When I’m choosing cookbooks to recommend — or to wrap up for the people I love — I try to think about what they actually enjoy in the kitchen.
Some want tradition. Some want shortcuts. Some want to bake towering cakes, while others want dinner in 30 minutes. And some simply want to flip through gorgeous food photography with no intention of ever turning on the stove.
Here are a few that might fit your gift-giving needs:
IT’S NOT (JUST) ABOUT THE PASTA
What is Italian cuisine? It’s a lot less tomato sauce and pasta than you believe.
VORACIOUS
The cuisine is as diverse as the country’s regions — so diverse that Milk Street’s Christopher Kimball and J.M. Hirsch are still learning something new every time they visit Italy. In Milk Street’s newest cookbook, “Backroads Italy: Finding Italy’s Forgotten Recipes” (Voracious, 416 pages, $42), Kimball and Hirsch bring you along with them as they seek out fresh takes on classic dishes and strive to find regional favorites that never made it to America.
DK
Want to make your favorite Italian dish? Don’t have time? “Italianish: Modern Twists on Classic Italian Flavors,” by Danny Freeman (DK, an imprint of Penguin Random House, 272 pages, $35) includes over 100 recipes, with unique and easy twists that make classic meals easier and more accessible, especially on weeknights. This cookbook is called “Itanianish” for a reason: The recipes are based on traditional recipes. They are not traditional recipes. These are recipes that put a delicious meal on the table.
SIMON ELEMENT
Keeping with the topic of Italian dishes that don’t follow the rules … The recipe calls for arugula or spinach, but all you have is kale. Use it. It’s OK, says Top Chef alum Joe Sasto. He’s so in favor of breaking the rules, he wrote a whole cookbook about it. “Breaking the Rules: A Fresh Take on Italian Classics” by Sasto with Thea Baumann (Simon Element, 288 pages, $35.99) features stories of how his mother influenced his culinary journey; pasta; recipes that use leftover portions (of other recipes) and eliminate food waste.
QUADRILLE PUBLISHING
But then again, when you think of Italian cuisine, you think about pasta. Fresh or dry? Does it matter? Depends on who you talk to. In “Pasta Pronto” (Quadrille Publishing, 160 pages, $24.99), chef Mateo Zielonka, aka The Pasta Man, provides 55 recipes that mostly can be made with fresh or dry pasta. Many of the recipes can be made in around 30 minutes. Want to make fresh pasta? There are some really nice recipes and helpful guide on how to do it (of course).
FOR BAKERS
SIMON & SCHUSTER FOR KIDS
It’s never too early to start baking. “Sweet & Salty! King Arthur Baking Company’s Cookbook for Young Bakers” (Simon & Schuster for Young Readers, 280 pages, $21.99) will have young bakers rolling up their sleeves and heading off to the kitchen to bake giant chocolate chip cookies, brown butter Rice Krispies treats, sausage rolls and pick-your-pan pizzas. Filled with 80 sweet and salty recipes, this cookbook features recipes for three different skill levels (easy, medium and hard) and includes detailed guides for special skills, such as frosting cupcakes and layered cakes.
UNION SQUARE & CO.
Gluten-free baking isn’t as easy as swapping out gluten flour for a one-on-one replacement flour. Luckily, more and more bakers are figuring out how to do it and sharing their recipes for tasty gluten-free bakes. In “Bake it Gluten Free” by Dana Pollack (Union Square & Co., 240 pages, $35) transforms classic recipes into tasty, gluten-free fare without sacrificing the original flavors. Recipes include babka French toast, monkey bread, chocolate layer cake and cake batter macarons.
QUADRILLE PUBLISHING
Whether you’re of German heritage or just adore eating their delectable Christmastime treats, having a guide to help you bake throughout the holiday is a must. If you’re looking to keep your Bunter Teller full, “Advent: Festive German Bakes to Celebrate the Coming of Christmas” by Anja Dunk (Quadrille Publishing, 272 pages, $40) is the cookbook you’re looking for. It’s filled with recipes for all the holiday favorites: rumballs (Rumkugeln), sandy shortbread (Heidesand), vanilla crescents (Vanillekipferl), meringue mice (Baiser mause), jam-filled double deckers (Doppeldecker), chocolate kisses (Schokoküsschen), florentines, biscotti, marzipan stollen and more.
METZLER BOOKS
For those seeking more year-round, traditional bakes, there’s “German Heritage Baking, Volume One: Time-honored Traditional Techniques and Culinary Secrets” by Heidrun Metzler (Metzler Books, 277 pages, $39.99). Metzler, a German-born baker, offers up heirloom recipes with tips and tricks for success for all levels of bakers, from beginners to experienced. Inside, you’ll find recipes for tarts, tortes, pies, cookies and apple strudel. On Metzler’s website, you’ll find a bevy of resources, from templates for gingerbread houses to instructional videos, including one on how to stretch dough for strudel.
VORACIOUS
Speaking of cookies, one of my favorite cookbooks this year is “108 Asian Cookies: Not-Too-Sweet Treats from a Third-Culture Kitchen” by Kat Lieu (Voracious, 400 pages, $40). It’s jam-packed with delicious cookie recipes — a mix of traditional Asian flavors, Asian-inspired cookies, flavors from across the Asian diaspora and a mesh of Asian and Western flavors. The cookbook is filled with beautiful, colorful and creative photographs that only hint at the wide variety of flavors awaiting you.
QUADRILLE PUBLISHING
The French Bastards is a Parisian bakery with a global cult following, but also its three founders, Julien Abourmad, David Abehsera and Emmanuel Gunther. “The French Bastards” (Quadrille Publishing, 192 pages, $42) is also a cookbook of Modern Patisserie Classics from Paris’s Cult Bakery. Whether or not you have heard of this zeitgeisty bakery, where the vision is modern but the approach to making bread is old school, is of no consequence. What matters is that you’ll want to eat (and make) every item featured in this book: chocolate babkas, broiches, pavlovas, tartlets, cruffins, cakes and breads of all types.
FOR THE PLANT-FORWARD COOK
You might be wondering why these cookbooks are not included above, as they certainly each belong with the others. However, I thought it important to highlight these books in a separate category, as they might be overlooked by those specifically seeking out cookbooks with plant-based ingredients.
NEWSEED PRESS
When thinking about Italian cooking, vegan or plant-based are not the first things that come to mind. In fact, one of the first things you might notice when visiting the Instagram page of “Italian Cooking with Nonna” (Newseed Press, 288 pages, $32.50) author Giuseppe Federici (@sepps) is someone commenting, “But pasta is made with eggs. So, how is that vegan?” You can make pasta without eggs. Moving on. When Federici’s father was diagnosed with colon cancer, Sepps, as he’s known, decided his family needed to change their diet. But how do you do that? He went to an expert, his Nonna, who pointed out that Italian recipes, historically, were naturally mostly or nearly vegan, as dairy and meat were once luxury items. Together, they’ve created over 80 recipes that have all the Italian flavor, but none of the meat or dairy. The cookbook is great, but for the full experience, watch them cook together on Instagram or TikTok.
QUADRILLE PUBLISHING
Can you bake a cake without eggs and dairy? Of course you can. But can you do it in a way that goes beyond substitutions? When it comes to plant-based baking, chef Philip Khoury has been rethinking everything for the last decade. In his second cookbook, “Beyond Baking: Plant-based Baking for a New Era” (Quadrille, 256 pages, $42), the award-winning plant-based pastry chef is pushing boundaries — even making laminated pastries without butter. Many of the recipes include QR codes for video tutorials that will walk you through every fold, mix and proof.
FOR HOME COOKS
If you’re not a professional chef, you’re most likely a home cook. As a professional home cook, I’m always looking for the next recipe, the next great cookbook. There are a lot of cookbooks out there. That’s the reason I started my column, Fork & Folio. I get to test out cookbooks. I figure, if I can make it, you can too. Here are a few cookbooks written specifically with the home cook in mind.
SIMON ELEMENT
Are you looking for recipes that “anyone can make and everyone will love?” “You Got This!” by Diane Morrisey (Simon Element, 272 pages, $35) features 100 simple recipes that home cooks of varying skills can make with things they most likely will already have on hand. Craving lasagna? There’s a recipe for Sheet Pan Lasagna that has all the flavors of the original, but none of the layering. With straightforward directions, this cookbook is designed to help cooks of every level build confidence in their cooking skills and serve delicious meals as they are doing it.
QUADRILLE PUBLISHING
It’s soup season. Instead of cracking open a can of condensed something or other, crack open “Seriously Good Soups” by Rebecca Woods (Quadrille, 160 pages, $20.99) and learn how to make one from scratch. With 60 simple recipes to choose from, you’ll have a steaming bowl (and pot) of soup in no time at all. Included are recipes for broths, toppers and soups that range from light and refreshing soups to hearty and wholesome bowls and creamy and comforting.
VORACIOUS
For home cooks looking for a cookbook that features “shortish” recipes that don’t require you to spend all day in the kitchen, there’s “Milk Street Shorts” by Christopher Kimball (Voracious, 304 pages, $37.50). “They are not recipes where the effort exceeds what ends up on the plate,” Kimbel writes in the cookbook’s brief introduction. Included are dishes that take under 30 minutes or an hour or use one pot. There also are tray bakes, skillet meals and cakes concocted, in part, in blenders, as well as an ice cream made with a food processor.
SIMON ELEMENT
Every home cook wants to make nutritious meals, but that’s easier said than done when doing it on your own. Registered dietitian and social media star Kylie Sakaida, aka @NutritionbyKylie, has collected her best nutrition tips, fan-favorite recipes and a few new ones in “So Easy, So Good” (Simon Element, 272 pages, $35). Not only is this cookbook full of healthy recipes, it also has nutritional advice: how to balance your plate, how to eat mindfully, how to stock your pantry, fridge and freezer and how to meal plan.
SIMON ELEMENT
#FoodTok influencer Edith Galvez, known as @EdithxBellaa, found a way to celebrate her heritage, culture and food on TikTok. “In Edith’s Kitchen” (Simon Element, 256 pages, $32.50) allows Galvez to share her most-loved dishes, including enchiladas rojas, huevos rancheros, Mississippi pot roast, chicken Alfredo pasta and decadent Mexican tiramisu.
HEKLA PUBLISHING
Do you know someone who needs to add more vegetables to their diet, but just can’t seem to bring themselves to eat more? Would you call them veggie averse? Help them add more vegetables to their diet with “The Hidden Vegetable Cookbook” by Heidi Herman (Hekla Publishing LLC, 311 pages, $24.98). Herman, a confessed vegetable hater, has crafted 90 recipes for the veggie-averse adult — recipes infused with all the benefits of the veggies, but not the taste of them. That’s right, you can enjoy beef bourguignon and never taste the pureed beets, riced carrots and minced onion tucked inside its beefy goodness.
GLOBAL FLAVORS
QUADRILLE PUBLISHING
Have you ever dreamed of cooking in Julia Child’s kitchen? Makenna Held, the young American woman who bought Julia’s home in Southern France, knows what that’s like. At Le Pitchoune, Julia’s modest vacation home, she hosted many of the greatest food writers, including M.F.K. Fisher and James Beard. Held, a Smith College alum, no longer lives in the house but still runs a cooking school out of it. “Mostly French” (Simon Element, 304 pages, $40) is Held’s story, how she forged her own path as a cook and teacher. The recipes are “mostly French,” developed and beautifully photographed at La Pitchoune.
QUADRILLE PUBLISHING
If the name Flora Shedden sounds vaguely familiar, you’re probably a fan of the early days of “The Great British Bake Off.” Shedden, who appeared in BBC series 6 (PBS season 3/Netflix Collection 3), is the youngest ever semi-finalist on the show. In the semifinal, Shedden finished first in the technical but lost when her signature bake, a Cocoa Carousel, didn’t make the cut. Shedden went to university, but put her education on hold to write her first cookbook. She’s since married, opened a bakery, Aran, and had two children. “Winter in the Highlands” (Quadrille Publishing, 224 pages, $40), her fourth cookbook, is full of savory and sweet recipes that will get you through the coldest of winters.
QUADRILLE PUBLISHING
Who better to provide authentic Mediterranean recipes than the region’s most qualified cooks: its grandmothers. “Mediterranea: Life-perfected Recipes from Gandmothers of the Med” by Anastasia Miari (Quadrille Publishing, 256 pages, $40) is one part cookbook, all homage to the women of this region. In its pages, you’ll find “stunning pasta dishes from Sicily, classic desserts from the Côte d’Azur, Croatia’s best fish dishes, fresh and vibrant Turkish salads and Greece’s best vegetable-rich one-pots.” It’s all served alongside photographs of and stories about the grandmothers who have perfected these age-old recipes.
THE COLLECTIVE BOOK STUDIO
For those seeking Indian flavors, we suggest “Heartland Masala: An Indian Cookbook from an American Kitchen” by mother-son duo Jyoti Mukharji and Auyon Mukharji (The Collective Book Studio, 288 pages, $35). This charming cookbook — filled with 99 of Jyoti’s favorite recipes, beautiful illustrations and photographs, food history lessons and witty banter between mother and son — is, like its authors, a blend of India and the American Midwest. A years-long collaboration between an immigrant mother and her American-born son, it features recipes from all over India, with a special emphasis on the cuisines of Punjab (Jyoti’s home state) and Bengal (her husband’s home state), as well as her original recipes, such as Masala Brussels Sprouts and Spiced Watermelon. It’s made for both cooking novices and veterans and includes optional spice levels.
PHAIDON
What do you know, beyond pho and bahn mi, about Vietnamese cuisine? If you are like me, probably very little. Cookbooks like “Vietnam” by Anaïs Ca Dao van Manen (Phaidon, 496 pages, $54.95) are designed to do more than share recipes. Filled with 445 traditional recipes paired with breathtaking photos, this cookbook is a compendium of culture and history, built to both inspire and educate.
COCKTAILS & WINE
QUADRILLE PUBLISHING
Sam Heughan, star of the Starz drama series “Outlander,” is more than an actor and producer. He’s also a best-selling author, co-founder of Sassenach spirits and cocktail enthusiast. In “The Cocktail Diaries” (Quadrille, 224 pages, $29.99), Heughan blends his love of craft spirits, cocktails and adventure in a unique travelogue in which he shares stories of tasting cocktails as he travels the globe. Don’t worry, he also shares the recipes!
QUADRILLE PUBLISHING
How do you choose a good bottle of wine? How much should you spend on a bottle? What makes one wine better than another? What wine do I serve with fish? If you’ve ever wondered anything about wine, then British drinks expert Olly Smith’s “Wine: Everything You Need to Know” (Quadrille, 176 pages, $23.99) is a good place to start. This book is anything but intimidating. It’s illustrated, funny and answers important questions like: Are screwcaps any good? Are bottles best? Are all wines vintage? Does glassware matter?
WRITING AND EATING
Food writers are special people who get to think about food, not as calories or carbohydrates, but in the ways it connects in flavor and form. Sometimes, they write about food for no other reason than to delight in writing about it. Othertimes, the reasons are deeper.
Scribner
“Feast on Your Life: Kitchen Meditations for Every Day” by Tamar Adler (Scribner, 288 pages, $29) is one of those books that should be savored — consumed over a long stretch of time — monthly, weekly or even daily, as it was composed. It can be put on a shelf, forgotten about, rediscovered and enjoyed again and again. A daily diary of delights, the book features 365 entries recorded over the course of a year by the James Beard and IACP Award-winning author, who lives in Hudson, N.Y. I’ve shelved it in anticipation of being able to pick it up again, to rediscover the delights.
QUADRILLE PUBLISHING
Award-winning food writer Mark Diacono began his latest book, “Abundance: Eating and Living with the Seasons,” on his Substack, where he recorded, live, each week in prose and photographs. He was searching for a way to better savor life, sharpen the appreciation of the everyday. Each week became part of this book, a celebration of seasons, of food and of life. There are gorgeous photographs that accompany simple yet sublime recipes. It’s worth the indulgence.
HOLY GRAILS
Some chefs and home cooks just have to own a certain cookbook — a Holy Grail, per se.
VORACIOUS
In 1929, two years before “The Joy of Cooking” was published and two decades prior to “The Silver Spoon” being published, Ada Boni wrote and published the original must-have culinary book in Italy, “The Talisman of Happiness.” The cookbook would become a national treasure, a culinary bible. Although previously available in America, this new edition of “The Talisman of Happiness: The Most Iconic Italian Cookbook Ever Written” (Voracious, 912 pages, $60) is the most complete English translation to date. The book features over 1,700 recipes, carefully translated to preserve the spirit of the written word, but also updated to include American measurements and modern-day cooking temperatures. A must-have for any Italian American cook.
Culinary historian and James Beard Award-winning author Michael W. Twitty delves into the history of Southern cuisine in “Recipes from The American South” (Phaidon, 432 pages, $54.95), a volume that includes 250-plus recipes. Southern cuisine, historically, is as inclusive and diverse as the region is large. A perfect gift for those who value the culinary history of a region and want to learn more.
PHAIDON
“I’ve won some awards. I’ve been on some lists. I’ve won and lost Michelin stars. I’ve never won a James Beard Award, and I think I’ve gotten to a place where that is okay,” chef Jeremy Fox writes in a very succinct opening to his introduction of “On Meat: Modern Recipes for the Home Kitchen” (Phaidon, 352 pages, $49.95). It’s the opposite of “On Vegetables,” in which he detailed, as he puts it, “the rise and fall, the comeback, the addiction, the rise again.” He, as he puts it, “doesn’t want to be a poster child for anything anymore.” This cookbook, he says, is the real deal. He was never a vegetarian, although he once ran a vegetarian restaurant, very successfully. “On Meat” is a love letter to meat, to the home cook, who may or may not know how to roast a chicken (there are basic instructions). Chapters are arranged from easiest to hardest; nothing is wasted, and the accompanying photographs are divine.
Dining and Cooking