

The book is a beautiful, intimate glimpse into Dashtaki’s journey and the important role yogurt has played in her life. “Yogurt has been the thread that runs through my attempts at creating community, of being in touch with my ancestors,” she writes. “The way I make yogurt, and even the way I  eat yogurt, is based on their teachings.” I haven’t found time to make yogurt as regularly as I’d like, but Dashtaki’s book has left me with a newfound appreciation for how you can take one ingredient—milk—and with a little time and patience, transform it into something new. The book encourages you to partake in “an uncompromising exercise in using all parts of what the environment and climate give us,” something we can all do a little more of, no matter what we’re cooking.

Yogurt & Whey: Recipes of an Iranian Immigrant Life

The Five Elements Cookbook by Zoey Xinyi Gong

When I was growing up, my parents (we’re Chinese) often made casual comments about traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and how certain foods could throw your health off-balance, like how eating too much fried or spicy food could contribute to yin deficiency and how eating cooling foods like bitter melon or winter melon could help you regain balance. Among Chinese families, there seemed to be some common understanding about TCM that I just couldn’t wrap my head around. I imagine this information must have been passed down via word of mouth from generation to generation, just as my parents had been sharing it with me. 

In this book,  Zoey Xinyi Gong , a chef, registered dietitian, and TCM practitioner, does just that but in an easily digestible way. She shares a guide to the many herbs and ingredients used in TCM and tasty, nourishing recipes like steamed whole fish with herbal soy sauce, jujube date tea, and a pork bone broth—ones I hope to make more frequently as I continue to familiarize myself with the tenets of TCM. Though  The Five Elements Cookbook isn’t the first book to delve into TCM, it’s the first book I’ve come across that has really helped me understand the concepts behind a philosophy I heard so much about growing up. Gong’s book is a contemporary approach to TCM that’s not only accessible but also creative and delicious.

The Five Elements Cookbook

Lune by Kate Reid

If you’ve ever wanted to master pastries like croissants, danishes, or kouign-amann, look no further.  Lune, named after Kate Reid’s pair of “croissanteries” in Australia, is a stunning book dedicated entirely to crisp, flaky laminated dough. In a former life, Reid was an aerospace engineer who worked for Formula 1, and her methodical approach and precision are apparent in her pastry work. 

Though her croissant recipe in the book does not rely on the traditional French technique used to make croissants, it is a method specifically designed to work for home cooks. She incorporates clarified butter—pure butterfat that’s made by simmering butter until the water evaporates and the milk solids have separated—to up the fat content in her croissants without all the extra water. She also uses poolish (a high hydration preferment) to increase the extensibility of the dough, making it easier to roll out. Successfully making her croissants from start to finish will still require immense patience and attention to detail, however Reid’s clever maneuvers will help you make an exquisitely layered croissant and more.

Lune: Eating Croissants All Day, Every Day

Kung Pao & Beyond by Susan Jung

Susan Jung loves fried chicken—so much so that she’s written an entire book on it. When she was the food and wine editor at Hong Kong’s  South China Morning Post, she noticed how fried chicken recipes constantly received the most clicks, and after chatting with friends and fellow editors, she realized there was potential for a book exploring the wide world of fried poultry.

Packed with recipes and techniques from across East and Southeast Asia,  Kung Pao & Beyond showcases the many ways to fry wings, thighs, breasts, and even whole birds. Chicken poppers coated in instant noodles, Vietnamese honey-mustard garlic wings, and the mala nuggets are just a few of my favorites. Not that any of us needed an excuse to eat fried chicken, but Jung’s book gives us plenty of reasons to set up that pot of fryer oil—even on a weeknight.

Kung Pao and Beyond

Editor’s note: Anna Hezel is an employee of Bon Appétit’s sister site, Epicurious. Alison Roman is a former Bon Appétit employee.

The Best New Cookbooks of 2023

Our food editors cooked their way through tons of recipes this year — and these are the best.

We've been independently researching and testing products for over 120 years. If you buy through our links, we may earn a commission. Learn more about our review process.

Just flipping through the pages of my favorite cookbooks is a satisfying act that can inspire a meal — like what to do with parsnips, for example. And even though there are millions of recipes available online, but there's just something about having a real cookbook to reference — and when it comes to the best gifts for chefs and home cooks , nothing beats a beautiful cookbook that you can hold in your hands.

So which cookbooks qualified as the best of 2023? Maybe it featured a cuisine I enjoyed at a restaurant but never made at home. Or flavor combinations that were intriguingly novel. Or just good kitchen (and life) advice from a trusted author. Each title on the list offers a distinct perspective and, of course, delicious recipes. Read on and see why I think these books are worth browsing and cooking from, whether you plan to give them as gifts or add them to your own collection.

Start Here: Instructions for Becoming a Better Cook by Sohla El-Waylly

Culinary school — in this economy? Start Here , a 650-page doorstop of a cookbook from Sohla El-Waylly isn’t just more a more affordable option, it’s infinitely more fun. Guiding you through cooking basics with the reassuring hand of a kitchen BFF , the chef and YouTube star organizes chapters by technique, such as “Break It Down and Get Saucy” (how to stew and braise) and “Whip (and Fold) It Good: Take Your Desserts to Fluff City.” Her goal is to teach readers how to cook, the best way she learned, “with nerdy deep dives and so much context behind the steps of every recipe.”

El-Waylly dismisses the approach of just memorizing steps. It never served her well and her natural curiosity would take over. “Digging a little deeper doesn't just make me the smart-ass everyone already assumed I was (although some of my former chefs might disagree),” El-Waylly writes, “it allows me to understand bigger concepts that can be applied to countless dishes rather than trying to memorize a bunch of random commands for one recipe.”

Dishes, like I Promise It’s Good! Poached Chicken Breast and Everything Seasoned Broccoli teach basic, sound skills. While others, such as the tangy, zingy Watermelon Chaat I made, take those foundations to riotous flavor heights. “The key to chaat is chaatpati flavor, which is so tart and hot,” El-Waylly writes, “it'll make your tongue curl and your mouth pucker, with just enough sugar and salt to keep those punchy vibes in check.” The topping of salty cumin and black pepper cashews tossed in honey did just that — and you can bet it’s not taught in any culinary school.

Snacking Bakes: Simple Recipes for Cookies, Bars, Brownies, Cakes and More by Yossy Arefi

Consider Yossy Arefi, your sweet tooth enabler. The acclaimed baker makes it nigh impossible to give any excuses not to bake. In her follow-up to the wildly successful Snacking Cakes , Arefi holds true to her promise that almost every recipe can be made in under an hour, in one bowl.

No special equipment or resting of dough required, letting you can go from “zero to cookie” in no time . The steps are so effortless, Arefi effectively dismantles the barriers to baking. “These recipes make it so easy to roll up your sleeves and make something delicious,” she writes, “for when you want to celebrate a great day or zone out in the kitchen at the end of a tough one — even if you don't have that much time or energy to do it.”

The simple-but-stunning bakes, like Chewy Cocoa Brownies and Cheesy Jalapeno Cornbread, are exactly the type of crowd-pleasing treats that’ll win bake sales, pot lucks and cookie swaps. With gluten-free and vegan options, the recipes offer multiple flavor variations to tailor each bake to your snacking mood. If you aren’t quite sure what you’re in the mood for, refer to Arefi’s cravings matrix and let this divining chart scratch that itch. Fancy a bar that’s fruity? Try the Raspberry Mazurkas or Blueberry Swirl Blondies. Pining for something chocolatey or perhaps warm and toasty? The all-knowing matrix will set you right.

Everyday Grand: Soulful Recipes for Celebrating Life's Big and Small Moments by Jocelyn Delk Adams with Olga Massov

Jocelyn Delk Adams has the cheery personality you'd expect of someone who regularly appears on food TV and the morning shows. So it’s no surprise that pretty much the entire vibe of Everyday Grand is joyous and the recipes within provide a good dose of Southern comfort .

For Delk, celebrating with food is a reflex even if the occasion isn’t momentous, like a wedding or anniversary. When her daughter took her first steps, she baked a cake; when her favorite show returned after a long hiatus, Delk cooked an epic dinner. She encourages readers to do likewise, adding options to each recipe for possible moments to revel in.

For example, to celebrate the first sip of coffee or to welcome new neighbors, she urges readers to bake the Elvis Banana Bread — a decadent loaf, studded with peanut butter chips and chopped bacon. Did you have a grueling workweek? Then you must greet the weekend with The Ultimate Mac and Cheese, a flavor bomb that guarantees the gooiest cheese pulls.

No matter the occasion, Adams has a dish for everyone, every day. And if you can’t think of an occasion, you’ll find plenty of inspo on the pages.

Made in Taiwan: Recipes and Stories from the Island Nation by Clarissa Wei with Ivy Chen

When Taipei-based journalist Clarissa Wei set out to write a Taiwanese cookbook, she simply couldn’t ignore the 1.4 billion–strong elephant in the room. She had to set the record straight: “Taiwanese food isn’t a subset of Chinese food because Taiwan isn’t a part of China.”

Through interviews with residents of the island nation and her extensive research, Wei shows that the cuisine stands on its own. Like its culture and politics, Taiwanese food should not be lumped under the vast Chinese umbrella — despite China refusing to recognize the sovereignty of this small island off its southeastern coast.

A history book told through the story of food, Made in Taiwan captivates readers with tales and images of dishes colored with a tinge of wistfulness. A tall stack of scallion pancakes come from Tun Yu-Chu, a former air force soldier who was born in 1934 and stationed in Taiwan at the age of 16. The photography note on the accompanying image explains that the scallion pancakes were shot in a way that "reflects what breakfast might have looked like in an old military house — the residences that veterans like Yu-Chu were put in when they first arrived on the island."

Similar thoughtfulness is applied to tracing the evolution of the national dish of Taiwan, Beef Noodle Soup. Wei found that this iconic dish dates back to the late 1940s when a swell of Chinese refugees came to Taiwan during the Chinese Civil War. They brought with them the slow-cooking technique for meat called "red-braising." To find out how the dish has changed, she spoke to Chef Hung Ching-Lung, five-time beef noodle competition winner and owner of the Chef Hung multinational beef noodle soup chain. According to Hung, the noodle soup started as a humble street food dish brimming with spices to mask the poor quality of beef. In today’s version, the spices have receded to the background, letting the cook flex the high-quality meat that gives the broth its deep, resonant flavor.

The publication of Made in Taiwan is timely in that it happens to coincide with the increased popularity of Taiwanese restaurants and cooks in the U.S. Wei’s look at how the past shaped this distinct cuisine provides rich context for the foods we enjoy today.

My Everyday Lagos: Nigerian Cooking at Home and in the Diaspora by Yewande Komolafe

“We step out of the car and are greeted by the heat, the gorgeous glow of old incandescent bulbs and faded sconces and the foliage filling every spare inch of our yard,” writes Yewande Komolafe in a cookbook so evocative, you can practically feel the energy buzzing from the pages. “Lemongrass, wild oregano and scent leaf fill the air as I walk up to the front door.” Welcome to Lagos, the beating heart of Nigeria, seen through the eyes of the beloved New York Times food columnist.

When Komolafe visited her homeland for the first time in 20 years, it would turn out to be a transformative trip — one that gave her new perspective on how to cook Nigerian food beyond the borders of this West African nation. Like Dorothy stepping into the Land of Oz, as soon as Komolafe touched down in Lagos, everything was brought into Technicolor; flavors she thought she knew felt more intense and vivid. With time and influence from different cultures, the food had evolved from what she remembered.

While Komolafe holds dear the cornerstone ingredients that are essential to the cuisine (ferments, herbs and spices), she gives herself — and readers — the freedom to experiment with what appeals and is available. That could be, say, different chiles you find at the market or how much you toast the individual ingredients in the Ground Yaji Spice Blend. Once you’ve stirred together this peanut-based powder, use it as a seasoning sprinkle on a multitude of dishes. The combo of ground ginger, cayenne and garlic powder lights up the Beef Suya, Komolafe’s take on the northern Nigerian street food skewers.

Komolafe doesn’t claim to be the ultimate authority on Nigerian food. My Everyday Lagos is but one piece of the conversation about what the cuisine can be. Consider it an invitation to pull up a chair and join that convo.

More Is More: Get Loose in the Kitchen by Molly Baz

A Nigella Lawson of sorts for the millennial generation, former Bon Appetit editor Molly Baz has made a career out of her strong culinary opinions. Her second cookbook, More Is More , is filled with idiosyncratic pronouncements about food: Everything tastes better with sauce; the secret to restaurant food is salt; “you’re probs not using enough herbs.” Trust that the recipes in the book are as big and assertive as Baz's personality.

The can’t-stop, won’t-stop approach results in crave-able food that has all the subtlety of a sledgehammer — with Baz poised to hit you over the head with punchy ingredients. For instance, she marinates feta in chopped pickles and pickle-brine to slather on crusty bread, and reduces an entire bottle of red wine to sauce her Drunken Cacio e Pepe. The Last-Meal Scallops call for more than one stick of butter and she has zero regrets (neither did I after tasting this dish). However, “gluttonous excess is not what this book is about,” Baz writes. “It's about finding more confidence in the kitchen, gaining more trust in our own cooking ability and having the nerve to go for bigger, bolder, more explosive flavor.”

In less assured hands, these recipes could be a shambles but Baz has the cooking chops to pull everything off. If you find yourself less capable in the kitchen, there are QR codes on recipes that bring you to“audio experiences” that will guide you along the steps. No matter your level of cooking expertise, More Is More takes you on a maximalist culinary joy ride that you never want to end.

A Cook's Book: The Essential Nigel Slater

Certain cookbooks feature writing that is so sumptuous, you want to devour the words as much as the recipes. That’s definitely the case for this 560-page tome filled with 150 of Nigel Slater’s essential recipes, along with stories for what inspired each. The British food writer describes his food as, “straightforward, everyday stuff, the sort of thing you might like to come home to after a busy day," which is a self-effacing way to say these recipes are cozy, casual and super crave-able .

But as Slater points out, "casual does not mean careless." He's adamant about thoroughly washing and drying salad greens; he'd much rather pound pesto in a mortar than blitz it in the food processor. Most recipes, though, are unfussy and forgiving. A chicken roasting in the oven has potatoes hop along for the ride, sopping up the pan juices. Tarragon, heavy cream and a good glug of marsala or vermouth then round out the rich drippings to form a simple, spectacular gravy. Yes, there are very British dishes, like smoked mackerel pie in a chapter titled, “Sometimes, you just want pie.” You’ll also find recipes informed by Slater's travels and takeaway ventures, like a warming pumpkin laksa enlivened with ginger, lime and chiles. Fans of weight measurements in recipes will love the grams and ounces given for measuring volume-imprecise ingredients, like herbs and bulky produce.

"Cooking — for me at least — is about making yourself something to eat and sharing food with others,” he writes, “but is also — whisper it — about the quiet moments of joy to be had along the way.” In A Cook’s Book , Slater has created a leisurely world that comforts as much as his food.

Company: The Radically Casual Art of Cooking for Others by Amy Thielen

As someone who lives in the woods of northern Minnesota, when Amy Thielen wants to have a meal with friends, she “does not drive 25 miles to meet at one of the three restaurants in town.” Rather, the chef and TV cook gathers folks at her house through impromptu invites and encourages readers to do the same.

That spontaneity is liberating: It can free you from the burden of trying to impress with your cooking. For in-house entertaining, Thielen is like a low-maintenance Martha Stewart . She doesn’t concern herself with napkin rings or matching plates. The focus of her book is on loose, large-format menus that are meant to be served buffet style, allowing, even encouraging, guests to overcrowd their plates. The menus in Company can serve up to 20 (or more) as in the "Casual Walkabouts" chapter, though the rest serve anywhere from six to 12, generously. “Since we eat with our eyes,” Thielen writes, “a surplus of food puts everyone at ease and encourages momentary indulgence.”

And who wouldn’t want to indulge when the spreads have such deeply delicious offerings? Her menu for "Pent-Up Winter Grilling," for instance, includes Deviled Egg Dip — a clever starter that delivers the richness of deviled egg filling while economizing on cooking time. No fiddly peeling of shells and stuffing egg white halves required.

Other dishes have chef-y (yet imminently doable) flourishes from her days cooking in fine dining restaurants in New York City. The Bundt pan chicken, for example, is her take on beer can chicken. The whole bird gets a continental-chic makeover with white wine and garlic-anchovy butter inspired by bagna cauda.

But perhaps the best offering from Thielen is the grace to be imperfect when we host . “The kitchen isn't perfect, but productive, creative workspaces rarely are,” she writes. “And when people start arriving, that's the vibe they'll catch and follow.”

Tenderheart: A Cookbook About Vegetables and Unbreakable Family Bonds by Hetty Lui McKinnon

Part cookbook, part culinary memoir, Tenderheart is an ode to Hetty Lui McKinnon’s late father , a Chinese immigrant to Australia, who passed away when McKinnon was 15 years old. He worked for a banana wholesale business in Sydney and would bring home crates of greens — shaping how young Hetty ate then, and her vegetarian diet today.

“I have carried this memory of my father as the generous 'fruit and vegetable guy' close to my heart my entire adult life,” she writes. “Today, my endless love for vegetables is one of the ways I honor my dad's legacy, by cooking them every day with detail and care.”

While McKinnon salutes produce in her book, she also honors the quiet heroes: Asian pantry staples that bolster flavor behind the frontline of vegetables. Soy-Butter Bok Choy Pasta Soy sauce and butter form an umami-rich pan sauce to coat thin ribbons of bok choy and spaghetti—a dish inspired by wafu pasta, spaghetti cooked Japanese-style. In Cashew Celery, a plant-based riff on Cashew Chicken, McKinnon combines cornstarch, soy sauce, Shaoxing rice wine and water to make a quick but complex slurry that eventually melds into a glossy sauce for the vegetables.

If you're looking to incorporate more veg in your life, this book is a must-buy.

Juke Joints, Jazz Clubs, and Juice: A Cocktail Recipe Book: Cocktails from Two Centuries of African American Cookbooks by Toni Tipton-Martin

If you find satisfaction in giving credit to those who are due it, then food journalist and historian Toni Tipton-Martin should be your hero. She’s made a career of ensuring that the contributions and stories of Black food creators are acknowledged.

In Jubilee: Recipes from Two Centuries of African American Cooking , she highlighted the oft-forgotten Black cooks who shaped American cuisine. In her latest book, Tipton-Martin turns her attention to the Black drink makers, their recipes and hospitality — from the Black women who gained agency during the antebellum era by selling home brews; to the Black bartenders shaking up cocktails in glamorous jazz clubs during the Harlem Renaissance; to current-day rappers, like Snoop Dog and T-Pain, who’ve created and published their own signature cocktail recipes.

Tipton-Martin has thoroughly researched this fascinating, largely unknown history, which she sprinkles throughout the pages. In the Batch chapter, Tipton-Martin spotlights Planter’s Punch, the citrusy rum drink derived from the sugar plantations throughout the Caribbean. According to Tipton-Martin, this traditionally sweet drink may have originated from the plantation practice of rewarding enslaved workers with strong liquor. “Today, we can reclaim this recipe,” she writes. Bar educator Tiffanie Barriere reimagines the classic cocktail as a bright, refreshing punch bowl, ramped up with more citrus and a homemade grenadine.

In the recipe for Bowl of Eggnog, Tipton-Martin references early 20th century mixologists Tom Bullock and Julian Anderson as inspirations for her big batch version of the creamy holiday drink. She chills and stores the eggnog a day ahead to let the flavors mellow before topping glassfuls with billows of whipped cream. Tipton-Martin also suggests doing as Edna Lewis and Scott Peacock recommend: Pack the eggnog into mason jars and gift it to friends with tins of Christmas cookies.

Make It Japanese: Simple Recipes for Everyone by Rie McClenny with Sanaë Lemoine

You may know Rie McClenny from the popular BuzzFeed series “Make It Fancy” but it's the homey Japanese comfort foods she ate growing up in Hiroshima that’s the subject of her debut cookbook, Make It Japanese.

Since living in the U.S., McClenny realized that most Americans weren't familiar with Japanese home cooking. "The assumption is that Japanese food was either a multi-course sushi extravaganza or a theatrical Benihana-style teppanyaki with onion volcanoes,” McClenny writes, “when in reality, it’s simple, humble and nutritious." Her goal is to show that this style of cooking is for everyone, even if you didn't grow up eating it or working in fine dining establishments in Los Angeles , as she did.

When McClenny was an exchange student in West Virginia, she attempted to recreate the dishes she was homesick for, making do with what she could find in the one Asian market. "What seemed like a compromise when I first came to the U.S. no longer feels that way today,” she writes, “ If anything, it can be a wonderful discovery." Her Homemade Japanese Curry, for instance, is a fresh take on the common shortcut version made with store-bought curry roux, but without the unwanted additives.

Another recipe that can be made from grocery store ingredients is the Easy Soy Sauce Ramen. The broth is a simple combo of clam juice and chicken broth. If you can't find ramen noodles, McClenny has an easy hack: Add baking soda to the pasta cooking water, which will turn spaghetti darker and give it the flavor and spring texture of ramen.

Veg-Table: Recipes, Techniques, and Plant Science for Big-Flavored, Vegetable-Focused Meals by Nik Sharma

Imagine a smart friend enthusiastically explaining the vegetable kingdom to you over drinks, dropping helpful hints for buying and storing produce along the way. That’s the tone of the latest cookbook from Nik Sharma, a molecular biologist turned food writer.

He brings a modern approach to flexitarian cooking, with the rigorous research and testing of a trained scientist. That very combo allows Sharma to unlock the potential of vegetables in thrilling ways. In Hasselback Parsnips with Pistachio Pesto, for instance, he gives the often overlooked root vegetable the star treatment. “The accordion-like fan appearance helps heat penetrate better and creates a crisp texture on the ‘fans’ while the center turns tender.”

In the Potato and White Bean Salad with Zhug, a bright, herbaceous dressing gives the mild spuds and greens much-need oomph. Thrumming with subtle heat from jalapeños, the Yemeni condiment breathes new life into the cookout standby.

Much of what makes Sharma’s book compelling is that he tells you the reason why something works. For Golden Za'atar Onion Rings with Buttermilk Caraway Dipping Sauce, he explains that salting the onions helps dry out their moisture, softening the cells’ tough pectin just enough, creating a crisper texture and more uniform taste.

Ever-Green Vietnamese: Super-Fresh Recipes, Starring Plants from Land and Sea by Andrea Nguyen

To those familiar with the cuisine, a veg-forward Vietnamese cookbook is almost inconceivable. How would you avoid the use of fish sauce, a crucial component of so many dishes? Well, if I’d trust anyone to pull it off, it’s Andrea Nguyen.

When faced with health issues, the food writer and everyone’s favorite Vietnamese cooking teacher set out to give her recipes a plant-based makeover , with minimal amounts of animal protein. “In the late summer of 2019, I hit a wall,” she writes in her seventh cookbook. “I felt cruddy after years of eating everything I wanted, all in the name of professional research.”

She convincingly reverse engineers a vegan fish sauce using pineapple juice and two types of seaweed and pineapple juice. “Kombu contributes a round mouthfeel like that of meat collagen while the wakame injects a briny back note like that of dried seafood,” Nguyen explains.

Her ingenuity extends to the Oven-Fried Crispy Shiitake Imperial Rolls. She skips the traditional deep frying and instead blasts the spring rolls with the high heat of an oven or air fryer until shatteringly crisp. For the beautifully burnished exterior, she has another trick up her sleeve: “Like applying butter to phyllo, brushing seasoned coconut cream on the rice paper wrappers enriches and hydrates them just enough so they’ll seal up and brown to a crisp.”

High-heat cooking is also the key to the deeply caramelized savoriness of her Char Siu Roasted Cauliflower. The signature sweet-smoky flavor is from a combo of pantry ingredients (hoisin sauce, sesame oil, agave syrup, ketchup, soy sauce and five-spice powder) that she slicks onto the vegetables before roasting.

While Nguyen notes that she felt much better after eating less meat and more vegetables, the book is not intended to be a “health” book; rather, it’s a launch pad for having a more diverse diet. “Vegetables are the source of so much creativity in the kitchen,” she says. “Meat you can manipulate in only so many beautiful ways, but the sheer variety of vegetables is infinitely inspiring.”

RELATED: The Best Healthy Cookbooks of 2023

Susan (she/her) is the recipe editor at Good Housekeeping , where she pitches ideas, parses words, and produces food content. In the Test Kitchen, she cooks (and samples!) recipes, working with developers to deliver the best written versions possible. A graduate of Brown University and a collaborator on several cookbooks, her previous experience includes stints at Food & Wine , Food Network, three meal kit companies, a wine shop in Brooklyn and Chez Panisse, the pioneering restaurant in Berkeley, California. She enjoys playing tennis, natural wines and reality competition shows.

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The Best Cookbooks of 2023

If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. This helps support our journalism. Learn more . Please also consider subscribing to WIRED

Homemade Simple: Effortless Dishes for a Busy Life By Amanda Haas Read more

The Global Pantry Cookbook by Ann Taylor Pittman and Scott Mowbray Read more

Veg-Table: Recipes, Techniques, and Plant Science for Big-Flavored, Vegetable-Focused Meals By Nik Sharma Read more

Start Here: Instructions for Becoming a Better Cook by Sohla El-Waylly Read more

Put on your apron and prep your mise en place, because it’s time to get busy. This time around, our annual cookbook “best of” list includes titles for throwing unbeatable dinner parties, baking objectively perfect pies, and crafting imaginative cocktails. You'll find deep dives into Mexican, Taiwanese, and Middle Eastern cuisines, as well as books on fermentation, tinned fish, and salads to give your WFH lunch menu a creative spark.

Be sure to check out last year's summer and year-end cookbook roundups for more ideas.

If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. This helps support our journalism. Learn more .

Homemade Simple: Effortless Dishes for a Busy Life

This might not seem like the most likely of candidates for a tech-savvy publication's list of best cookbooks, but one busy Tuesday in the near future, you will appreciate its inclusion. Amanda Haas has held industry jobs for years, working for the likes of Traeger and Williams-Sonoma, along with teaching virtual and live classes . This book combines those customer-facing recipe-writing skills and a great palate with having a hungry family at home. My favorite thing about the book might be the inclusion of estimated prep times alongside estimated cooking times. Usually prep time just gets fudged into the overall cooking time, which as WIRED favorite Ali Slagle likes to say, is just "hiding work in the ingredient list."

On a recent chilly Tuesday (duh!), I made Haas' red curry and coconut soup, appreciating the nice combination of clarity of instructions and technique. The recipe yielded a lot of deliciousness for a relatively low effort. This is Haas' third cookbook, and I hope there are plenty more to come.

The Global Pantry Cookbook

One of the other titles on our 2023 Best Cookbooks list, Tamar Adler's The Everlasting Meal is a slow burn about what to do with leftovers. I wasn't sure about what to do with it until I started treating it like a reference book, pulling it from the shelf to understand how to use a bunch of cilantro stems or a handful of extra sage. The Global Pantry Cookbook fits a similar reference-y bill, concentrating on flavor-packed pantry items.

The authors focus on more than 50 examples from around the world, from anchovies to za'atar, by the way of Banyuls vinegar, chipotles in adobo, makrut lime leaves, peanut butter powder (!!!), and sumac. I followed their suggestions using fish sauce as a short-rib marinade, which beefed it way up, and folding cultured butter into a chowder-esque creamed corn.

What's particularly nice with this book is the level of care that's gone into it and the unexpectedly fun and literary language. “Stink was there, of course, in the same way Roquefort or aged prime beef has the pong of enzymatic transformation,” they write, reminiscing about a fish sauce tasting. I'll particularly appreciate this book when I've bought some new-to-me sauce for one recipe then have no idea what else to do with it; I already have drawers and shelves full of those ingredients, and it will be an exciting excuse to get to know all of them better. One exciting footnote is the appendix—ba-da-boom—which gets into sourcing, ethics, carbon footprints, and animal treatment, a smart addition that I hope to see more of in the future.

Veg-Table: Recipes, Techniques, and Plant Science for Big-Flavored, Vegetable-Focused Meals

If, like me on occasion, you are the kind of competent home cook who can still get in a rut and stay there, Nik Sharma is the guy who will help you break free. Nik is well known for his first book, The Flavor Equation ($33) , a smart blend of gently scientific exploration, complex flavor combinations influenced by his Indian upbringing, and sumptuous photography. Veg-Table picks up right where Equation left off. I particularly enjoyed making two recipes from the same page: beets with chili crisp and lima beans with a cucumber and olive salad held together with Greek yogurt. Never in a hundred years would I have thought to put olives and yogurt together in a salad, but the briny Castelvetranos paired wonderfully with the tart dairy. I also loved creating an allium-tomato confit, submerging the tight-packed ingredients in olive oil, then letting them bubble away in a 350-degree oven for an hour. Two brief warnings: The ingredient list is built into the procedure in bold , a stylistic idea that can create confusion, or at least it did for me. Also, while not Sharma's fault, the publisher should have sprung for a recipe tester for clarity on a book this important. Still, it's worth enduring that bit of frustration for something this inspiring.

Start Here: Instructions for Becoming a Better Cook

Cookbooks with the primary intent of teaching readers to cook can be intimidating. I remember discovering Jacques Pepin's New Complete Techniques ($42) and thinking how important the book would be for me, but also how serious it was, illustrating everything from deboning a chicken to mushroom duxelles. Sohla El-Waylly's new book is still big and heavy, but thoroughly modernized with a friendlier Sesame Street color palette, along with a more modern, global palate that ranges from a poached egg to lamb kofta. I love the authority and charm of her voice. “Seared and braised is the best way to chicken thigh,” she declares in a recipe for thighs with salsa verde, where you brown the skin and get it nice and crisp, then float it in salsa “on a zucchini raft so all of that connective tissue can break down for tender and juicy meat.” That voice, which also leans pleasantly on humor, is backed up with scores of photos that somehow illustrate techniques and keep your mouth watering. I'll keep Jaques around for the more serious stuff and the cute overhead shots of his hairy forearms, but for cooks who are new to the kitchen and looking for a friendly guide, starting here is a great idea.

Maman and Me

Usually, a dedicated book on drinks catches my attention sometime during the year, and I’ll save it for the year-end review, happily making cocktails in the months before publishing. (Recent thoughts head to delicious work by Masahiro Urushido , Jeffrey Morgenthaler , Julia Bainbridge , and J.M. Hirsch .) This year’s inspiration came in a flash when I leafed through the back pages of two of my favorite new Persian cookbooks. Roya Shariat and her mother, Gita Sadeh, had me at carrot juice float, where the ice cream can be either saffron and pistachio or vanilla. They also make a spritz that showcases the pomegranate, using both molasses and juice, along with vodka and tonic water. If that’s not your thing try the fizzy yogurt drink with Greek yogurt, soda water, salt, and dried mint. I’m looking forward to trying sekanjebin, the vinegary cucumber and mint tonic with a fresh-mint simple syrup, flat or fizzy water, and a grated cuke. At her restaurant Sofreh in Brooklyn, chef Nasim Alikhani takes that same drink and twists it into a version of a gin martini; the recipe is in her book, Sofreh ($37) , which is named after the restaurant. The real eye catcher, both at the restaurant and perhaps soon on your countertop, is the saffron vesper, which glows a dazzling-sunset golden orange and is garnished with dried rose petals.

More Is More: Get Loose in the Kitchen

I had a sort of existential crisis while working up this guide, when I read about how Instagram and TikTok food influencers are (in my subjective interpretation) mangling recipe-dom , then tried a couple of their books anyway. Many failed horribly because they were really just brand extensions and coffee-table books. Molly Baz, accomplished line cook, Bon Appétit food editor, mega influencer, and big brand of her own , is an exception. Baz wrote the best-selling 2021 how-to Cook This Book ($30) . Her latest takes comfort food and gives it a blowout. Garlic bread is a loaf of challah with two heads of garlic that are roasted and turned to butter. Her meatballs, known as “Mollz Ballz,” are tennis-ball-sized and packed with anchovies (a fantastic, non-fishy umami trick), ricotta, mint, and panko. I made her halloumi, cucumber, and walnut spoon salad, which stood out at dinner like an intellectual exercise confident enough to enjoy getting its weird on.

On another day, I made a pickled marinated feta recipe that's found in the “Snick-Snack” section. It's briny, cheesy fun that's fantastic on toast, and something I hope to see upping the bar at holiday potlucks. Dilly beans with burrata and crispy “frizzled shallots” give black-eyed peas the royal treatment, mixing them with sautéed shallots, red onion, scallions, and garlic, and showering it with a bunch of dill. Newbies beware: If you’re parachuting in to Baz-land, you might get lost. This book seemed to be missing a strong-willed recipe tester who could have clarified a lot of things that can cause confusion in the dwindling minutes before dinner. That halloumi and cuke salad calls for 5 tablespoons of olive oil and 3/4 cup of walnuts in the ingredient list, then refers to “two big handfuls walnuts” and “1/4 cup olive oil” in the procedure. Are those the same amounts? Do you have time to figure that out while pouring drinks as your guests trickle in? Old hands, who might get the most from a book like this, will be able to navigate this more cleanly. This would normally disqualify a book from making this list, but the mix of exuberance, fun, and inspiration in More Is More is hard to ignore. Just read the recipe before you start to cook.

The Everlasting Meal: Leftovers A-Z

This book sat on my desk for a while before I figured out how to use it. What do you do with a book written by someone described as a "leftover enthusiast"? A lot, it turns out. Adler, who has worked in the kitchens at Prune and Chez Panisse and written other cookbooks , refers to this book as a "leftovers encyclopedia" that steps in after dinner. When you're trying to figure out what to do with half a head of radicchio, a handful of cilantro stems, and some burnt toast, just look them up in the index and do what it says, something to appreciate as we all try to cut down on food waste.

This is not the first book you'd think would become a kitchen reference, but it certainly belongs on your shelf. Like an artsy genius friend you wish you had in college, Alder has the palate, confidence, and descriptive ease of greats like Alice Waters and Anissa Helou. Those cilantro stems can be thrown into Puerto Rican sofrito, the radicchio sautéed with garlic and turned into a side course, and that burnt toast scraped, buttered, and eaten because it is still delicious. It may take a while to latch onto the book's vibe but once its usefulness is established, you'll keep it within reach and use it often.

Salad Seasons: Vegetable-Forward Dishes Year Round

Salads and dressings are perhaps the easiest places in the kitchen to fall into a rut. My wife Elisabeth and I have made some version of a rice, lettuce, Parm shavings, and hard-boiled egg salad once or twice a week for years because it's easy and delicious, yet as salad guru Emily Nunn says, "Salad is long, life is short; why are you eating the same old caprese salad summer after summer after summer?"

The book is divided into four sections by season (get it?) so you flop it open to the section that corresponds to where you are in the year and start cooking. My buddy Dave dropped off a bag full of curlicued garlic scapes one day and with Prakash's help, I turned it into a tortellini salad with garlic scape pesto a few days later. Good thing, too, as I would never have thought of that in a million years. I also had culinary dandelions sprouting in my garden and turned them into a salad by wilting them in a hot dressing of olive oil, garlic, cider vinegar, and Aleppo pepper. We'll still make the salad we always make at home, but there will now be a few other regulars in the mix.

A Middle Eastern Pantry

If, like me, you look at a Middle Eastern cookbook with excitement but aren't sure where to start, let me suggest knocking your own socks off by braising chicken thighs in caramelized onions swimming in a blender-smoothie of walnuts, pomegranate juice, and pomegranate molasses in a Persian fesenjan. You'll likely make plans on when to make your second and third batches following the first bite of the first. Sercarz owns the deluxe New York City spice shop La Boîte and has written both Mastering Spice and its predecessor, The Spice Companion . If you need advice on how to use the spices in your cabinet, he's your guy.

Perhaps next to the chicken, you could dish up a pile of mujadra—basmati and lentils cooked in broth steeped with coriander, cumin, garlic, cinnamon, and bay. Shower it with herbs and fried shallots to find your happy place. The next day, make a green soup of Swiss chard, sautéed green onions, potatoes, coriander, and lemon. When it's done, (gently!) drop balls of labneh in each bowl, where the strained yogurt gives everything a luxurious tang.

Sercarz, who grew up in Israel, is an excellent guide to the region's culinary riches. Start with that chicken, then see how you feel.

The Healthy Back Kitchen: Move Easier, Cook Simpler How to Enjoy Great Food While Managing Back Pain

I get a lot of unsolicited cookbooks delivered to my office, and while I like seeing what's out there, a new one about back pain from America's Test Kitchen went straight to the "To Donate" pile—until I thought about it a couple days later while doing my physical therapy.

ATK is known for its excellent, well-tested recipes which span all layers of difficulty, and if you follow their lead, your food comes out very well. ATK’s authors are not known for their chiropractic prowess, yet in this book you'll find a combination of new recipes along with some from its archives that have been re-engineered with achy backs in mind. The recipes lean toward their easier stuff, which is the whole point. The book also gets into kitchen-centric back pain management strategies, everything from medication (duh!), to mindfulness, to rearranging your kitchen. Recipes even have taking breaks built into them.

Sometimes the simplicity of the recipes keeps you from moving around too much, lifting more than you should, or spending longer than you want on your feet. Steak tips, for example, cook quickly and while they rest after cooking, you can use the same skillet to cook up a quick cauliflower side dish. I made a Vietnamese chicken dish from the book that’s based on a recipe from Charles Phan of San Francisco's Slanted Door restaurant. It leaned on a small number of heavy hitters like fish sauce, garlic, ginger, and dark brown sugar to bring complex flavor with minimal effort. Just follow ATK’s lead, keep it simple, take a break once in a while, and keep doing your PT.

The Ice Book: Cool Cubes, Clear Spheres, and Other Chill Cocktail Crafts

Back in the aughts, I'd go on industry trips to distilleries where our group of writers, journalists, and bartenders would learn about different kinds of booze and drink a little more than was strictly necessary. It was always a jovial group with a charming nerdy faction that would get deep into the tech specs of stuff like the precise shape or angle of the swan's neck above a copper still. I met Camper English on a few of those trips and he was proudly part of that gang. Now he's written a book about ice for his fellow nerds, along with intrepid bartenders and cocktail lovers around the world. English is credited with coming up with a way people could make clear ice cubes at home, taking advantage of a process called directional freezing. To do it, you put a little cooler full of water into the freezer, leaving the lid off, which causes the ice to freeze from the top down, pushing air bubbles and impurities to the bottom where they can be lopped off. This might seem like a bit of a niche subject, because it is, but if this is your jam, this small book is the perfect format, matching English's skill at explaining with a sense of humor that's sneakily, almost imperceptibly dry.

A Cook's Book

Years ago while perusing one of Nigel Slater's many cookbooks, I wondered aloud to a British friend about what made him so popular and prodigious.

"Reading his recipes makes you feel like you're sitting in his cozy kitchen, drinking a decent glass of claret and waiting for something delicious to eat," says my friend, Guardian journalist Alexandra Topping .

Slater's in the rare-air league of UK luminaries like Diana Henry, Yotam Ottolenghi, and Simon Hopkinson. When his new book arrived (another one!), I set it aside while I perused his fresher-feeling competition. On a trip home to see my folks, though, I found a few things to try cooking with Mom, and realized for myself why he's so beloved—it's smart, inventive food that makes me want to cook more.

One night, Mom and I marinated chicken with za'atar—a favorite ingredient-technique combo of his—then grilled it, and served it with a tahini and yogurt sauce, alongside a big salad. We made three leg quarters for three of us and everyone wished I'd cooked more so there would be leftovers. Next, we made savory pancakes with herbs blended into the batter, wrapped them around sautéed mushrooms with thyme and crème fraîche, and showered the whole thing with Parmesan. It was superb.

"His books are like a salve to the soul, it’s the life you wish you had," says Topping. "In Slater’s recipes, there is no such thing as too much butter, cream, or melting cheese. I love him."

Pie School: Lessons in Fruit, Flour & Butter

One of my most-anticipated cookbooks this year turned out to be such a mess that it inspired an afternoon-devouring crisis of faith. Clearly, no recipe tester ever had ever come within 50 feet of it. Then I turned my attention to Kate Lebo's Pie School , which turned out to be the perfect antidote. Freshly revised from the 2014 original with new and updated recipes, it offers soothing lessons in technique and taste. Lebo forgoes weight measure, a potential red flag for serious bakers, but by removing the crutch, you develop a skill and learn the waypoints on the road to perfect pie. She works in small batches and mixes by hand, showing you what to look for as you learn to make perfect crust. When your hands are coated with sticky dough, her voice is a balm, and clear photos keep you from worrying.

Lebo, who coedited the 2017 WIRED favorite Pie & Whiskey , lives in Washington state, where if you have a plum tree, the growing season culminates with such force that she refers to harvest time as a "tyranny" of plums. "More than you can jam. More than you can freeze. More than fits into twenty pies." Faced with a bagful myself, I made two of her plum-thyme pies and brought them to dinner at a friend's. My crust still needs work, but the filling drew raves, and the thyme created a depth that lodged it pleasantly in my mind. Go ahead and leave the scale on the shelf while school is in session. Lebo is an expert teacher and you'll pass with flying colors.

The World Central Kitchen Cookbook: Feeding Humanity, Feeding Hope

World Central Kitchen is an inspiring nonprofit, a global group of chefs and organizers led by chef José Andrés who feed huge amounts of people following disasters. Perhaps best known for serving food in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria ravaged the island in 2017, WCK has helped feed people in Haiti, Houston, Ukraine, and now the Gaza Strip. It's such a noble enterprise that this could be a mediocre cookbook and I'd still encourage you to buy it because you'd be doing a good thing (of course, you can just donate to the group directly ). Yet a great deal of care and attention went into it. The book uses global recipes to recount the work WCK has done around the world, but is surprisingly well thought out for dinner for four at home. The first time I saw it, the pages fell open to page 60 and I left it right there, making braised pork al pastor, which was served to people in Southern California following the 2019 earthquakes. Pork shoulder or butt is marked with a series of incisions which you stuff with pineapple chunks, then it marinates overnight coated with a host of spices. The following day, it bubbles away in apple cider vinegar and pineapple juice, taking advantage of enzymes in the latter that tenderize the meat and add flavor. The book also does a nice job of contextualizing the history of a dish, describing how al pastor pork is a spin on lamb shawarma originally brought to Mexico by Lebanese immigrants.

Asada: The Art of Mexican-Style Grilling

A few years back, when I started visiting Oaxaca, Mexico, on the regular, a cookbook by this duo appeared with immaculate timing, turning out to be exactly the reference I needed to decrypt the city's food scene. Now, the Los Angeles–based authors return with Asada , a perfect combination of Mexican grill and LA vibe. You won't need a thermometer, nor shall you be called upon to remotely monitor your brisket on an app while you go to the gym. Instead, this is food that's big on complex marinades that you whip up in a blender, like the one for the carne asada where flap steak marinates overnight in OJ, cider vinegar, lime juice, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, and a host of toasted spices before being thrown onto a cast-iron pan over a campground fire. At home, I grilled veggies and dipped them in a pipian made from blended habanero, garlic, red bell pepper, tomatoes, and a few hunks of sourdough. People went crazy for it. Asada is a lovely detour from most of the grilling books we've recently seen in the North American market. For what you might call the “lost ribeye decades,” which started in the late 1980s, finding a barbecue cookbook in the United States written by someone who wasn’t a white dude was near impossible. Around the grill, Black pitmasters, women, and especially women of color were not being published, with incredibly few exceptions. With Asada , Lopez and Cabral show us just how much we've been missing, and set a delicious example for how to start making up for lost time. (Read my full review of the book .)

Company: The Radically Casual Art of Cooking for Others

As this set of cookbooks came together over the course of several months, Company sent persistent pings from the periphery of my mental radar. I have no idea what I was waiting for as I was smitten from the moment I cracked it open. It's designed around menus for entire dinners—appetizers, mains, sides, desserts, the whole enchilada—and grouped into four big themes: Saturday Night, Holiday, Perennial Parties, and "Casual Walkabouts," aka buffets. This is a book for skilled home cooks who love to throw a regular bash, and while there's nothing keeping you from cherry-picking recipes from all over the book, Thielen has thought these things out in a way that will make for happy bellies and a less-stressful host. My sister, a top-notch home cook and host who's almost never into cookbooks, spent a good hunk of an evening with her nose in this one, enthralled. For reasons like this, and Thielen's refined style that allows her to stick poetic lines deep into the farthest reaches of the cookbook, I'll be rooting for her at this year's James Beard Awards. For one meal, I made chicken thighs with sage and olive oil, where the skin side starts on the pan and stays there for what feels like an eternity, emerging mahogany brown and super-crisp before being floated on a sauce of gin, stock, and cooking juice. Next to it, we had wedges of matafans, big savory Savoyard pancakes reminiscent of Dutch babies, this version fortified with potato and cabbage. To round it out, we had a lemony salad of herbs with cauliflower roasted in bacon fat. Our tableful of chatty eaters just fell silent as we tucked in, quietly reveling in the company and the C ompany .

Made in Taiwan: Recipes and Stories from the Island Nation

As a food and travel writer and photographer, I appreciate a cookbook that makes me want to get on a plane. Taipei journalist Clarissa Wei, writing with Ivy Chen and the photographer-stylist team of Yen Wei and Ryan Chen, has created a stellar book that feels like it's written for Taiwan's inhabitants, and we North American readers have somehow just lucked upon an English-language version. The book tackles global politics head-on in the first pages, drawing a clear and detailed line between Chinese, Taiwanese, and their cuisines. So many details fill the book with a sense of place and daily life. If you're new at a wet market, for example, “strut in with confidence and sugarcoat your words. Call the aunties ‘big sister,’ refer to the uncle as ‘brother.’ Ideally speak in Taiwanese Hokkien. Compliment them on their perpetual youth, and never, under any circumstances, doubt their expertise on their products (even if they are truly in the wrong).” I still need to work on my Taiwanese Hokkien, but my three-cup chicken game has been fully bolstered. Wei's recipe highlights soy sauce, black sesame oil, and rice wine, “though not in the same proportions and definitely not a cup of each.” I also appreciate her use of chicken thighs here, which add flavor and wiggle room. This is authentic food, beer-hall grub, special-occasion feasts, and delicious breakfasts, with no concessions for Instagram or finicky palates. If you get to Taiwan before me, please seek out the round stainless railway bento boxes stamped with a train illustration and "EMU 500" on the lid. I'll take 10.

Tin to Table: Fancy, Snacky Recipes for Tin-Thusiasts and A-Fish-Ionados

Back in the late aughts, I lived next to Quimet & Quimet , one of the most popular bar-restaurants in Barcelona, where they specialized in tinned seafood. No Chicken-of-the-Sea there; they used high-end ingredients to create stunning bar snacks like mussels on tiny toasts with tomato confit, herring roe, olive oil, and balsamic glaze. Now, thanks to greater online availability and a pandemic where we stocked up on nonperishables, along with Anna Hezel's expert new guide, Americans are starting to pick up on the delicious and often sustainable tinned seafood they've been missing. She divides the book into layers of complexity, from straight-from-the-tin snacks to salads and sandwiches to full dinners. Those new to the game will appreciate her "field guide" section, which shows readers the breadth of what's out there and piques their interest in food they might be less familiar with, from anchovies to cockles to tuna. Particularly useful in that section are the "three tins to try" columns, which showcase some of the best examples of each. Mackerel, for instance, can be found fairly unadorned, lightly smoked, or, intriguingly, in spicy olive oil with pickles. Also helpful is her cautious note on salt, as something like anchovies can be plenty salty on their own. She recommends salting any recipes in the book only after adding the tinned goods and tasting before letting the crystals fly, to avoid accidentally overdoing it.

Not long after my copy of the book arrived, my sister texted an article about Hazel's green anchovy butter, where fishy filets, parsley, garlic, and lemon are whirred together with an immersion blender. Lacking appliances on a recent trip, I made a hand-chopped version, spread it on toast, topped it with a slice of tomato and ate it on a New York City stoop on a sunny fall day. Divine.

Fermenter: DIY Fermentation for Vegan Fare

I love showing up at a dinner or barbecue with a big batch of sauerkraut. It's generous-feeling, inexpensive, made ahead, and relatively exotic, and it reliably gets some Midwesterner or Pennsylvanian excited enough that they gobble up half the vat. Fermenter is for people who have the basics down and want to try something a little more advanced, with a vibe that combines hippie, punk, and the scientific method. Chef Aaron Adams from Portland, Oregon, is big on four-letter words and learning from failure. Yet even his kraut is handled in ways that had me rethinking my standard method. He likes to toast his spices to make them more flavorful and suggests adding some brine from an existing batch of pickles—a technique known as backslopping—that'll get your fresh kraut going in a hurry. After that, it's time to plot a more complex course. This book will appeal to advanced home fermenters and restaurant chefs looking to up their game. Up next on my list are Adams' spicy giardiniera, here fermented instead of the typical vinegar pickling, and the tempeh burger, which, if you're really ambitious, is served with his smoked onion shio koji, miso sauce, and sour dills. Delicious ferments, all.

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27 of the best cookbooks according to Goodreads members, from French classics to new vegan recipes

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Though the internet is laden with recipe videos for everything from ramen to roulades, reading cookbooks is a classic way to discover new recipes and learn how to cook. From themed recipe books to story-filled cookbooks, collections of recipes help us share meals and memories with the authors and each other. 

To rank the best cookbooks, we turned to Goodreads reviewers. Goodreads is the world's largest platform where anyone — including home cooks and professional chefs — can rate and review their favorite books. From classic cookbooks written by famous chefs to go-to guides for making the perfect bread, here are the most popular cookbooks, according to Goodreads reviewers. 

The 27 best cookbooks to read, according to Goodreads:

27. "momofuku" by david chang and petter meehan.

 Available on Amazon and Bookshop

"Momofuku" is a cookbook filled with both the stories and recipes that revolutionized the culinary world with Chef David Chang's restaurants, techniques, and rise to fame. With beautiful food photography, unique ingredients, and a memorable foreward, readers love Chang's recipes but also often read this cookbook cover to cover. 

26. "Ottolenghi Simple: A Cookbook" by Yotam Ottolenghi

Available on Amazon and Bookshop

In "Ottolenghi Simple," Yotam Ottolenghi offers 130 of his simplest and easiest-to-make recipes. Each one can be made in less than 30 minutes, with 10 ingredients or less, in one pot, using what you have in your pantry, or made ahead of time — perfect for weeknight dinners and amateur home cooks.

25. "Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics" by Ina Garten

Food Network star Ina Garten's fifth cookbook, "Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics," was not designed to be a collection of easy recipes, but to help home cooks prepare simple dishes that highlight the best flavors of their ingredients. With this cookbook, readers learn Garten's best techniques and tips to create simple but delicious dishes with fresh and accessible ingredients. 

24. "The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Food from My Frontier" by Ree Drummond

Available at Amazon and Bookshop

Ree Drummond is best known for her Food Network show "The Pioneer Woman," where viewers get a glimpse of her ranch life and the incredible meals she makes to feed her family. This cookbook is a collection of her best, most mouthwatering recipes with step-by-step photographs and personal anecdotes.  

23. "The Flavor Bible: The Essential Guide to Culinary Creativity, Based on the Wisdom of America's Most Imaginative Chefs" by Karen Page

"The Flavor Bible" won the 2009 James Beard Book Award for Best Reference and Scholarship Book and has been a kitchen staple of professional and learning cooks ever since. Though there are few traditionally recognized recipes in this book, readers love that it teaches how to pair flavors and spices to draw out the best qualities of our favorite ingredients and dishes. 

22. "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking" by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François

This cookbook is an oven-side staple for any new or budding baker looking to make the perfect loaf of bread. "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day" not only offers readers incredible recipes to make their own bread but lessons and explanations for different preparations as home cooks learn the art of baking.

21. "The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook" by Ina Garten

This 1999 cookbook has delighted readers for more than 20 years as they learn how to make incredible recipes and host delightful gatherings from Ina Garten, the host of "Barefoot Contessa" on Food Network. This cookbook will help home cooks discover new recipes, twists on old favorites, and tips for preparing food for a table full of guests. 

20. "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian: Simple Meatless Recipes for Great Food" by Mark Bittman

"How to Cook Everything Vegetarian" is the meatless version of Mark Bittman's " How to Cook Everything " bestseller, with over 2,000 creative recipes for vegetarians or those looking for delicious plant-based alternatives. With easy-to-follow recipes, meals that can be made in 30 minutes or less, and fully vegan dishes, this cookbook is an accessible guide for any veggie-loving cook.

19. "Everyday Italian: 125 Simple and Delicious Recipes" by Giada De Laurentiis

Providing fresh and fabulous recipes from her Food Network show "Everyday Italian," Giada De Laurentiis continues to bring readers simple but exquisite Italian dishes to make for any occasion. Collecting over 100 recipes that use simple ingredients, this Italian cookbook is great for any budding or experienced home cook.  

18. "The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons, and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution" by Alice Waters

Alice Waters is the chef and food activist behind Chez Panisse, a California restaurant that played a major role in the farm-to-table culinary movement. This cookbook contains her best recipes for highlighting fresh, seasonal ingredients and her culinary philosophies that change the way we treat and approach simple ingredients.

17. "How to Be a Domestic Goddess: Baking and the Art of Comfort Cooking" by Nigella Lawson

Available at Amazon

This baking cookbook is not only about learning how to make a perfect cupcake from scratch, but how to fall in love with the process of baking and the joy that can come from being in the kitchen. Funny and delightful, Nigella Lawson's bright narration guides readers as they learn to bake the perfect banana bread.

16. "Barefoot Contessa at Home: Everyday Recipes You'll Make Over and Over Again" by Ina Garten

Ina Garten is well-known for her Food Network show "Barefoot Contessa," and this cookbook brings all her coziest recipes to delight your friends and family at any gathering. With easy recipes and tips on hosting guests, it's a go-to guide for anyone learning how to entertain in their own home. 

15. "Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking" by Marcella Hazan

"Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking" is a bible for any cook wishing to learn how to create amazing, mouth-watering Italian dishes at home. This classic 1992 cookbook offers recipes from risotto and polenta to pasta sauces and gnocchi.

14. "The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science" by J. Kenji López-Alt

"The Food Lab" is a fascinating cookbook that focuses on the science behind American dishes, from the juiciest chicken to the perfect Hollandaise. With hundreds of recipes and over 1,000 photos, this cookbook is a delicious culinary science lesson.  

13. "The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl" by Ree Drummond

This #1 New York Times bestselling cookbook traces Ree Drummond's life through her personal stories and incredible recipes. Made famous by her Food Network show "The Pioneer Woman," this cookbook will delight Ree Drummond fans or anyone looking to make delicious meals with accessible ingredients. 

12. "Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook" by Isa Chandra Moskowitz

This vibrant cookbook contains over 250 vegan recipes that vegans, vegetarians, and meat-eaters will love. With clear instructions and helpful features like icons to tell you if a recipe will take under 45 minutes or is gluten-free, this cookbook can guide you through delicious vegan recipes for any culinary occasion. 

11. "Bad Manners: The Official Cookbook: Eat Like You Give a F*ck" by Thug Kitchen

Available at Amazon  and Bookshop

This straightforward and curse-filled vegan cookbook is loved by readers for its hilariously aggressive approach to plant-based eating. It contains over 100 recipes to help cooks of all skill levels approach a plant-based lifestyle without ruining their budget, disliking their food, or facing the inaccessibility sometimes found in vegan lifestyle cookbooks.

10. "Cravings: Recipes for All the Food You Want to Eat" by Chrissy Teigen

The winner of the 2016 Goodreads Choice Awards for Best Cookbook, "Cravings" is Chrissy Teigen's first cookbook which collects her favorite recipes from around the world. As Chrissy Teigen boasts that food and love go hand-in-hand in her life, this cookbook will teach you how to make her favorite dishes for every occasion, from family dinners to weekend breakfasts.

9. "Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book" by Better Homes and Gardens

With over 1,200 recipes for absolutely any occasion, this all-inclusive cookbook can teach any home cook how to make great recipes for meal prepping, weeknight dinners, or hosting a fun party. This closely cherished cookbook also contains instructional cooking guides, advice on food safety, and a carefully organized list of all the recipes. 

8. "The Moosewood Cookbook: Recipes from Moosewood Restaurant, Ithaca, New York" by Mollie Katzen

First published in 1974 as a spiral-bound book, this classic vegetarian cookbook was written by artist Mollie Katzen while working at Moosewood Restaurant in Ithaca, New York. Filled with beautiful illustrations and hand lettering, this iconic cookbook is a fun throwback to the 1970s before vegetarian recipes evolved into the dishes we commonly see today. 

7. "Jerusalem: A Cookbook" by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi

Both of the authors of this cookbook were born in Jerusalem in the same year, though on opposite sides of the city, and together they collected recipes to represent the vibrant culinary culture of their city. This cookbook brings 120 recipes to life that demonstrate the cross-cultural cuisine these chefs experienced when they returned to Jerusalem as adults. 

6. "Plenty" by Yotam Ottolenghi

Collected from his "Guardian" column called "The New Vegetarian," these vegetarian recipes are inspired by Yotam Ottolenghi's Mediterranean background and love of fresh ingredients. Though Yotam isn't a vegetarian himself, his novel approach to vegetarian cuisine is a fusion of his life experiences and the amazing food he's had along the way. 

5. "The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook" by Deb Perelman

Deb Perelman is the author behind the award-winning food blog Smitten Kitchen, dedicated to hunting down and perfecting all the recipes everyone should have handy. With no previous culinary experience (but a great love of food and cooking to guide her), Deb assembled "The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook" to help home cooks find the joy in cooking great food. 

4. "How to Cook Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Food" by Mark Bittman

Written by a "New York Times" food writer in the 1990s, "How to Cook Everything" is a nearly 1,000-page reference guide on how to cook any dish for any occasion. This cookbook covers countless recipes as well as crucial cooking techniques and the ins and outs of basic kitchen equipment.

You can read our review of "How to Cook Everything" here.

3. "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" by Julia Child

Julia Child's classic 1961 cookbook is a definitive resource for American chefs learning the basics and the intricacies of French cooking. Made even more famous by Julia Child's cooking show "The French Chef" and the modern movie "Julie & Julia," which tells her life story, this cherished cookbook is a necessity for home and professional chefs alike. 

2. "Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking" by Samin Nosrat

Available at Amazon and Bookshop Samin Nosrat is a chef, writer, and culinary instructor who teaches pupils of all ages and skill levels that mastering the four elements of cooking — salt, fat, acid, and heat — will make you a great chef. This cookbook follows Samin's journey with food alongside 100 recipes to help readers practice the culinary elements and become master chefs in their own kitchens. 

1. "Joy of Cooking" by Irma S. Rombauer

With over 20 million copies in print and nearly 200,000 ratings on Goodreads, "Joy of Cooking" is the most popular cookbook amongst Goodreads members. Published in 1931, this classic is full of tried-and-true favorites and has since been updated by the author's great-grandson with new cooking techniques, additional dishes, and a fresh chapter about streamlined cooking. 

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10 best cookbooks you’ll return to time and again

While there’s no nigel or nigella on this list, these recipes will leave you wanting more, article bookmarked.

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Whether you’re partial to cheese , vegan -curious, accomplished baker in need of a challenge, or just after recipes that will breathe new life into your repertoire, there’s a cookbook for you. Owing to the sheer breadth of these cookery tomes, it may be difficult to narrow them down to what you’ll find most useful, but that’s where this guide can help.

If you’re looking for dishes to serve up while entertaining, you need to flick through something like Cooking: Simply and Well, for One or Many by Jeremy Lee. Meanwhile, a cookery tome such as Ixta Belfrage’s Mezcla: Recipes to Excite will lend ample inspiration when it comes to colourful, adventurous dishes. But if it’s vegan and a little vegetarian food you’re looking for, take a look at Georgina Hayden’s  Nistisima , and find recipes from Cyprus, Greece, Syria, and beyond.

What makes a cookbook a firm favourite for you will depend on the foods that make your mouth water, but more often, some of the best cookbooks worth keeping on stand-by in the kitchen will take you beyond the ingredients on the plate, to the culture and history behind it. Here, we’ve shared the best cookbooks that we’ve tried and tested.

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How we tested

Choosing just 10 cookbooks was a torturous exercise of fervid comparison and agonised debate. We were on the lookout for books that will be absolute keepers – the ones you’ll still be using a decade from now. We valued those likely to top wish lists, too – books that would produce a thrill of excitement when the fancy wrapping paper was torn off.

We also highly rated books that broke new ground, that showed originality, great writing and gave fresh insight into food and culture. It goes without saying the recipes tested had to taste great, too.

The result? A round-up of cookbooks to see you peacefully into the new year and the years to come.

The best cookbooks for 2024 are:

• Best cookbook overall – ‘Home Food: Recipes to Comfort and Connect’ by Olia Hercules, published by Bloomsbury: £18.38, Amazon.co.uk
• Best for a slice of social history – ‘West Winds: Recipes, History and Tales from Jamaica’ by Riaz Phillips, published by DK: £18.38, Amazon.co.uk
• Best for keen entertainers – ‘Cooking: Simply and Well, for One or Many’ by Jeremy Lee, published by 4th Estate: £25, Amazon.co.uk
• Best for adventurous cooks – ‘Mezcla: Recipes to Excite’ by Ixta Belfrage, published by Ebury Press: £22.59, Amazon.co.uk
• Best for cheese-lovers – ‘A Portrait of British Cheese’ by Angus D. Birditt, published by Quadrille: £18.52, Amazon.co.uk

‘Home Food: Recipes to Comfort and Connect’ by Olia Hercules, published by Bloomsbury

• Best : Cookbook overall
• Cuisine : Comfort food with influences from Ukraine, Cyprus, Italy and beyond
• Recipes : 100

Olia Hercules’ name will be familiar to many food lovers. When Putin’s troops invaded Ukraine, the world changed – and Hercules’ life was transformed – she is now an activist as well as a cook. #CookforUkraine, set up by Hercules and several colleagues, has raised almost £800,000 for victims of the war, and she keeps her 148,000 Instagram followers up to date on the conflict with regular updates.

Home Food is her fourth book. The collection of essays and 100 recipes, photographed by her husband, Joe Woodhouse, is her most personal and heartfelt to date. Dishes span Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Italy, India, Cyprus and beyond (her recipe for dark greens with nettles and yoghurt was simple but stunning). Some recipes are brought to life by QR codes linked to videos showing techniques, such as making brown butter and hand-rolling pasta.

The driving force behind Home Food is the sense of connection – to family, friends, community ­– that cooking can bring in times of hardship, and it thoroughly deserves a place on every cook’s shelf.

Read the eBook now:

• Apple Books: £17.99, Apple.com
• Kindle: £11.83, Amazon.co.uk

‘West Winds: Recipes, History and Tales from Jamaica’ by Riaz Phillips, published by DK

• Best : For a slice of social history
• Cuisine : Caribbean
• Recipes : Over 100

Riaz Phillips is a rising star in the food-writing world, and this book blazes a trail for Caribbean food – Jamaican food in particular. His first book, Belly Full: Caribbean Food in the UK, earned him a Young British Foodie Award and this, his debut cookbook, has already won the Jane Grigson Trust Award for first-time cookbook authors.

Phillips is a skilled and engaging writer, and this book is far more than a collection of recipes. Phillips takes his research seriously, and his well-observed essays cover topics as broad as the history of Christianity in the Caribbean, the bittersweet legacy of sugar, and the fundamental importance of soup to the islands’ cooks. It’s a joy to read: informative, eloquent and engaging.

The recipes are as broad-ranging as the book’s bibliography, going well beyond Carnival favourites such as jerk chicken and ackee and saltfish (though there are recipes for those too). Escovitch fish, Phillips tells us in the detailed headnote, “derives from the Spanish word ‘escabeche’, which in turn is believed to come from the Arabic iskabej, meaning ‘pickled fish’.” Sharp with vinegar and zingy with Scotch bonnets, it’s a recipe that demonstrates the islands’ complex social history in a single delicious dish.

• Apple Books: £9.99, Apple.com
• Kindle: £9.99, Amazon.co.uk

‘Cooking Simply and Well, for One or Many’ by Jeremy Lee, published by 4th Estate

• Best : For keen entertainers
• Cuisine : Simple and traditional
• Recipes : Unspecified

Jeremy Lee is that rare thing: a talented chef who also happens to be a great writer. The Dundee-born chef, who’s been at Quo Vadis restaurant in London’s Soho since 2012, has helped shape contemporary British cooking. He’s worked with Simon Hopkinson and the late, great Alastair Little, and he wrote a food column for a national broadsheet for years. So, why did it take him so long to write a cookbook?

The pandemic may have played a part. “Those warm, comforting, nourishing dishes that I made during lockdown form the heart of the book,” he writes. Better late than never, we say.

Chapters on blood oranges, potatoes, offal and chocolate are woven around essays that draw on Lee’s childhood in Scotland, as well as his lengthy career. His recipes resonate with conviviality. Profiteroles, steamed puddings, hearty chops and savoury pies are among the soothing yet sophisticated recipes. The Arbroath smokies with sea purslane, green beans and potatoes recipe we tested was a success, even without the hard-to-find sea purslane.

Lee assumes a bit of kitchen know-how on the part of the reader, and these are dishes that reward time spent in the kitchen. Many serve six to eight, making them ideal dinner-party fare.

Lee’s delicious prose is like a long, slow braise, making this is a cookbook that doubles as bedside reading.

• Apple Books: £14.99, Apple.com
• Kindle: £14.99, Amazon.co.uk

‘Nistisima’ by Georgina Hayden, published by Bloomsbury

• Best : For creative meat-free cooking
• Cuisine : Vegan
• Recipes : 120

Once in a while, a new cookbook makes you think “Genius!” This is one of those – a collection of mainly vegan recipes from countries where abstaining from meat for religious or cultural reasons is the norm. The Greek word ‘nistisima’ is used to describe foods that adhere to the Orthodox church’s fasting rules and are made without meat or dairy (people following the Orthodox faith may abstain from meat or dairy for up 210 days each year). The recipes come from Cyprus (where Hayden’s family are from), Greece, Russia, Romania, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Serbia, Armenia and beyond.

Nistisima is carefully researched and lovingly written, and the recipes are excellent. Middle Eastern batata harra couldn’t be easier – you roast a pan of cubed potatoes until crisp, make a dressing of slow-cooked onion and garlic, spices, fresh coriander and lemon juice, and mix to serve.

There is no moralising or proselytising here. This refreshing book might just make anyone who’s sceptical about eating vegan food re-think plant-based cooking.

‘The British Cookbook’ by Ben Mervis, published by Phaidon

• Best : For rethinking British food
• Cuisine : British
• Recipes : Over 550

If you think you know all there is to know about British food, this book might make you think again. Four years in the making, The British Cookbook is a meticulously researched, 460-page love letter to British cuisine.

Ironically, perhaps, Mervis isn’t British. Born and brought up in Pennsylvania, he moved to the UK for university, fell in love with the place and stayed. He now lives in Glasgow, and part of what keeps him here is the food.

Mervis employed the expertise of food historian Dr Neil Buttery and food writers Elisabeth Luard, Sumayya Usmani, Nichola Fletcher and others in writing this book, which delves deeply into regional food history (Scottish recipes are particularly strong). The 500-plus recipes go well beyond the usual roll call of British fare, and Mervis makes space for contemporary dishes such as chicken madras and jerk chicken, too.

The recipe we tested, mussels with bacon and cream, was simple and satisfying – although those who like a kitchen challenge will find plenty to interest them. Mervis really understands and appreciates British food, and his perspective is thought-provoking – enticing readers to enjoy all its delicious quirks and nuances.

‘Moro Easy’ by Sam and Sam Clark, published by Ebury Press

• Best : For Moro devotees
• Cuisine : Moro

The fifth cookbook from Sam and Sam Clark will put smiles on the faces of Moro fans. The Clarks are the husband-and-wife team behind Moro, the iconic London restaurant that opened in 1997 and has made Moorish cooking a thing, as well as training a generation of chefs – Oliver Rowe and Jacob Kenedy among them.

In Moro Easy , flavours stay true to the cooking of southern Spain, the Levant and Turkey, which now defines the Clarks’ cooking, but accessibility is key. Ingredients lists are brief and the instructions snappy – mostly kept to one page. The book is about “not too many ingredients, and uncomplicated methods”, say the authors.

This is a straight-up recipe collection, with narrative kept to a minimum. Recipes are based on top-quality ingredients, simple cooking methods and a few shortcuts. Labneh, for example, is made by mixing Greek yoghurt and cream cheese. The resulting dish of labneh, sun-dried tomato, coriander and fennel seeds was ready in a flash and tasted sensational, as did fried potatoes with za’ater, peppers and feta. The dishes in chapters “Easy toasts”, “Easy dairy” and “Easy one-pots” give rewarding results to the time-poor.

• Apple Books: £12.99, Apple.com
• Kindle: £12.99, Amazon.co.uk

‘Mezcla: Recipes to Excite’ by Ixta Belfrage, published by Ebury Press

• Best : For adventurous cooks
• Cuisine : Italian, Brazilian, Moroccan and more

The word “mezcla” means “mix” or “blend” in Spanish, and it’s a term that aptly describes the author’s background and cooking style. The daughter of a well-known wine writer, Belfrage has family roots in Brazil and Mexico, and lived in Italy as a youngster. Fans of Yotam Ottolenghi may already be familiar with the author’s name, as Belfrage worked at NOPI and at Ottolenghi’s Test Kitchen, and co-authored Flavour with the chef and restaurateur in 2020.

The colourful recipes in this, her debut cookbook, sing with big, bold flavours – they’re a hedonistic mash-up, combining tastes and textures from far-flung places. A recipe we tested for chicken with pineapple and ’nduja successfully married ingredients from Calabria and the tropics in a dead-simple traybake that was so delectable we made the dish twice. There’s an emphasis on vegetable-first recipes and, for the most part, cooking instructions are kept short.

This is a book for have-a-go cooks with a well-stocked store cupboard and a taste for adventure.

‘The Last Bite’ by Anna Higham, published by DK

• Best : For bakers, old hands and newbies
• Cuisine : Dessert and pastries
• Recipes : Over 190

Pastry chef Anna Higham has a dream CV. She’s plied her trade at some of London’s best kitchens, including River Café, Gordon Ramsay Group, Lyle’s and Flor. Yet this is not an intimidating, hidebound rulebook for would-be confectioners. Instead, Higham encourages readers – especially those who are intimidated by baking and desserts – to approach desserts in the same way they would savoury dishes. It’s “just cooking”, she says, to be approached in “the same way as making a bowl of pasta or roasting a chicken”. The key to success, she says, is to learn to trust your instincts, and her recipe instructions are refreshingly free of bossiness – she actively encourages experimentation.

Unusually for a baking book, this one is divided up by season and the fruits that are best throughout the growing cycle – strawberries, figs, blood oranges and rhubarb, as well as chocolate, nuts, flowers and herbs. Higham has a flair for putting together tastes and textures, and her recipe for olive oil and ricotta cake was gloriously squidgy and moreish.

This is a book that will suit Bake Off fans and experienced bakers keen to build on their skills, but there is plenty of clear-eyed advice here for bakers who are just starting out, too.

• Apple Books: £8.99, Apple.com
• Kindle: £8.99, Amazon.co.uk

‘A Portrait of British Cheese’ by Angus D. Birditt, published by Quadrille

• Best : For cheese-lovers
• Cuisine : British cheese
• Recipes : 30

Angus D. Birditt travelled from the Isle of Mull to Jersey and Northern Ireland, researching and photographing this book. Profiled are 30 of the UK’s top artisan and farmhouse cheesemakers, among them Fen Farm Dairy in Suffolk (maker of Baron Bigod), Charles Martell & Son in Gloucestershire (maker of the wonderfully named Stinking Bishop) and Sparkenhoe Farm in Warwickshire (which makes Shropshire Blue and an artisanal Red Leicester).

The book is part reference and part recipe book, with chapters on the history of British cheese chronicling the industry’s many ups and downs, and the basics of how cheese is made. Birditt cleverly pieces together the ways in which the landscape, the animals, the local community – and the cheesemakers themselves – contribute to each cheese’s individual taste and character.

Recipes range from the intriguing (Stichelton ice cream with candied apple) to the straightforwardly pleasing (Lincolnshire poacher soufflé, which rose to the occasion when tested). It’s a snapshot of where British cheese is now, and where it may be headed as farming practices change and the industry matures. It will appeal to anyone whose cheesy interests lie beyond mild cheddar.

• Kindle: £8.96, Amazon.co.uk

‘Hoppers: The Cookbook’ by Karan Gokani, published by Quadrille

• Best : For those who like it spicy
• Cuisine : Sri Lankan

Since the first Hoppers launched in Soho in 2015, it’s helped to put Sri Lankan cooking on the radar of London’s fashionable restaurant-goers. This cookbook, written by the restaurant’s co-founder and creative director, gives home cooks the tools and recipes to take cooking matters into their own hands by trying Sri Lankan dishes at home.

The book is a freewheeling foray into the island nation’s food culture, with beautiful photographs shot on location in Sri Lanka, as well as favourite dishes from the restaurants themselves, including the hoppers (pillowy rice and coconut pancakes) for which it is named.

The book gives readers a thorough grounding in the country’s signature dishes, from lamprais, a multi-course meal wrapped in a banana leaf and steamed, to the myriad sambols (relishes) served with Sri Lankan meals.

Devilled dishes, influenced by Chinese cuisine, says Gokani, are another signature. The devilled paneer version we tested was hot, sweet, and layered with spice but deceptively easy to put together. Who needs a takeaway?

The verdict: Best cookbooks

In 2022, cookbook sales were down somewhat since the height of the pandemic, but sales remain buoyant and there is a multitude of books for every level of cook. The books that made it into our review go beyond just recipes and were chosen for their excellent writing, the knowledge imparted and the pleasure given to readers, most notably in books by Olia Hercules , our best buy, and Riaz Phillip s. These books (and the others in our round-up) will earn their place on bookshelves – and in the kitchen – for years to come.

Books such as Ben Mervis’s The British Cookbook , Jeremy Lee’s Cooking Simply and Well and Angus D. Birditt’s A Portrait of British Cheese highlight the best of British food and cooking, while Georgina Hayden’s Nistisima and Anna Higham’s The Last Bite highlight exceptional vegan cooking and baking, respectively.

The author of this review was a proofreader on ‘The British Cookbook’ and ‘A Portrait of British Cheese’.

Cook with the planet in mind, and try the best sustainable cookbooks

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The 20 Best Healthy Cookbooks for Nutritious Meals in 2023

Plus, experts explain what makes a cookbook healthy.

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Having some healthy cookbooks on hand is a great way to inspire creativity in the kitchen, explains Marisa Moore, M.B.A., R.D.N., L.D. , culinary and integrative dietitian.

“Cookbook authors can be quite creative in helping to inspire home cooks to try new combinations and cooking techniques,” she says. Plus, because most publishers require recipes to be tested before print, you’re more than likely to get a tasty recipe that’s been tried and tested, unlike many websites, so you don’t get stuck calling for takeout when your meal turns into a disaster.

Jessica Levinson, M.S., R.D.N., C.D.N. , a culinary nutrition expert in Westchester, New York agrees, adding that healthy cookbooks are great for people who may be new to cooking or just trying to eat healthier to teach the basics with step-by-step instructions. And cooking more at home instead of dining out or ordering takeout is going to be inherently healthier, she adds.

When choosing a healthy cookbook, it’s crucial to understand that there are many different definitions for healthy . Skip books that have rigid or restrictive meal plans and instead, determine what you’re looking for and what needs you need the recipes to cater to. For example, if you’re looking for a cookbook to support heart health, look for cookbooks that have plant-based recipes, prioritize healthy fats, and include high-fiber foods , Moore suggests.

Levinson adds that you shouldn’t pick up a book that cuts out any major food group, demonizes ingredients, or makes health claims without any scientific evidence to back them up. Choose books that are written by real nutrition experts, not just a celebrity or internet influencer.

She likes to pick up healthy cookbooks that include a variety of types of dishes, feature ingredients that are healthful (like low-fat dairy, lean meats, and healthy fats), and include dishes that get you excited and you can see yourself enjoying. Need a place to start? Here are our favorite healthy cookbooks to add to your shelves.

From Burnout to Balance: 60+ Healing Recipes and Simple Strategies to Boost Mood, Immunity, Focus, and Sleep

For those feeling the symptoms of burnout, registered dietitian Patricia Bannan has 60 recipes plus tips and tricks to help you re-energize your life. “I love Patrica Bannan’s new book From Burnout to Balance ,” Moore says. “It’s packed with simple and healthy recipes but lots of realistic advice on balancing different aspects of life.” We can’t wait to try the miso soup with greens and tofu, simple salmon burgers with grape salsa, and the zucchini and black bean chilaquiles skillet.

Tiller Press Meals That Heal: 100+ Everyday Anti-Inflammatory Recipes in 30 Minutes or Less

Moore says this is another favorite of hers, and we love the recipes registered dietitian Carolyn Williams presents to her readers. “The author provides well-researched and valuable information on eating with anti-inflammatory foods being top of mind,” Moore says. Think sheet pan steak fajitas, roasted veggie polenta bowls, zucchini taco skillet, and sheet pan honey-soy salmon with sweet potatoes and green beans.

Simon & Schuster Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking

Master components of cooking to become more confident in the kitchen with over 100 recipes that teach you how to make bright vinaigrettes, caramelized roast vegetables, tender braised meats, and more. “I love that the author explains the elements of flavor, taste, and texture so you truly learn how to combine ingredients when cooking,” Levinson says. “It’s not just a cookbook, it’s also educational and teaches you how to cook.”

Rockridge Press The Southern Comfort Food Diabetes Cookbook: Over 100 Recipes for a Healthy Life

We named this one of the best diabetes cookbooks , and Moore agrees. “Maya Feller’s Southern Comfort Diabetes Cookbook is one of my favorites for condition-specific recipes that are full of flavor and made with a healthy twist,” Moore says. Dig into Brunswick stew, quinoa-crusted air fryer buttermilk chicken, mac and cheese, and other healthier variations of Southern classics you know and love.

Rockridge Press The Heart Healthy Cookbook for Two: 125 Perfectly Portioned Low Sodium, Low Fat Recipes

Registered dietitian Jennifer Koslo makes cooking for two a breeze with healthy recipes that keep your heart in mind. Recipes feature ingredients that are low in sodium and fat, but high in flavor like pumpkin English muffins, sweet potato and black bean chili, curried vegetable stew with quinoa, grilled top sirloin steak with mango salsa, frosted bitter chocolate orange cake, and more in perfect two-person servings.

Gallery Books Fit Men Cook: 100+ Meal Prep Recipes for Men and Women

Fitness guru Kevin Curry knows a thing or two about quick, meal prep recipes that will support your health while saving you time and money. That’s because he’s done it himself! Follow recipes for Southern-inspired banana corn waffles, sweet potato whip, juicy AF Moroccan chicken, and more to get excited about meal prep. We especially love his meal prep plans with recipes that follow your specific needs, like budget-friendly planning!

Clarkson Potter The Skinnytaste Air Fryer Cookbook: The 75 Best Healthy Recipes for Your Air Fryer

We’re big fans of air fryer cookbooks , but Gina Homolka, the woman behind the incredibly successful Skinnytaste brand just takes the cake on a healthy air fryer cookbook. Using an air fryer, which circulates super-hot air like a convection oven, brings textural elements you love to healthier dishes, like crispy za’atar chickpeas, cheesy green chile-chicken chimichangas, Korean pork lettuce wraps, and blueberry-lemon yogurt muffins. Plus, the cleanup will be a breeze.

Rockridge Press The 30-Minute Mediterranean Diet Cookbook: 101 Easy, Flavorful Recipes for Lifelong Health

Dive into the number one recommended diet in the world with registered dietitians Serena Ball and Deanna Segrave-Daly. They’ll explain the fundamentals of the Mediterranean diet, while also sharing 101 approachable, 30-minute recipes like roasted broccoli Panzanella salad, mushroom barley soup, and one-pan parsley chicken and potatoes.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt The Defined Dish: Healthy and Wholesome Weeknight Recipes

Endorsed by Whole30, (with plenty of recipes for any kind of eater) Alex Snodgrass makes the home cook fall in love with cooking again. Prepare chipotle chicken tostadas with pineapple salsa, black pepper chicken, and more with paleo, gluten-free, dairy-free, and Whole30 compliant twists. Love this as much as we do? You can snag her newest cookbook The Comfortable Kitchen for even more healthy recipes.

Clarkson Potter Sweet Laurel: Recipes for Whole Food, Grain-Free Desserts: A Baking Book

For those looking to get baking in their healthier kitchen, Lauren Gallucci shares her recipes for grain-free desserts, using whole foods. You’ll find double chocolate muffins, classic snickerdoodles, apple pie bars, and vanilla jam cake among her indulgent, yet healthy repertoire of recipes.

Ten Speed Press Ottolenghi Simple: A Cookbook

Whether you’re looking for the best vegan cookbooks or just a plant-based book to get you incorporating more plants into your diet, we’re big fans of any of Yotam Ottolenghi’s cookbooks. In Ottolenghi Simple, he shares simplified and streamlined recipes for your home kitchen, inspired by the Middle East. From braised eggs with leeks and cauliflower, pomegranate, and pistachio salad, to lamb and feta meatballs and fig and thyme clafoutis, the images stun almost as much as the recipes are delectable.

Healthy Cooking for One Cookbook: 75 Delicious Recipes Made Simple

It can be difficult to keep a healthy diet when you’re cooking for one, but registered dietitian Lauren O’Connor brings 75 delicious, simple recipes for single servings to your kitchen. Alongside planning tips and tricks, she shares recipes for grilled peach and ricotta toast, braised tofu “BLT,” chicken gyro with bell peppers and onions, ricotta cheesecake parfait and so much more paired down for one.

William Morrow & Company Nutrition Stripped: 100 Whole-Food Recipes Made Deliciously

In this stunning whole foods cookbook from registered dietitian McKel Hill, you’ll find recipes that take you back to the basics of wholesome cooking, without any gimmicks or diets. Dive into a golden ginger honey smoothie, plantain flatbread with poached egg and honey drizzles, acorn squash rounds with dill-cashew cream, Southern-style skillet cornbread, zucchini pizza crust with lemony pea pesto, and so much more in this plant-based, gluten-free, and dairy-free cookbook.

Rockridge Press The Pescatarian Cookbook: The Essential Companion

Let registered dietitian Cara Harbstreet guide you through cutting back on your meat consumption and leaning into a diet packed with plants and seafood. You’ll dine on dijon walnut-crusted fish, no-cook shrimp ceviche, zucchini pancakes with smoked salmon, and grilled swordfish with chimichurri and roasted vegetables. Plus, she shares no-fail tips for shopping and cooking seafood for stress-free meals.

Avery Sababa: Fresh, Sunny Flavors From My Israeli Kitchen

Bring the flavors of the Middle East right into your home with Adeena Sussman’s exquisite Sababa. Recipes focused on local, seasonal, and fresh ingredients bring Crudo with cherries and squeezed tomatoes, homemade hummus, freekeh and roasted grape salad, and roasted tomato and labneh pappardelle to your table. Read more about cooking from Sababa .

Rockridge Press The Healthy Family Cookbook: 100 Fast and Easy Recipes for the Whole Family

Forget making three different dishes for dinner to please your family. Recipes like sheet pan steak fajitas, chicken BLT wraps, beef and broccoli lo mein, and avocado bean burritos will get everyone excited for dinner time. Registered dietitian Brittany Poulson set out to make dinnertime, family time again with recipes that require minimal steps and ingredients, less clean up, but all the fun and flavor of a good meal.

Clarkson Potter Just The Good Stuff: 100+ Guilt-Free Recipes to Satisfy All Your Cravings

Swap in grain-free flours, dairy-free twists, and other better-for-you ingredients in your favorite sweet and savory dishes for a lighter twist on classics with this indulgent cookbook. Recipes like sweet breakfast pizza with oatmeal crust, sea salt dark chocolate peanut butter bars, almond butter Pad Thai, and homemade pastry tarts with berry chia jam will have everyone excited to cook together in a healthier way.

Avery The Well Plated Cookbook: Fast, Healthy Recipes You’ll Want to Eat

Gorgeous photos of sheet pan tandoori chicken, ridiculously addictive maple quinoa granola, sticky Asian cauliflower wings, one-pot creamy sundried tomato orzo, and more will have you dog-earing pages to make for dinner every single night. Erin Clarke’s recipes are fast, budget-friendly, and healthy to please every kind of cook.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Indian-Ish: Recipes and Antics from a Modern American Family

For a spin on Indian cooking for a modern kitchen, Priya Krishna’s cookbook celebrates the bright, plant-forward flavors of India that are naturally healthy and delicious. Recipes like whole roasted cauliflower with green pea chutney, spinach and feta cooked like saag paneer, and quinoa kheer, you’ll want to skip takeout in favor of these incredible, home-cooked flavors.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC The Blue Zones Kitchen: 100 Recipes to Live to 100

The areas of the world known as the Blue Zones boasts the longest-living residents, and scientists point to their day-to-day lives, including their diets, as the reasoning behind their long-term health. Written by longevity expert Dan Buettner, this book presents 100 recipes inspired by the Blue Zone, like Sardinian herb lentil minestrone, Costa Rican hearts of palm ceviche, cornmeal waffles from Loma Linda, California, and sweet potatoes from Okinawa. Alongside stunning photographs, these recipes also include tips for living your healthiest, longest life.

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• What to Buy

The Best Mediterranean Cookbooks of 2024

The 22 countries of the region have a wealth of delicious dishes

In This Article

• Our Top Picks
• What to Look For

Why Trust The Spruce Eats?

The Spruce Eats / Lecia Landis

The Mediterranean region is made up of 22 countries that circle the sea of the same name. From Italy to Egypt to Greece, France, and Morocco, the area is beautifully diverse in terms of cultures, history, landscapes, and of course, cuisine.

The Mediterranean diet is known for its focus on seafood, olive oil , fruits and vegetables, beans and nuts, whole grains, red wine, and minimal dairy.

Best Overall

The complete mediterranean cookbook.

Thorough collection of recipes

Meal planning suggestions

Recipe tags for quick and/or vegetarian meals

Contains 500 recipes

More recipe photos would be ideal

The word "complete" is in this title for a reason: The book boasts over 500 recipes inspired by the Mediterranean region, many of them quick enough to make as weeknight meals with accessible ingredients. The number of recipes in each chapter has been thoughtfully designed to follow the Mediterranean diet pyramid, emphasizing certain foods over others (for instance, more seafood than poultry and meat).

A helpful introduction section explains Mediterranean food, reviews essential pantry ingredients, and even offers meal and menu planning pairings. Nutritional information is provided for all recipes, and there are convenient recipe tags for those that take under 45 minutes and those that are vegetarian-friendly. Recipes including shakshuka , braised lamb shanks with bell peppers and harissa, and chilled yogurt and cucumber soup will expand your taste buds while keeping health in mind. And yes, there’s even a (fruit-centric) dessert chapter.

Number of Recipes: 500 | Pages: 440 | Published: 2016 | Formats: Hardcover, paperback, e-reader

Best for Instant Pot

Mediterranean instant pot.

Authorized by Instant Pot

Nutritional information provided

Guide (with troubleshooting tips) for using Instant Pot

Recipes are thoughtfully organized

Recipes not tested with other pressure cooker brands

America’s Test Kitchen is at it again, this time combining the popular Mediterranean diet with the also popular Instant Pot to provide home cooks with convenient, delicious meals. For those in a time crunch, the majority of recipes can be made in under one hour, and each of the 95 recipes have full nutritional information provided.

If you’re new to using an Instant Pot, the introduction section covers the basics, so you’ll be set up for success. Recipes including lamb meatballs with pickled onions, couscous and tahini, and spiced rice pilaf with pomegranate and sweet potatoes will keep you coming back to this book—and your Instant Pot—time and time again.

Number of Recipes: 95 | Pages: 192 | Published: 2019 | Format: Hardcover, e-reader

Best Vegetarian

Vegetarian mediterranean cookbook.

Timing provided

Clean produce information

Contains 125+ recipes

Ingredients can be sourced locally

With such an emphasis on fruits and vegetables, it’s no surprise that Mediterranean cuisine overlaps handily with a vegetarian diet. The introduction covers all the pantry essentials and shopping tips. The book also includes a list of the "clean 15" and "dirty dozen" to give a better understanding of buying produce and pesticide use. The 125 recipes range from panzanella salad and roasted cauliflower tagine to baklava.

Number of Recipes: 125+ | Pages: 202 | Published: 2020 | Formats: Paperback, e-reader

Best for the Coffee Table

Mediterranean every day.

High-quality photography

Three-ingredient recipes for snacks

Most recipes have accompanying photos

Written by a registered dietitian

Has fewer than 80 recipes

Author Sheela Prakash, RD has written what feels like a Mediterranean cookbook, textbook, coffee table book, and diary all in one. Readers say the introduction and notes on every recipe make them feel like they really get to know Prakash and her love for Mediterranean food. She writes with a personal tone, sharing bits of her time living in Italy and her approach to cooking. It's very casual and relaxed.

The book features more than 75 recipes with photos that users describe as "gorgeous" and "mouth-watering." There is a good variety of recipes that not only range in level of difficulty (a.k.a beginner-friendly) but also in terms of ingredients. The Mediterranean diet includes a lot of seafood and other lean animal proteins, but the book offers many vegetarian-friendly recipes, too.

Number of Recipes: 75+ | Pages: 208 | Published: 2020 | Formats: Hardcover, e-reader

Best for Two

The mediterranean diet cookbook for two.

Author is a registered dietitian

Introduction references scientific studies

Could use more recipe photos

Many cookbook recipes are meant for four, six, and even eight servings, but for households of just two, that much food can be unnecessary and lead to far too many nights of leftovers—that’s why we appreciate books such as this, geared specifically toward small households.

An introduction section reviews the basic principles and science of the Mediterranean diet, breaking down good vs. bad fats and explaining the Mediterranean diet pyramid. There are 100 recipes, ranging from desserts including lemon panna cotta with blackberries to mains such as easy shrimp paella and sides including orzo-stuffed tomatoes.

Number of Recipes: 100 | Pages: 212 | Published: 2020 | Formats: Paperback, spiral-bound, e-reader

Best for Weeknights

The 30-minute mediterranean diet cookbook.

Authors are registered dietitians

Recipes tagged for allergens

Great for beginners

Dishes require just 30 minutes

Adopting new foods and recipes into your diet can be a tricky learning process, but it’s a lot easier if it’s simple and less time-consuming. That's where this book comes into play, as the 101 recipes are designed to take less than 30 minutes to prepare. The introduction section outlines the Mediterranean diet, explaining the health benefits, food pyramid, and overall principles.

Recipes including Mediterranean lentil sloppy joes, tahini chicken rice bowls, and honey-cherry walnut brownies will have dinner and dessert on the table in no time, but with flavor as if you’d been cooking for hours.

Number of Recipes: 101 | Pages: 196 | Published: 2018 | Formats: Paperback, spiral-bound, e-reader

Best Keto-Friendly

The new mediterranean diet cookbook.

Low-carb recipes

Scientific explanations and diagrams

Very specific target audience

Following one diet is challenging enough, but following two simultaneously makes it that much harder. Because Mediterranean cuisine promotes carbohydrates like grains, it isn’t appealing to everyone, but with this hybrid diet, you get many of the Mediterranean diet benefits minus the carbs.

The thorough introduction section explains this hybrid option and dives into the health science, complete with diagrams. These 100 recipes include tasty dishes such as superfood shakshuka, almond pistachio biscotti, and chilled avocado pesto soup.

Number of Recipes: 100 | Pages: 208 | Published: 2021 | Formats: Paperback, spiral-bound, e-reader

Best Sicilian

The sicily cookbook.

Based on local Sicilian culture

Infused with cultural knowledge

Features local chefs

Some ingredients might be hard to find

The Mediterranean refers to more than 20 countries, and Italy is one of them, including the island of Sicily. This cookbook includes instructions on how to make classic Sicilian dishes, such as pasta alla Norma , Sicilian baked sausage, and Sicilian orange bread. It also includes lighter recipes that call for more plant-based ingredients, such as black lentils and artichokes.

The author isn’t afraid to share the spotlight and share more than just her beautiful recipes, as reviewers say. The book features profiles of local chefs and food developers as well as full-page photography of Sicilian architecture and breathtaking landscapes. Readers really feel like they’re taking a tour of the Mediterranean island, including all the sights and bites that attract travelers.

Number of Recipes: 70+ | Pages: 240 | Published: 2020 | Formats: Hardcover, e-reader

Best for Meal Planning

The mediterranean diet cookbook for beginners.

More than 100 recipes

Includes meal plans

Recipes are simple

Recipes include many common food allergens

If you’re looking for someone to hold your hand as you navigate the Mediterranean diet, this book is for you. It’s a cookbook, but it also contains a 14-day meal plan and food lists to make your next two weeks a breeze. Written by a registered dietitian, the book also includes expert guidance as author Elena Paravantes, RDN shares her top shopping and cooking tips.

Number of Recipes: 100 | Pages: 192 | Published: 2020 | Formats: Paperback, spiral-bound, e-reader

Stunning photography

Clean layout

Filled with tips and insights

Instructions are in block paragraph format

Some don’t prefer religion aspect

Author Georgina Hayden looked primarily to Greece for her Mediterranean-themed vegan cookbook. Many of the 120 plant-based recipes within the book utilize common Greek ingredients, such as orzo , olives, walnuts, and garlic. Even the title "Nistisima" is Greek, meaning "fasting."

The book is filled with traditionally inspired meals for modern vegan living. A few highlights include pepper-braised cabbage wedges, lentil and pasta soup, and even desserts such as chocolate-orange pudding. Of course, Hayden also includes recipes and influences from other Mediterranean places, including parts of the Middle East and Eastern Europe.

Number of Recipes: 120 | Pages: 304 | Published: 2022 | Formats: Hardcover, e-reader

Mediterranean Paleo Cooking

More than 100 paleo and gluten-free recipes

Includes shopping guides

Has substitutions and swap suggestions

Two 30-day meal plans

Little to no nutrition count information

The paleo diet focuses on foods and ingredients that were available to our ancestors in the Paleolithic Period, including meats, nuts, seafood, seeds, fruits, and vegetables. Typically, the diet also avoids farming-related products, such as dairy or breads. "Mediterranean Paleo Cooking" covers over 150 paleo recipes, which are also naturally gluten-free. The entries in this book are surprisingly diverse, ranging from modified comfort foods (think pizza and brownies) to Mediterranean staples, such as falafel and moussaka. 

Number of Recipes: 150+ | Pages: 432 | Published: 2014 | Formats: Paperback, e-book

Best Air Fryer

Mediterranean air fryer.

Neat, clean, easy-to-read layout

Includes prep and cook times

Great for beginners or seasoned air fryer cooks

Directions may not translate to every air fryer model

Air fryers have grown incredibly popular over the past few years, thanks to their versatility and convenience. Many cookbooks have cropped up as a result, including "Mediterranean Air Fryer: 95 Healthy Recipes to Fry, Roast, Bake, and Grill" by Katie Hale. It includes more than just breakfast, lunch, and dinner, also covering snacks, sides, and desserts. There are step-by-step air frying instructions, so even people new to air fryers can create lovely Mediterranean-inspired dishes. 

Number of Recipes: 95 | Pages: 168 | Published: 2020 | Formats: Paperback, spiral-bound, e-reader

Best for Quick Meals

Ottolenghi simple: a cookbook.

Stunning presentation

Most recipes take less than 30 minutes

Includes one photograph per recipe

Focuses more on Middle Eastern recipes than strictly Mediterranean

Life is busy and many people don’t have the extra time or energy to spend in the kitchen, but what if you still want a nice, home-cooked meal? Enter "Ottolenghi Simple: A Cookbook." This book contains 130 recipes inspired by Middle Eastern cuisine–almost all of which are simple and take less than a half hour to make. Highlights include braised eggs with leeks and za’atar, lamb and feta meatballs, and Iranian herb fritters.

The "simple" in "Ottolenghi: Simple" is actually a clever acronym– S hort on time, 1 0 ingredients or less, M ake ahead, P antry, L azy, and E asier than you think–which is broken down in the introduction of the book. 

Number of Recipes: 130 | Pages: 320 | Published: 2018 | Formats: Hardcover, spiral-bound, e-reader

Final Verdict

Our favorite option, " The Complete Mediterranean Cookbook ," includes 500 recipes, meal-planning suggestions, and much more. But if you're looking for quick, weekday-friendly recipes, we recommend " The 30-Minute Mediterranean Diet Cookbook ."

What to Look for in a Mediterranean Cookbook

Number of recipes.

Cookbooks vary in how many recipes they contain, as this is largely impacted by page count and how many photos or illustrations are included. You don’t always need to go for the book with the greatest number of recipes, of course, but you should consider how you plan to use the book and then think about the number of recipes.

If you plan to cook exclusively from this new book as a part of your new diet, purchasing a book with more recipes will give you more options and variety; this might be particularly helpful if you’re cooking for a larger family with lots of different meal preferences. On the other hand, if you plan to use the book only occasionally or for cooking for a particular family member or guest, you don’t necessarily need quite as many recipes and can opt for a smaller book. Quality is what matters, not quantity.

We’re adults—we don’t always need pictures in our books. But if you’re a visual learner, having photos in cookbooks can be a huge help, not only through various recipe steps, but also to get a better idea of what the final dish should look like for serving purposes. If you’re an experienced cook, you may not need all the photos, but it’s certainly more fun and motivating to flip through a book with visuals. Before you buy a book, flip through it and see if you’re okay with the text-to-image ratio. If your priority is to purchase a larger, utilitarian, workhorse cookbook with hundreds of recipes in it, it likely will have fewer photos due to space constraints. 

Special Tags

Though a relatively minor detail, special tags at the top of recipes that call out allergens (for example, if a recipe is gluten-free), special diets (for example, if a recipe is vegan), or special conditions (for example, if it’s a one-pot or a 30-minutes-or-less recipe) can be a huge help. Whether you’re cooking for guests with special dietary needs or you get home late from work and only have 30 minutes to make dinner, these tags can help you narrow down your best recipe options more quickly in a given situation.

User-Friendly Layout

A clean layout is paramount to a great cookbook. After all, if it’s too difficult to read, you’re not likely to use it. Highlights of an easy-to-use cookbook can include numbered directions, substitutions for ingredients, information like serving sizes or cook time, pictures with each recipe, conversion tables, a well-organized table of contents, and helpful tips.

What is the Mediterranean diet? 

The Mediterranean diet is a popular diet that’s proven to be particularly helpful when it comes to heart health. It's recommended by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and the World Health Organization, according to the Mayo Clinic , as a means to "promote health and prevent chronic disease."

There is not a specific definition to this diet—it’s more of a general lifestyle and eating pattern based on Mediterranean region countries, including Greece and Italy, that were having significantly fewer deaths due to heart disease, as observed in the 1960s. Since then, studies have shown that this diet is correlated with reduced risk factors for cardiovascular disease, according to Mayo Clinic. This diet emphasizes plants (lots of fruits and veggies); healthy fats ( extra-virgin olive oil ); whole grains ( farro, anyone? ); weekly portions of fish, poultry, beans, and eggs; moderate dairy; and limited red meat. Red wine is also OK in moderation.

How do I start eating Mediterranean food? 

There are two wonderful ways to try Mediterranean foods. One is to find local Mediterranean restaurants in your area–the more authentic, the better. It’s a great way to try new flavors and cuisine without making a huge commitment. If you know you like the taste of Mediterranean foods, the next step is finding a good cookbook to make Mediterranean dishes at home. Remember, the Mediterranean is home to a range of different cuisines, including (but not necessarily limited to) France, Portugal, Italy, Spain, Greece, Malta, Cyprus, Turkey, Lebanon, Egypt, Libia, Algeria, and Bosnia. 

Here are some popular Mediterranean dishes to check out: lamb moussaka , fattoush salad , Moroccan tagine , seafood paella , and mushroom risotto . 

What are the top 10 foods of a Mediterranean diet?

"There are 20+ countries in the Mediterranean region, so this diet has a wide variety of cuisines and flavors," says Anne Danahy, RD , Author of " The Mediterranean Diet Cookbook for Two ." "Some popular dishes include shakshuka, hummus, Greek salad, and seafood paella."

Given that the Mediterranean is named after the sea the region surrounds, it should come as no surprise that seafood is a main staple. That said, there are a number of other foods that are commonly found in Mediterranean diets, including:

• Olives and olive oil
• Nuts (especially walnuts, almonds, and cashews)
• Lamb or goat 
• Rice and other grains
• Pasta and breads
• Cheese and yogurt
• Spices and herbs (smoked paprika, sumac, cumin, cinnamon, turmeric, pepper flakes)

What makes a good Mediterranean cookbook?

Time to separate the wheat from the chaff—nobody wants a mediocre cookbook, after all. Danahy has some helpful advice: “When looking for a cookbook, look at the author's background and credentials: Are they from the Mediterranean region? Also, do they provide tools to help you get started, like grocery lists, meal plans, and product recommendations? Finally, flip through the recipes to make sure they match up with your level of cooking skills and taste preferences.”

The Spruce Eats writer Alyssa Langer is a registered dietitian and cookbook enthusiast, collecting dozens over the years and always turning to them for inspiration, whether it’s a time-consuming weekend baking project or just a quick Monday night dinner. Having worked in the cookbook publishing world in the past, she knows what it takes to create a quality book that delivers something new and exciting to readers—particularly in an increasingly online world.

Lacey Muinos is a food and wellness writer. She’s followed a plant-based diet for more than five years and loves Mediterranean staples, including hummus, pita bread, olive oil, and legumes.

Allison Wignall , who updated this article, is head-over-heels in love with the Mediterranean region. She’s traveled to Italy and Greece multiple times, and always enjoys the rich cultures and cuisines there. In her free time, she loves trying to recreate the recipes at home. Her favorites include beef moussaka and Italian gnocchi .

• Anne Danahy, RD , Author of " The Mediterranean Diet Cookbook for Two ."

Allison Wignall is a staff writer for The Spruce Eats who focuses on product reviews. She has also contributed to publications such as Food & Wine, Travel + Leisure, and Southern Living.

40 Best Cookbooks of All Time, According To Chefs

• April 22, 2019
• Cookbooks , Featured

It was a tough decision choosing the 40 best cookbooks of all time and there was some heated debate over some of the entries. If your favorite cookbook doesn’t appear on this list – we apologize in advance.

However, we are absolutely certain that a chef with these cookbooks to call on would be able to make amazing meals for their family every single day of their lives.

These are definitive texts that make cooking a joy and meal times incredible. They are presented in no particular order because they’re all awesome.

Thai Food by David Thompson

This is a super book that probably doesn’t get the attention it deserves here in the U.S. though it’s widely known in Europe.

If you want to cook amazing Thai food, and you should, this is the ultimate guide to everything in Thai cookery.

We also recommend his Thai Street Food book if you love this one.

David has been featured in the New York Times and numerous other respected publications.

Check out Thai Food by David Thompson online. Get a copy here .

How To Cook Everything by Mark Bittman

2,000 recipes isn’t quite everything but it’s a step in the right direction.

Mark Bittman’s all about making cooking simple and we love his approach.

If you’re a complete novice in the kitchen – you need this book.

If you need more encouragment read the review on the Kitchn site .

Check out How To Cook Everything by Mark Bittman online. Get a copy here .

The Joy Of Cooking by Irma S Rombauer at al.

Three authors and it’s been in print since 1930!

It’s fair to say that The Joy of Cooking’s longevity is all because of its complete love of food.

It currently contains 4,000 recipes and over 500 brand new recipes for the latest edition!

You simply can’t go wrong with the latest edition of The Joy of Cooking. Don’t believe us?

Here’s what the Chicago Tribune has to say:

With tons of new information — there’s a chapter on fermentation, much-expanded food safety knowledge, tips on how to streamline cooking and economize, instructions on making stock and other dishes in the Instant Pot, and much more — the newest edition will give both beginning and experienced cooks a great deal to work with. Chicago Tribune

Check out The Joy Of Cooking by Irma S Rombauer at al. online. Get a copy here .

Jerusalem | A Cookbook by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi

More than just an exploration of Israeli food; this is about the food created when cultures intermingle and sometimes clash.

120 recipes of exceptionally interesting food.

You’ll enjoy reading this as much as you do making the recipes.

For a more in-depth examination of the book check out the review on Serious Eats .

Check out Jerusalem: A Cookbook by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi online. Get a copy here .

Baking | From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan

You can’t talk cookbooks without at least nodding toward dessert recipes.

In Dorie Greenspan’s Baking, the whole focus on baked desserts and we love each and every one of them and we think you will too.

Check out Baking: From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan online. Get a copy here .

The Taste of Country Cooking by Edna Lewis

This may be the first ever Southern Food cookbook and it was released a long time before the current trend for this cuisine.

Edna Lewis grew up in a farming community of freed slaves and her recipes are fine tuned to reflect the passing of the seasons.

They’re truly special.

Check out The Taste of Country Cooking by Edna Lewis online. Get a copy here .

El Bulli: 1998 – 2002 by Ferran Adria and Juli Soler

You are only going to be buying this one if you have very deep pockets.

But it’s impossible not to include the cookbook behind what was one of the world’s greatest ever restaurant ventures.

El Bulli was an institution that defied convention and Ferran Adria’s work is innovative and sublime.

There’s not a chef on earth that doesn’t wish, at least a little, that they cooked like this.

Check out El Bulli: 1998 – 2002 online. Get a copy here .

La Technique by Jacques Pepin

I can be a bit of a dunce sometimes and whenever there’s something I struggle with in the kitchen and usually turn to La Technique.

It’s an illustrated idiot’s guide that absolutely explains every last thing you need to know in simple, easy to understand steps.

Check out La Technique by Jacques Pepin online here .

The Vegetable Butcher: How to Select, Prep, Slice, Dice and Masterfully Cook Vegetables from Artichokes to Zucchini by Cara Mangini

Vegetables are the coming trend in food but they can be immensely improved by the right preparation and cooking.

Many modern consumers were never taught to do this and Cara Mangini is ready to be by your side and make everything green!

Check out The Vegetable Butcher: How to Select, Prep, Slice, Dice and Masterfully Cook Vegetables from Artichokes to Zucchini by Cara Mangini here .

Ma Gastronomie by Fernand Point and Thomas Keller

If you don’t want a bland recipe book with nothing to hold your attention then Ma Gastronomie might have been written for you.

One of France’s greatest chefs, eaters and drinkers in the shape of Fernand Point has 200 recipes and endless silly stories to share in this masterwork.

Check out Ma Gastronomie by Fernand Point and Thomas Keller here .

Roast Chicken And Other Stories by Simon Hopkinson

This was voted the most useful cookbook in the world by Simon’s peers.

We’re not sure it’s the number one best ever but it’s entertaining and the recipes are both simple and elegant.

Simon knows food and it shows in every word.

We love working from this cookbook.

Check out Roast Chicken And Other Stories by Simon Hopkinson here .

White Heat By Marco Pierre White

The rock and roll rebel of cuisine kicks ass.

He often inflames tempers and created a ruckus out of nothing but at his best, as in White Heat, Marco Pierre is nothing short of sublimely talented.

If you want your food to sing you need this superbly accessible book today.

Check out White Heat By Marco Pierre White here .

Vegetarian Cooking For Everyone by Deborah Madison

Deborah Madison did what was always though to be impossible.

She turned vegetarian food from something considered niche and slightly freaky into a massive mainstream hit.

She knows her food and celebrates the joy of the vegetable on the plate.

There’s no need for meat when the food’s this good is her basic argument and we’re sold.

We’re not giving up meat totally but we do eat less of it thanks to Deborah.

Check out Vegetarian Cooking For Everyone by Deborah Madison here .

Momofuku by David Chang and Peter Meehan

Some will argue that this is too much a text for the professional chef to be included on our list; we argue that those people are dead wrong.

Sure, it’s not the simplest or easy read.

We wouldn’t pick it for a first-time chef but if you’ve been cooking for a year or two this is the best way to learn Japanese food ever and you will not get lost while using it.

Check out Momofuku by David Chang and Peter Meehan here .

Mexico – One Plate At A Time by Rick Bayless

It’s not American food without a nod to Mexico, right?

We have skirted around the idea of solid Tex-Mex and gone with a very authentic and solid introduction to the cuisine of our good neighbours to the south.

The attention to detail always impresses us and we feel wiser for reading Rick’s words.

Check out Mexico – One Plate At A Time by Rick Bayless here .

The Fannie Farmer Cookbook by Fannie Merrit Farmer (and revised by Marion Cunningham)

This was the cookbook which taught America how to use measurements in recipes.

Back in 1896 people measured with whatever was handy until Fannie came along and standardized things.

Even today her recipes are highly regarded, thanks in no small part to Marion Cunningham who has completely revised and rejuvenated the original work.

Check out The Fannie Farmer Cookbook by Fannie Merrit Farmer (and revised by Marion Cunningham) here .

Mastering The Art Of French Cooking, Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle and Simone Beck

Before 1961, no one cooked French food at home in America.

Then Julia Child released this incredible book and nothing was ever the same again.

Americans fell in love with great French meals and gourmet cookery.

The rest, as they say, was history and the national palate has remained broad and interesting to this very day.

Check out Mastering The Art Of French Cooking, Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle and Simone Beck here .

The Victory Garden Cookbook by Marian Morash

We’d assert that this is the only “twofer” on this list. It’s both an incredible recipe book but also an instructional guide on how to grow and prepare your own food from scratch.

So many Americans could get so much pleasure from having their own garden that Marian Morash’s work is essential reading.

Check out The Victory Garden Cookbook by Marian Morash here .

The Breakfast Book by Marion Cunningham

Marion is the only person to make our list twice. Once as an editor and once as an author.

In this wonderful book she brings to life the most important meal of the day – breakfast and makes it thoroughly delicious and exciting.

288 recipes gives you nearly a year of early morning treats and every single one is a gem!

Check out The Breakfast Book by Marion Cunningham here .

The Cake Doctor by Anne Byrne

It has a hilarious yesteryear vibe to it but for our money, there is no better cake maker in the world than Anne Byrne.

She knows how to take a few simple ingredients and create something so special that people will be talking about it weeks after the last crumb has been devoured.

What more could you ask for?

Check out The Cake Doctor by Anne Byrne here .

An Everlasting Meal by Tamar Adler

This one’s a little unusual but we think in times of economic uncertainty that you ought to be looking to get the most bang for your buck out of your food budget.

Tamar Adler is an expert in turning leftovers into lunches that you’d be proud to serve to the queen!

We can’t believe how helpful this book is.

Check out An Everlasting Meal by Tamar Adler on Amazon here .

Dinner: Changing The Game by Melissa Clark

Melissa may be one of the busiest creators in the world.

She’s always releasing new recipes and she writes about food too in her newspaper column.

Despite this, she’s also really good and there’s not a single miss in this wonderful collection.

The recipes specifically designed for today’s busy lifestyles to deliver a great cooked dinner with no fuss at all.

Check out Dinner: Changing The Game by Melissa Clark here .

James Beard’s American Cookery by James Beard

It would be completely remiss of us to fail to include the man known as “The Father of American Cuisine”.

He was the first person to set out the case that America really does have its own food culture and its not one borrowed from the colonizing nations.

You can’t fail to enjoy his words or his food.

Check out James Beard’s American Cookery by James Beard here.

Betty Crocker’s Cook Book For Boys And Girls by Betty Crocker

As you probably know Betty Crocker is a marketing creation and no boys or girls are cooked in this book.

However, this book from 1957 is the ultimate guide to creating child friendly meals with nothing but real wholesome ingredients.

You’re not going to find a single chicken nugget or hamburger in sight.

Thank goodness.

Check out Betty Crocker’s Cook Book For Boys And Girls by Betty Crocker here.

The Pleasures Of Cooking For One by Judith Jones

We said at the beginning this list wasn’t in order and we wanted to emphasize that with a book with “one” in the title to finish.

Judith Jones is most famous for her editorial prowess but we’d argue that she also put together one of the finest cookbooks of all time.

And it’s focused on something so many cookbooks ignore; the necessity of sometimes eating alone.

You won’t feel alone with Judith to guide you to something tasty.

Check out The Pleasures Of Cooking For One by Judith Jones here.

Jubilee: Recipes From Two Centuries Of African American Cooking by Toni-Tipton Martin

Toni-Tipton Marie brings her experiences to bear on the best of African American cooking in the modern era whilst shining a light on how the contributions of the past influence the present.  

You can find  Jubilee: Recipes From Two Centuries Of African American Cooking by Toni-Tipton Martine  online. 

Check out Jubilee: Recipes From Two Centuries Of African American Cooking by Toni-Tipton Martine .

Vegan For Everybody: Foolproof Plant-Based Recipes For Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and In-Between by America’s Test Kitchen 

This is an old-fashioned traditional no fuss cookbook but with a plant-based focus.

America’s Test Kitchen has put together 200 amazing vegan recipes that everyone will love.  

You can find  Vegan For Everybody: Foolproof Plant-Based Recipes For Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and In-Between by America’s Test Kitchen  online. 

Check out Vegan For Everybody: Foolproof Plant-Based Recipes For Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and In-Between by America’s Test Kitchen 

Bitter: A Taste Of The World’s Most Dangerous Flavor 

In some food cultures, bitter flavors are at the core of the way they cook but in North America, bitterness is often neglected.

McLagan’s James Beard Award winning cookbook aims to remedy that.  

You can find  Bitter: A Taste Of The World’s Most Dangerous Flavor by Jennifer McLagan  online. 

Check out Bitter: A Taste Of The World’s Most Dangerous Flavor 

In Her Kitchen: Stories and Recipes from Grandmas Around the World: A Cookbook by Gabriele Galimberti 

This touching homage to home cooking from around the world is as beautiful a collection of photography as it is of recipes. 

There’s something here to warm every heart and satisfy every belly.  

You can find  In Her Kitchen: Stories and Recipes from Grandmas Around the World: A Cookbook by Gabriele Galimberti  online. 

Check out In Her Kitchen: Stories and Recipes from Grandmas Around the World: A Cookbook by Gabriele Galimberti 

Yucatán: Recipes from a Culinary Expedition by David Sterling 

The Yucatan Peninsula is home to one of the world’s greatest regional cuisines – Maya dishes.

With a touch of Mexican familiarity but with an all-new twist, David Sterling brings this rich culinary culture to the world.  

You can find  Yucatán: Recipes from a Culinary Expedition by David Sterling  online. 

Check out Yucatán: Recipes from a Culinary Expedition by David Sterling 

Isa Does It: Amazingly Easy, Wildly Delicious Vegan Recipes for Every Day of the Week by Isa Chandra Moskowitz 

Any of Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s vegan cookbooks could have made our list but this is the one that did because the recipes are so quick to prepare.

Every hungry vegan family needs this book to keep the table fresh and interesting.  

You can find  Isa Does It: Amazingly Easy, Wildly Delicious Vegan Recipes for Every Day of the Week by Isa Chandra Moskowitz  online.  

Check out Isa Does It: Amazingly Easy, Wildly Delicious Vegan Recipes for Every Day of the Week by Isa Chandra Moskowitz 

The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South by Michael W Twitty 

A fascinating exploration of Southern African American food and the controversies of its history. 

There’s never been a better time to tackle this important but tasty subject.  

You can find  The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South by Michael W Twitty  online. 

Check out The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South by Michael W Twitty

Vegetable Literacy: Cooking and Gardening with Twelve Families from the Edible Plant Kingdom by Deborah Madison 

Not vegan but vegetarian, Deborah Madson’s book ought to be the standard reference for anyone looking to make the most out of plants in their kitchen.

She even tackles edible flowers! 

You can find  Vegetable Literacy: Cooking and Gardening with Twelve Families from the Edible Plant Kingdom by Deborah Madison  online. 

Check out Vegetable Literacy: Cooking and Gardening with Twelve Families from the Edible Plant Kingdom by Deborah Madison 

The Soul of a New Cuisine: A Discovery of the Foods and Flavors of Africa by Marcus Samuelsson 

This Ethiopian born chef turns to an entire continent and brings you a host of recipes from every country and if that wasn’t enough – he adds a few creations that are uniquely his own! 

You can find  The Soul of a New Cuisine: A Discovery of the Foods and Flavors of Africa by Marcus Samuelsson  online. 

Check out The Soul of a New Cuisine: A Discovery of the Foods and Flavors of Africa by Marcus Samuelsson 

Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking by Fuchsia Dunlop 

She may not sound very Chinese but Fuschia Dunlop was trained in China in both Sichuan and Hunan cookery and here she shares everything that she learned.  

You can find  Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking by Fuchsia Dunlop  online. 

Check out Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking by Fuchsia Dunlop 

Smoke: New Firewood Cooking: How To Build Flavor with Fire on the Grill and in the Kitchen by Tim Byres 

There’s nothing more American than barbecue and no-one should approach barbecue without a copy of this book in hand.

It elevates barbecue to an art form.  

You can find  Smoke: New Firewood Cooking: How To Build Flavor with Fire on the Grill and in the Kitchen by Tim Byres  online. 

Check out Smoke: New Firewood Cooking: How To Build Flavor with Fire on the Grill and in the Kitchen by Tim Byres 

The Fundamental Techniques of Classic Pastry Arts by Judith Choate and The French Culinary Institute 

Gordon Ramsay may be dismissive of pastry but it’s much harder to get right than it looks and this is the finest guide to pastry ever written.  

You can find  The Fundamental Techniques of Classic Pastry Arts by Judith Choate and The French Culinary Institute  online.  

Check out The Fundamental Techniques of Classic Pastry Arts by Judith Choate and The French Culinary Institute 

The Country Cooking of Ireland by Colman Andrews 

Ireland has a superb history of food and Colman Andrews imbues this hearty cuisine with life and vigor in this farm-to-table guide to Irish cookery.  

You can find  The Country Cooking of Ireland by Colman Andrews  online. 

Check out The Country Cooking of Ireland by Colman Andrews 

The New Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden 

Originally published in 1972 but revised several times, this book hailed by James Beard as “a landmark in the field of cookery” makes Middle Eastern Food accessible and easy for everyone.  

You can find  The New Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden  online. 

Check out The New Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden 

Spirit of the Harvest: North American Indian Cooking by Beverly Cox and Martin Jacobs 

The culinary heritage of the original Americans is one that often goes unexplored, but it shouldn’t because these dishes are alive and shared by Native Americans all over the country today.

This is a fantastic celebration of American food.  

You can find  Spirit of the Harvest: North American Indian Cooking by Beverly Cox and Martin Jacobs  online. 

Check out Spirit of the Harvest: North American Indian Cooking by Beverly Cox and Martin Jacobs 

Sweet Home Café Cookbook: A Celebration of African American Cooking by NMAAHC et al. 

This Food & Wine magazine’s best cookbook is the official cookbook of the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) and the 109 recipes within will inspire you to take your cooking to another level.  

You can find  Sweet Home Café Cookbook: A Celebration of African American Cooking by NMAAHC et al.  online. 

Check out Sweet Home Café Cookbook: A Celebration of African American Cooking by NMAAHC et al. 

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An undercover agent aims to disrupt the work of climate activists in sexy, cerebral ‘Creation Lake’

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Book review

Creation Lake: A Novel

By Rachel Kushner Scribner: 416 pages, $29.99 If you buy books linked on our site, The Times may earn a commission from Bookshop.org , whose fees support independent bookstores.

Buckle up: Known for her daring and cerebral work, Rachel Kushner knows how to take readers on a wild ride. Unafraid to blend edgy storytelling with excoriating sociopolitical commentary, her novels explore the scourge of colonization and empire, the American prison complex and the intersection between anarchy and art. In a recent interview with literary magazine the Drift, Kushner lays out her stakes, noting that a “novel is a retreat, made from a place of profound curiosity, and profound doubt. It’s never a polemic.” And yet, she sees the political potential embedded in novels as they “render the unseen seen.” The otherwise invisible dirty hands of power and money are exposed in her fourth novel.

In “Creation Lake,” her narrator is not who she presents herself to be. Unassuming Sadie Smith is squarely an antihero. But that’s not even her real name. The sole autobiographical detail that Sadie ever offers is that she is from Priest Valley, a place of no population that exists only as words on a sign on a barren California road. What we do know that her contemporaries do not: She’s a malevolent secret agent paid by governments, shadowy individuals or corporations to fold herself into activist communities with the intention to provoke behavior that disrupts their protests and political efforts. Hers is an absurdly lucrative, high-risk job that demands you put your body and sanity on the line. And it’s a career that comes with a shelf life: The possibility of death is greater than that of burnout. Are readers following what could be her last assignment?

Six months earlier, excavators designated for creating an industrial reservoir in the South of France were set on fire. The likely suspects were a commune of subversives in the Guyenne Valley known as Le Moulin, led by a charismatic and privileged young man named Pascal Balmy. For the powers that be who wanted nothing to stand in the way of their development, this unchecked behavior was unacceptable. With no clear link to Le Moulin’s guilt, only someone on the inside could uncover their culpability and dissolve the group — by any means necessary. Enter Sadie.

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Kaliane Bradley proves imperialism, the scourge of bureaucracy and cross-cultural conflict can be utterly entertaining in ‘The Ministry of Time.’

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As with every good spy novel, “Creation Lake” begins with sex and romance and leads to violence. To Sadie, Europe is not filled with picturesque landscapes. Instead, it’s “a borderless network of supply and transport.” In Paris, Sadie orchestrates an innocent meet-cute with a pretentious, wealthy filmmaker, hungry for her body and willing to accept her mysterious past, which opens the door for her to make her move into the granular work of Le Moulin. Lost on her way to their remote village, she finds herself adrift in what “felt like a place of aftermath.”

Using the framework of an espionage novel, Kushner creates a spellbinding story of intrigue and subterfuge that examines the limits of control and moral influence. Her nimble pacing and enigmatic details track the games people play, unconsciously or not, in the name of art and justice. With that tantalizing premise, Kushner can’t help but introduce a philosophical and historical undercurrent that builds and absorbs the reader as Sadie slowly moves toward her final objective.

Sadie comes to see that it’s no coincidence that radicals, titans of industry and government officials share a common, unstable delusion of power. Its influence tarnishes anything it touches. She posits, “The coincidence, as an explanation for things that are mysteriously aligned,” hides what is “instead a plot.” Beyond capital and control in a world of smoke and mirrors controlled by despots, what is the impulsive goal of humanity?

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Someone else shares Sadie’s world-weary perspective. Bruno Lacombe, a former revolutionary turned meditative recluse, spends the bulk of his time living in a cave in an attempt to get closer to early man. He also serves as a mentor or guru to Le Moulin. To gain greater understanding of the forces at play in this commune, Sadie monitors Bruno’s emails to the group. Rather than stir up discontent, he eschews tactical conversation, concentrating on what fascinates him now. Regarding his previous life, Bruno remarks, “I left that milieu not to reject it but to find something else.” A veteran of the conflicts surrounding 1968 and their ricochet effects, he searches beyond his personal tragedy and the forces of society to mine for a more profound motivation.

Bruno’s obsession with the evolution of human behavior and desires tethers him to the Neanderthals. Did they die out because they lacked a ruthless drive to survive? Was it a brooding fascination with art that marked their fate? Lacking “mindful scholarship” of prehistoric art, Bruno is left to speculate that while Neanderthals were “conjurers” and “artists,” Homo sapiens were “copiers” and “frauds.” Are modern men beasts driven by power and control? Echoing the words in her Drift interview, Kushner bestows her wisdom onto Bruno, who remarks: “To render the unseen seen: That is what an artist does.” When the battles have been fought and the world’s resources are depleted, who is, in fact, best positioned for survival?

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A woman whose past has been scrubbed and abandoned as a prerequisite for her work, Sadie is entirely alone. Scarred by her previous projects, she’s got a cynical and sophisticated grasp on her work, but it also leaves her vulnerable. The intimacy of these illicitly retrieved emails offers Sadie a lifeline to the history of humankind guided by a man as solitary as she is. Bruno’s missives consider larger questions about the roots of our inner selves. While the unruly commune has little patience for his broad philosophical strokes, Bruno strikes a nerve with Sadie. His questions throw off her balance and shift her focus. She remains single-minded in the assignment to unsettle Le Moulin and topple a government deputy in the balance, but she’s unraveling at the seams at the same time. There is no stability in power.

“Creation Lake” is a sexy, physical novel of lies and caustic, increasingly harrowing choices tethered to ruin. Step by step, it demands we question what any of us are. Stripped of our names, our histories and any goals beyond successfully executing a project, who are we? Kushner also stresses what we hope to gain from any measure of striving, benevolent or otherwise, if we cannot face the painful truth of human intervention. Regarding the future, Sadie recalls Bruno’s reflection: “When we face our need to control it, we are better able to resist that need, and to live in the present.”

Many literary novelists have plumbed the murky depths of domesticity to question our collective existential crisis, while others have adopted genre writing for these explorations. Like Kushner’s “Creation Lake,” Eleanor Catton’s “Birnam Wood” and Kaliane Bradley’s “The Ministry of Time” are two high-wire novels that embody the pacing and tropes of spy novels. Whether the brooding autofiction of divorce or a cinematic drama, there’s an interesting overlap between these audacious novels: What’s left when you live your life as a lie? When do you face the truth? What’s the tipping point and how do you move on?

Kushner lands on openness as a space of opportunity. Bruno’s words linger with Sadie, acknowledging: “We want to escape what ails us, into something blessed, but know that when you go, you travel with cargo, stowaways, souvenirs from the old world. Don’t be afraid of them.” We can never shed our past and live in an ideal world, but “these things you’ve brought along will pass. Say hello and watch them go.” We cannot erase the past, but we can listen and strive to find a better world. Kushner brilliantly questions the impulses that lead to art and action but remains receptive to their potential. “Creation Lake” confronts the horror of industrialization, the desire to retreat in the face of conflict, and the need to remain present for all that’s to come.

Lauren LeBlanc is a board member of the National Book Critics Circle.

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The Best Air Fryer Cookbooks with Recipes Guaranteed to Impress

Fry, roast, and bake like a pro with our favorite air fryer cookbooks for any skill level.

In This Article

• Our Top Picks

Our Expertise

Food & Wine / Kevin Liang

While air fryers rose to popularity for their ability to yield restaurant-level fries and the crunchiest chicken tenders, they can do so much more. For example, they can produce elevated dishes like crispy fish or juicy pork chops that will still impress guests with a weeknight-dinner-level of effort. 

Jakob Miller, founder of Barbecue Pals , stumbled onto the world of air fryers after his granddaughter became vegan and wanted to help her still enjoy his famous barbecue while keeping in line with her plant-based diet. So he picked up an air fryer but still needed a little nudge in the right direction. He soon discovered how helpful air fryer cookbooks can be. 

“I would suggest looking for an air fryer cookbook that caters to your specific needs,” he says. “If you're a beginner, look for a cookbook that has easy-to-follow recipes with clear instructions. If you're cooking for one, look for a cookbook with portioned recipes that won't leave you with too many leftovers. And if you're a vegan or vegetarian, look for a cookbook that specializes in plant-based recipes.” 

Whether you’re a newbie to air frying or just looking for some new air fryer recipes to add to your weekly rotation, we rounded up the best air fryer cookbooks to help you every step of the way.

The Essential Air Fryer Cookbook for Two

For smaller households, optimizing the cooking process is what it's all about. When looking for a quick dinner for two (or one with leftovers for the following day), it might seem tedious to bust out three or four pots and pans and turn the oven on for an hour. But with the recipes in Gina Kleinworth’s cookbook, the entire process is streamlined. Air fryer cooking for two saves time, dishes, and energy and keeps your kitchen cleaner. The recipes in this book are also perfect for cooking together. 

Kleinworth has thought of it all — there are easy recipes for every meal of the day, plus specialized sections for dishes like crave-able veggies and even dessert. She also offers troubleshooting tips for when things may go awry, which we always appreciate when trying to master new appliances. 

Full title: The Essential Air Fryer Cookbook for Two: Perfectly Portioned Recipes for Healthier Fried Favorites | Author: Gina Kleinworth | Ebook Available: Yes | Pages: 149

Party in an Air Fryer

Air fryers can be a host’s biggest asset, and cooking for a big family or crowd is nearly effortless with this cookbook. Party in an Air Fryer’s recipes are straightforward and use ingredients you probably have on hand, eliminating the need to buy something you’ll never use the rest of or have to purchase twice as many groceries as usual. 

Even if you’re an air fryer beginner or new to cooking for a crowd, these recipes are easy to follow and go beyond the mundane or simple things you can do with an air fryer to produce some truly exciting meals. We especially love the fun air fryer versions of classic snacks and party food like wings, tacos, and fried ravioli. 

Full title: Party in an Air Fryer: 75+ Air Fryer Recipes from the Editors at Delish | Author: Various | Ebook Available: No | Pages: 160

The Essential Air Fryer Cookbook for Beginners

If you’ve just begun your air fryer journey and don’t know where to start, The Essential Air Fryer Cookbook for Beginners is a good first purchase. Delving into the world of air frying is exciting but can be overwhelming. This cookbook will walk you through the basics, step by step. 

The best part about this book is that, before the recipes even start, there’s a comprehensive section of “Air Fryer 101,” so you can soak up all of the knowledge you need to be an air fryer expert right off the bat. While this is a great book for anyone new to air fryers, it’s also a great guide for anyone new to cooking in general or living alone for the first time since the recipes are all beginner-friendly and helps develop foundational cooking knowledge. 

Full title: The Essential Air Fryer Cookbook for Beginners: Easy, Foolproof Recipes for Your Air Fryer | Author: Laurie Fleming | Ebook Available: Yes | Pages: 142

Essential Vegan Air Fryer Cookbook

If you follow a vegan diet, you might think there isn’t much an air fryer can offer since they’re often marketed as a way to heat frozen food or snacks that often include animal products. But as author Tess Challis proves over and over again, nothing could be farther from the truth. Veggies and vegan proteins like tofu crisp up beautifully in the air fryer if you have the know-how to prepare them right, and that’s where this book comes in. 

Challis does a phenomenal job of blending comfort recipes that evoke similar flavor memories of traditional meat-heavy recipes with modern, plant-forward dishes that feel delicious and nourishing. She also includes a handy chart in the back of common produce and their cook times, so this is not only a cookbook but can also be used as a reference book in the kitchen. 

Full title: The Essential Vegan Air Fryer Cookbook: 75 Whole Food Recipes to Fry, Bake, and Roast | Author: Tess Challis | Ebook Available: Yes | Pages: 168

Essential Air Fryer Cookbook

This is easily the most comprehensive air fryer cookbook on the market; it has a recipe for nearly everything you could think of. Not only does this volume contains lots of clever and unique dish ideas, but it also includes air fryer versions of recipes you probably already know and love. 

So if you’ve been wondering how to adapt your favorite fish and chips or rib recipe for the air fryer, look no further than this book. Its collection of recipes feels very approachable and runs the gambit of cuisines, so there are many new things to try that don’t feel too intimidating if you’re new to a particular dish or technique. Mark Scarbrough and Bruce Weinstein are seasoned cookbook and food writing veterans, so you know you can trust these recipes to come out perfect each and every time. 

Full title: The Essential Air Fryer Cookbook: The Only Book You Need for Your Small, Medium, or Large Air Fryer | Author: Mark Scarbrough and Bruce Weinstein | Ebook Available: Yes | Pages: 432

Air Fry Every Day

The best thing about Ben Mims’ air fryer compendium is that he fully embraces an air fryer for what it is, playing to its strengths for the best possible quality in each recipe. Of course, we love a do-it-all cookbook, but Air Fry Every Day is a perfect example of using the right tool for the job — with recipes that an air fryer will naturally excel at. 

We especially love Mims’ use of charring in the air fryer, a technique not often taken advantage of enough, if you ask us. Mims’ background includes several stints in test kitchens, so you know each recipe has been meticulously tested by someone who knows what they’re doing. And it shows: There are no extraneous steps or unnecessary dishes in this handy cookbook.

Full title: Air Fry Every Day: 75 Recipes to Fry, Roast, and Bake Using Your Air Fryer: A Cookbook | Author: Ben Mims | Ebook Available: Yes | Pages: 160

Air Fryer Perfection

America’s Test Kitchen knows a thing or two about recipe testing, so it’s no surprise that their air fryer cookbook is excellent. Fellow air fryer cookbook author and recipe developer for Best Recipes, Drew Maresco , recommends this book, “In typical ATK fashion, they break down the components of air fryers, share what to look for when buying one, and provide a list of air fryers that pass their rigorous tests,” he says. “They also provide incredibly helpful tips for getting consistent results with your air fryer.” 

Like much of America’s Test Kitchen’s content, this book reads in a methodical way; there’s lots of reference information at the beginning, and the recipes are well-explained. It gives the impression of a thorough methodology and scientific approach, making the recipes feel foolproof. Even if you’re new to air frying, family and friends will be impressed with recipes like chicken parmesan and succulent salmon tacos with this thoroughly tested cookbook on your shelf. 

Full title: Air Fryer Perfection: From Crispy Fries and Juicy Steaks to Perfect Vegetables, What to Cook & How to Get the Best Results  | Author: Various | Ebook Available: Yes | Pages: 182

• Nick DeSimone is a food writer and chef with nearly a decade of restaurant experience. Nick has written extensively about air fryers and has often used them in their personal and professional lives.
• They also spoke with Jakob Miller, the founder of Barbecue Pals, and Drew Maresco of Best Recipes, who have a wealth of culinary knowledge and a unique relationship with air fryers and air fryer cookbooks specifically.

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Book Review: ‘Swallow the Ghost’ a promising but uneven exploration of memory in internet age

This cover image released by Mulholland shows “Swallow the Ghost” by Eugenie Montague. (Mulholland via AP)

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In many ways, Eugenie Montague’s “Swallow the Ghost” feels like three separate novels. That’s what makes her debut novel so imaginative — and also so frustrating.

The story’s center is Jane Murphy, who works at a New York social media startup on an internet novel that’s become a viral hit through social media posts where elaborate backstories about its characters are formed.

But Murphy’s story and a tragic event are told through three interlocking sections. The first focuses on Jane. The second focuses on Jesse, a former journalist working as an investigator for a law firm. The third focuses on Jeremy, the pretentious, Kafka-quoting novelist and sometimes boyfriend of Jane’s.

The writing style and genre shifts with each section, but Montague’s novel at its heart explores memory in the digital era. It’s a promising concept but feels uneven.

Montague’s novel is filled with beautiful prose that’s hard to forget, and poses intriguing questions about how someone is remembered. The interactions between Jesse and his mother, who he cares for and who has dementia, are some of the most simply heartbreaking moments in the novel.

But there are other portions of the novel that meander, especially the final section of the book that is framed as a transcript of a conversation with Jeremy at a bookstore event. The conversation reveals more about Jane and also about the questions the novel poses, but it also slows down the momentum of the prior section focused on Jesse and the mystery he was investigating.

Though the approach falls short at times, it’s an ambitious one that leaves readers much to think about and introduces Montague as an inventive new voice.

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Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking: 30th Anniversary Edition: A Cookbook Hardcover – September 20, 2022

• Print length 736 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Knopf
• Publication date September 20, 2022
• Dimensions 7.38 x 1.72 x 9.27 inches
• ISBN-10 0593534328
• ISBN-13 978-0593534328
• See all details

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Editorial Reviews

About the author, excerpt. © reprinted by permission. all rights reserved., product details.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Knopf; Anniversary edition (September 20, 2022)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 736 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0593534328
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0593534328
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.55 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.38 x 1.72 x 9.27 inches
• #3 in Italian Cooking, Food & Wine
• #4 in Gluten Free Recipes
• #7 in Celebrity & TV Show Cookbooks

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About the author

Marcella hazan.

Marcella Hazan, the acknowledged godmother of Italian cooking in America, is the author of The Classic Italian Cookbook, More Classic Italian Cooking, Marcella's Italian kitchen, and Essentials of Italian Cooking .She lives in Venice, Italy, and Longboat Key, Florida.

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Customers say

Customers find the book fun to read with good information and instruction. They say the recipes are delicious and provide a good insight into Italian standards. Readers also appreciate the simple ingredients and easy-to-follow instructions. They describe the content as versatile and important. Overall, customers say the book is well organized and easy to follow.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

Customers find the recipes in the book enjoyable, historical, and authentic. They also say they provide a good insight into Italian standards and truly represent the diversity of Italian cuisine.

"...Every recipe has a description of its origin. I was astonished with how delicious every recipe , so far, has turned out. Do yourself a big favor...." Read more

"...will not only provide you with great detailed recipes that generate truly great food , it will teach you skills needed to make classic Italian foods..." Read more

"...The recipes in this book are simple , mostly inexpensive, and supremely delicious...." Read more

"...are well written, well explained, well organized, and the flavors are well honed and she's obviously been making (and teaching) them over and over..." Read more

Customers find the book easy to read and follow. They also say the steps to making the dishes are presented perfectly. Readers also appreciate the well-organized chapters with a great intro and helpful hints.

" Love the directions . They are very descriptive and well written. Nice to have recipes from all over Italy...." Read more

"...The writing is clear and directions are easy to follow. Ms. Hazan breaks the most tedious processes down to clearly defined steps...." Read more

"...They use very few ingredients, and the steps are easy to follow . I would have to say that they are foolproof, idiotproof, and bulletproof...." Read more

"...All of her recipes are well written, well explained , well organized, and the flavors are well honed and she's obviously been making (and teaching)..." Read more

Customers find the book full of techniques and helpful hints, excellent for learning and understanding great Italian cooking. They appreciate the useful information included with these recipes, which are simple and to the point. Readers also mention that the book is written simple and down to earth, with added illustrations to demonstrate certain techniques. They say the chapters are organized with a great intro and spiced with helpful hint. They also say the recipes are very basic but perfect, making them easy approachable for all cooking levels.

"Love the directions. They are very descriptive and well written. Nice to have recipes from all over Italy...." Read more

"...of dishes I've prepared from the book's recipes, I can say all were rich and flavorful, delicious...." Read more

"... They are all simple , as all great Italian cooking is. They use very few ingredients, and the steps are easy to follow...." Read more

"... It’s no nonsense and you have to read, not look at photos." Read more

Customers appreciate the simple ingredients and quality ingredients. They also say the recipes are authentic and easy to follow.

"...They are all simple, as all great Italian cooking is. They use very few ingredients , and the steps are easy to follow...." Read more

"I like this book because a single, cranky, authentic and ultimately wise Italian voice steers you to a framework of Italian cooking around which you..." Read more

"...Almost all of the ingredients are easily accessible in an ordinary grocery store...." Read more

"...It doesn't seem like it should work, but it does. Very easy. Few ingredients . Quick. It's a form of magic...." Read more

Customers find the book fun, easy to follow, and a pleasure to carry out. They also say the sections are interesting and helpful.

"...The book is a pleasure to read. It is truly entertaining ." Read more

"...I have absolutely zero skill in the kitchen and this has been an exciting and eye opening read to me...." Read more

"This is one of those classics among cookbooks that actually makes enjoyable reading ...." Read more

"...This table alone makes the book a worthwhile reading . Several roast chicken recipes are so easy to do and surprisingly very tasty...." Read more

Customers find the book design elegant and simple. They also appreciate the line drawings and the traditional skill of Knopf.

"...Both are illustrated by line drawings and both benefit from Knopf's traditional skill in designing the typeface and layout of books in general for..." Read more

"...The Rosemary and Pancetta variation is gorgeous ." Read more

"...Not too many ingredients, nothing too fancy . No quail eggs and golden raisins, nothing that takes way too long...." Read more

" This book is beautiful because the way it was written is simple and down to earth...." Read more

Customers find the illustrations in the book lacking and boring. They also mention that the index and table of contents are poorly designed.

"...The bad news is that there are no photos, and there are very few illustrations ...." Read more

"...The index/ table of contents was poorly designed . I couldn’t just look in an alphabetical listing for recipes, which was very frustrating...." Read more

"...Old school perfection. There are no photographs of dishes in here , just a sprinkling of drawings, but I’d not let that be a deterrent...." Read more

"Nice book, nut surprisingly it has no photos of the dishes . Black and white sketches don’t really capture the meal." Read more

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Why Were Justice Dept. Officials Scared to Talk to This Book’s Author?

In “Where Tyranny Begins,” the journalist David Rohde reveals how former President Donald Trump tried to use the federal law enforcement agency to help himself and punish his foes.

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By David Greenberg

David Greenberg is a professor of history and of journalism and media studies at Rutgers University. His biography “John Lewis: A Life” will be published in October.

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WHERE TYRANNY BEGINS: The Justice Department, the FBI, and the War on Democracy , by David Rohde

A lot of people seem to have forgotten what made Donald Trump’s presidency so dangerous. Wasn’t it just a lot of loudmouthed name-calling, like tweeting that his own secretary of state was “ dumb as a rock ”? What did he do that was so terrible after all? NATO is intact, inflammatory policies like the so-called Muslim ban and the southern border wall were mostly thwarted, and the economy did well , at least until Covid. We survived — right?

It’s true that the Trump presidency generated hysteria and hyperbole on both sides of the political divide. But it also produced real threats to the Constitution and the rule of law. So it’s incumbent on us to separate the bluster from the genuine menace, the sound and fury from the specific, palpable ways that Trump damaged American democracy.

In “Where Tyranny Begins,” David Rohde, a longtime foreign correspondent and national security reporter now with NBC News, takes up one very serious assault on democratic norms under Trump: the naked politicization of the Justice Department.

Trump was the first president since Nixon to utterly reject the idea that federal law enforcement should operate independently of the president’s personal desires or prejudices. Rather, he sought to use the attorney general , special prosecutors , U.S. attorneys and the F.B.I. as instruments to help himself and his friends and to punish his enemies.

Although Rohde doesn’t hide his conviction that Trump undermined democracy with his salvos against the Justice Department’s independence, he nonetheless writes in measured, restrained language that should hold up well in the light of history. “Where Tyranny Begins” is a work of reporting and sober analysis, not polemic. While his title might sound shrill, it’s actually an allusion to words from John Locke: “ Wherever law ends, tyranny begins .”

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