If a good cookbook is something of a manual for life, then a good cookbook library is something of a tour of all the competing philosophies for living. Are you a head-to-tail type, rearing to tear into life, or more interested in the gentler footprint involved in sustainable grains and zero-waste plant-based consumption? Does your table offer a first-class ticket to spicy destinations across the globe, or a comfortable sinking into recollected recipes from your mother? Of course, you never really have to pick, but adding a few of these books to your kitchen library will give you a taste (literally) of the various ways you might entertain your palate—and occupy the world.
Jerusalem: A Cookbook by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi
The best cookbook for… someone who has the basic skills and is looking for a little more.
Everyone should have at least one cookbook in their kitchen that inspires and surprises them. For me, this is consistently anything with the Ottolenghi imprimatur. I’ve tried most of them, and universally, these books delight. I am not quite sure how these recipes assemble their special magic, but they are so consistently pleasing that they have offered the blueprint for both an elaborate, successful dinner party as well as many staple dishes that have made it into my “don’t need a recipe” repertoire. You’re not always going to have all the somewhat exotic herbs and spices on hand, but once you do, it’s full worth any effort you went through to obtain them. — C.S.
The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen by Peter Berley
The best cookbook for… mastering plant-based basics.
This was a book that was given to me as a gift when I lived on my own for the first time, a gesture more toward constrained budgets than health or ecological considerations. But this book has become a sort of bible of plant-based cooking for me, offering an entire education on the nutrients and properties of vegetarian ingredients. There are many vegan recipes in this book as well, but no matter how stringent-seeming their parameters, the final results never lack for taste. I am neither vegetarian nor vegan, but I am often very grateful that this book came into my kitchen early on in my cooking career; it has made me a better and more creative cook, while encouraging me to cook for a better future for our planet. — C.S.
Ad Hoc at Home by Thomas Keller
The best cookbook for… super precise but simple American recipes.
This is one of those cookbooks that will teach you the basics—with an eye toward perfecting them. Ad Hoc is one of the more casual outposts from Thomas Keller, the famed chef behind Per Se and French Laundry, and here he’s operating in a more relaxed register—appropriate (and approachable) for a home cook. But there’s no lack of precision. I remember one recipe for sautéed carrots that offers instruction on the precise angle of the cut, the way to roll the peeled carrot in order to obtain it, and how to tie the bouquet garnish so that a rogue spice wouldn’t escape. I have to say, it was worth it. (Also look here for the best chocolate chip cookie recipe I have ever encountered; I am never disloyal to it.) — C.S.
The Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer
The best cookbook for… unearthing retro classics.
Everyone should have a cookbook like this, a doorstop that is almost more encyclopedia than manual. When my mom gave me a copy, she realized that the new edition no longer included the recipe for skinned squirrel that had proved a source of entertainment in her earlier edition, so she photocopied the page and tucked it in. This book is a history lesson, if you can get an old-enough edition. But it is also a supremely useful manual, with a recipe for almost anything. We may be living in the era of the search engine, but if you want to get streamlined instructions on the basics, without scrolling past 500 ads and a narrative designed to keep you beholden to those ads, add this to your kitchen library. — C.S.
The Book of St John: Over 100 Brand New Recipes from London’s Iconic Restaurant by Fergus Henderson
The best cookbook for… head-to-tail carnivores.
Anyone who loves to cook also probably loves to eat out, to experience the magic of the well-made meal, when someone else has made it. And so I think that everyone should have a book that reminds them of their favorite place to eat. When you’re feeling in a rut, these can serve as catalysts. My own copies of these ilk are the least batter- and grease-stained in my library (whole suckling pig is not a major part of my repertoire), but I think that’s perfectly fine. Inspiration (and instruction) comes in all forms. — C.S.
The Jewish Cookbook by by Leah Koenig
The best cookbooks for… crafting holiday classics.
As anyone who’s ever sat through a Seder knows, it’s often all about the food. This beautiful book is a compendium of Jewish foods, offering little, lighthearted lessons in their origins and significance. It’s a lovely book for anyone who wants to perhaps adopt some of the traditions of their upbringing, but spent more time noshing on the challah and the latkes than watching what was going on in the kitchen. — C.S.
Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking: 30th Anniversary Edition: A Cookbook by Marcella Hazan
The best cookbooks for… your inner nonna.
Marcella (if you use her books, you’re allowed to call her by her first name) is considered “the godmother of Italian cooking” in America. Like so many cuisines in America, the book full of recipes that adopt a bit of the spirit of the melting pot—Hazan was a scientist by training who learned to cook in Manhattan’s Chinatown when she settled there with her husband. Hazan’s recipes are masterpieces of economy (see “Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter”—which is exactly what it sounds like), but there is Proustian poetry in her work as well. “Holding the small fish by the tail and head, I brought it to my mouth, pulled back my lips, and used my teeth to lift the entire tiny filet off the bone and suck it into my mouth,” she once wrote of imbibing a fish. “Oh the succulence of it! ‘Si mangiano col bacio,’ the fishermen say; you eat them with a kiss.” — C.S.
Where Cooking Begins by Carla Lalli Music
The best cookbook for… changing up your shopping habits.
In a single volume, Where Cooking Begins teaches you how to shop more effectively, pare down your kitchenware, and master six classic techniques that work with just about any produce: sautéing, pan-roasting, steaming, boiling, confiting and slow-roasting. Oh, and it also has one of the best simple recipes for pastry dough ever, inspired by none other than Julia Child. — Hayley Maitland
Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle, and Simone Beck
The best cookbook for… learning the five mother sauces.
Apart from being genuinely useful, Mastering the Art of French Cooking also looks exceptionally pretty on a kitchen shelf—and with traditional French cuisine back in fashion at last, learning how to make a truly perfect cassoulet or hollandaise is a brilliant use of dark winter evenings. — H.M.
Ottolenghi Flavor by Yotam Ottolenghi and Ixta Belfrage
The best cookbook for… realizing vegetables can be the star of any meal.
Yotam Ottolenghi is credited with introducing Londoners to the wonders of preserved lemons, za’atar, and pomegranate molasses. His recent volume, Flavour, includes vegetable-centric recipes alongside straightforward lessons about the origins of taste—from charring to aging—and how to intuitively marry flavors for spectacular dishes.— H.M.
Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat
The best cookbook for… understanding kitchen fundamentals.
Less a cookbook than a full-blown gastronomical movement, Samin Nosrat’s bestseller introduces readers to the most basic culinary principals on which all good food depends—distilling her years in the kitchen at Chez Panisse into elegant chapters on salt, fat, acid, and heat. It’s one of those rare volumes that genuinely lives up to the hype, and will fundamentally transform the way that you cook even the most basic of dishes. Case in point: her buttermilk roast chicken.— H.M.
An A-Z of Pasta by Rachel Roddy
The best cookbook for… a renewed appreciation for a pantry staple.
A British ex-pat based in Rome’s vibrant Testaccio neighborhood, Rachel Roddy has devoted years to studying regional Italian cuisines, with an emphasis on pasta. Her A-Z guides readers through 50 shapes (narrowed down from more than 1,200 varieties currently eaten across Italy) and the most delicious and/or traditional ways to serve them. Each tempting chapter, from “Annelli” to “Ziti,” includes an introduction about that particular variety’s historical significance and a Roddy anecdote about meals eaten everywhere from a friend’s home in the Florentine hills to crowded trattorie hidden away down Roman streets.— H.M.
Black Food by Bryant Terry
The best cookbook for… celebrating the food of the African diaspora.
It’s hard to overstate how brilliant—and how long overdue—Bryant Terry’s Black Food actually is. Beautiful enough to display on your coffee table (graphic artist Emory Douglas, a former Black Panther in Oakland, contributed visuals), this “communal shrine to the shared culinary histories of the African diaspora” is crammed with extraordinary recipes by dozens of Black contributors (including quite possibly the greatest potato salad ever created) organized around themes ranging from Food Justice to Radical Self-Care. Published alongside ingredients lists for the likes of Green Banana Chowder and Baobab Panko Salmon? Both essays and verse by celebrated writers and poets—a nod to Toni Morrison’s ’70s anthology, The Black Book.— H.M.
Whole Food Cooking Every Day by Amy Chaplin
The best cookbook for… becoming a whole foods evangelist.
The concept behind Amy Chaplin’s *Whole Food Cooking Every Day—*vegetarian recipes that are free from gluten, dairy, and sugar—might sound punishingly boring, but it’s anything but. One chapter will teach you how to make dressings from vegetables—winter beets, summer zucchini—that taste genuinely creamy; another takes you through the process of making your own nut- and seed-based drinks, including rose almond milk and adaptogenic dandelion lattes.— H.M.
To Asia, With Love by Hetty McKinnon
The best cookbook for… anyone who’s vegan-curious.
Hetty McKinnon’s To Asia, With Love might have single-handedly rehabilitated the word “pan-Asian” in the world of cuisine. As the Brooklyn-based chef notes at the beginning of the volume, “The recipes are Asian in origin, but modern in spirit; they are inspired by tradition, with a global interpretation.” A wonderfully personal cookbook—McKinnon even photographed the dishes herself on 35mm film—it represents an ode to her Chinese mother’s kitchen, and highlights the wealth of plant-based Asian dishes largely absent from restaurant menus in the West. Beyond including healthy, make-forever recipes, To Asia also teaches you culinary skills that I can only describe as game-changing, from making a “perfectly jammy egg” to top noodles or rice to choosing the best replacements for hard-to-find Asian produce (think Granny Smiths for green papaya).— H.M.
How to Eat a Peach by Diana Henry
The best cookbook for… readymade hosting menus.
If there is a more deliciously evocative cookbook than How To Eat A Peach, I have yet to come across it. Instead of recipes, it comprises menus inspired by different experiences, seasons, and places. (“Composing a menu is still my favorite bit of cooking,” Henry writes in the introduction. “I don’t invite people round and then wonder what I’ll cook. I come up with a menu and then consider who would like to eat it.”) Among the lyrically named chapters? “Before The Passeggiata,” a formula for a southern Italian dinner that progresses from fennel taralli to ricotta, candied lemon, and pistachio ice cream; “Smoky Days,” an homage to the first days of autumn with a feast that ends in cider jellies and brandy syllabub; “In My Own Backyard,” Henry’s take on the perfect Sunday lunch, complete with Guinness bread; and “Missing New York,” an oyster-filled gastronomical paean to Manhattan.— H.M.
In Bibi’s Kitchen by Hawa Hassan and Julia Turshen
The best cookbook for… discovering the wonders of east African cuisine.
Samin Nosrat is among the many, many fans of Hawa Hassan and Julia Turschen’s In Bibi’s Kitchen, a joyful compilation of recipes from bibis—or grandmothers—across a range of African countries that “touch the Indian Ocean,” including Eritrea, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, South Africa, Madagascar, and Comoros. Each nation is afforded its own chapter, where details about its history and traditions sit alongside intimate conversations with bibis in their own kitchens. Many recipes are attributed to their creators—Ma Gehhenet’s Shiro, Ma Maria’s Xima—and accompanied by wanderlust-inducing photographs of lush mountains, rugged coastlines, and beautiful dishes. An extremely welcome (and long overdue) contribution to the problematically Eurocentric world of food publishing in the West. — H.M.
A Modern Cook’s Year by Anna Jones
The best cookbook for… attuning yourself to the seasons.
All of Anna Jones’s cookbooks are genuinely useful and beautifully photographed—stay tuned for her next volume, One, in early 2022—but A Modern Cook’s Year is her best. With more than 250 adaptable, vegetarian recipes grouped by micro-seasons (including “Start of the Year,” “Herald of Spring,” and “First Warm Days”), it’s an essential guide to making the most of seasonal British produce.— H.M.
Food From Across Africa: Recipes to Share by Timothy Duval, Folayemi Brown, and Jacob Fodio Todd
Written by a trio of Londoners with family and connections across West and East Africa, Food From Across Africa is a joyful introduction to African dishes ranging from jollof rice to hibiscus tea, groundnut stew to tea bread. The majority of ingredients are available in your usual greengrocer—but it’s more than worth taking the excuse to visit the markets in Deptford and Brixton that the Groundnut team personally favor.— H.M.
My Mexico City Kitchen by Gabriela Cámara and Malena Watrous
The best cookbook for… keeping taco cravings at bay.
As Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat makes clear, Mexican cuisine is a masterclass in the power of acids, and Gabriela Cámara’s My Mexico City Kitchen is a colorful introduction to the magic of salsas—among countless other wonders: tostadas, agua frescas, ceviches, frijoles refritos…— H.M.
River Cafe London by Ruth Rogers, Rose Gray, Sian Wyn Owen, and Joseph Trivelli
The best cookbook for… whenever a trip to the River Cafe is out of budget.
Released in honor of three decades of the River Cafe, River Cafe 30 is visually stunning, reprinting the 1996 New Yorker article that put the Hammersmith restaurant on the map as well as individual menus scribbled on by famous customers such as Damien Hirst. Master their pappa al pomodoro, salsa verde, and cannellini, and you will always be well fed.— H.M.
La Grotta: Ice Creams and Sorbets by Kitty Travers
The best cookbook for… shifting your entire perception of dessert.
In publishing La Grotta, Kitty Travers single-handedly made it acceptable for a home chef to decide to whip up a Montmorency Cherry Sherbet, Amalfi Lemon Jelly, or Leafy Blackcurrant Custard. A former pastry chef at St Johns, the frozen treat evangelist has traveled everywhere from Iceland to Brazil to study ice cream making—and while some of her flavor combinations are more unusual than your average Madagascan vanilla, just put yourself in her expert hands and follow each recipe precisely.— H.M.
How to Eat by Nigella Lawson
The best cookbook for… anyone who needs culinary handholding.
The prose in Nigella Lawson’s revolutionary How to Eat is evocative enough that you will be tempted to read it like a novel. Fortunately, Vintage released a smaller paperback edition in honor of its 20th anniversary. Also more than worth having at your disposal: the newly released Cook, Eat, Repeat, featuring Lawson’s meditations on everything from the power of anchovies to a loving defense of “brown” food with accompanying recipes.— H.M.
The Violet Bakery Cookbook by Claire Ptak
The best cookbook for… making treats worthy of The Great British Bake Off.
Like Samin Nosrat, Claire Ptak trained at Chez Panisse—translating Alice Waters’s culinary philosophy to the baking world when she launched the Violet Bakery in London (and, yes, she later made the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s wedding cake). There are sweet treats here for every occasion: raspberry and star anise muffins for breakfast; sweet corn and roasted tomato quiche for lunch; honey and rose water madeleines for tea… The recipes for homemade preserves and jams are also a game-changer.— H.M.
Dishoom: From Bombay With Love by Shamil Thakrar, Kavi Thakrar, and Naved Nasir
The best cookbook for… spectacularly good dahl.
Anyone who’s witnessed the queues snaking through Soho for a table at Dishoom will testify that it has an almost comically devoted following—and anyone who’s actually tried the dahl will tell you that it’s more than justified. The restaurant’s first cookbook is as much a lovingly illustrated paean to Bombay as it is a compilation of moreish recipes for everything from gunpowder potatoes to ruby chicken. If there is a more comforting beverage than their masala chai, I have yet to try it.— H.M.
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