There’s something about this time of year that sends us in search of cookbooks to find fresh inspiration.
Whether you like to follow recipes exactly or tweak them as you go, a new cookbook can turn your dinnertime into an opportunity for creative thinking and sensory stimulation instead of a dose of daily drudgery.
So we went looking and found 10 recently published cookbooks filled with great ideas and gorgeous photos to inspire and feed your soul – or to help you whip up something with whatever is left in the fridge. Whether you’re sharing a meal with loved ones or simply seeking some solo self-care on a quiet evening at home, the following books offer plenty of options.
“Anthony Bourdain’s Les Halles Cookbook” by Jose de Meirelles and Philip La Jaunie
Twenty years after this book’s initial publication, Bourdain is even more beloved – and missed – so it’s a joy to reconnect with his practical, authoritative voice on these pages. Take, for instance, his warning about preparing escargots: “… occasionally they like to explode, spitting a boiling-hot, napalmlike mixture of snail fluid and molten butter at your face and genital region while cooking … If you are accustomed to cooking while naked, I would strongly suggest covering strategic areas with an apron.” Raise a glass – and maybe a protective baking sheet – to this wise counsel.
“Bodega Bakes: Recipes for Sweets and Treats Inspired by My Corner Store” by Paola Velez with Emily Timberlake
With its gorgeous Burnt Tahini and Concord Grape Cake gracing the cover, this colorful cookbook celebrates family – the dedication page is full of pictures of loved ones – and the multi-ethnic upbringing of author Paola Velez, a self-described “Bronx-born Afro-Latina pastry chef and community organizer”(and a slam poetry-loving, chess club nerd who identified with Urkel from “Family Matters”). Jam-packed with recipes for treats including cookies, pies, brownies, tarts, cakes, flan and her signature Thick’ems, which combine the joys of crunchy and gooey cookies into one, this book is a complete delight.
“Good Lookin’ Cookin: A Year of Meals” by Dolly Parton and Rachel Parton George
You probably don’t need me to advocate on behalf of this cookbook by our national treasure and her sister; you’ll already know if you need it. Organized by months of the year, this homey recipe collection runs the gamut of foods and flavors from nachos to Yorkshire pudding. (The drinks include eclectic recipes for green beer and a Dirt Road Martini.) And while there aren’t that many cookbooks you’d want to experience as audiobooks, you might try this one to hear the sisters talk about the family, friends, and food that inspired the project.
“Healthy, My Way: Real Food, Real Flavor, Real Good: A Cookbook” by My Nguyen
The California-based cookbook author and social media phenomenon is the child of parents who ran a Vietnamese restaurant. She says she embraced cooking after having kids of her own and searching for a better way of eating. Her new book focuses on fresh, healthy recipes that mix influences, cuisines and traditions. So you can find recipes for huevos rancheros breakfast burritos directly across from a page featuring kimchi fried rice.
“Matty Matheson’s Soups, Salads, Sandwiches by Matty Matheson
Consult this new book by acclaimed chef and “The Bear” star Matty Matheson for great-tasting recipes – but not for G-rated language or a solid grasp of natural history: “Who was the first person or creature who made soup? A pterodactyl?” Despite his delightfully unpretentious approach – the photos by the aptly named Quentin Bacon feature Matheson eating in cars and at payphones – he’s here to bring great taste to your life with this set of recipes. “Soups, salads, and sandwiches,” he writes of the practicality of this venture, “you could open to any chapter and cook from every day.”
“The Memory of Taste: Vietnamese American Recipes from Phú Quoc, Oakland, and the Spaces Between” by Tu David Phu and Soleil Ho
As readers with good taste will want to know, this cookbook comes with praise from Pulitzer prize-winning novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen, who writes, “Stripped of Oriental exoticism, this is a cookbook infused with the intense flavors of refugee kitchens and the inauthentic authenticity of the diaspora.” Trained in top-notch restaurants and a “Top Chef” alum, Tu David Phu grew up in the Bay Area as the child of Vietnamese refugees, soaking up stories and recipes about his parents’ early lives on the island Phú Quôc. The photo-filled book includes a range of dishes including Cơm Tấm (Broken Rice), Bánh Ít Trần (Sticky Rice Dumplings) and much more.
“Ottolenghi Comfort” by Yotam Ottolenghi with Helen Goh
The latest from bestselling cookbook author Yotam Ottolenghi focuses on something we can all use a little bit more of right now: comfort. These 100+ recipes created by a team of four chefs aim to hit a sweet spot between nostalgia and novel, with tasty combinations from around the world such as a French-influenced hummus, a kimchi falafel and Indonesian home fries alongside other more traditional tastes. The recipes focus on how eating can bring communities together, and the dishes here – whether variations on oatmeal or oyakodon – celebrate a sense of togetherness as well as delicious, comforting meals.
“Our South: Black Food Through My Lens” by Ashleigh Shanti
This James Beard Award finalist and former “Top Chef” competitor explores the foods and microregions – as well as her own family’s history – of Appalachia and the American South through her point of view as a Black, queer, female chef. So she offers the flavors and favorites you might be expecting, but she also digs deeper to reframe how readers understand the South – including writing about finding a book by Malinda Russell, who in 1866 became the first Black American to publish a cookbook. As Shanti lays out in the excellent foreword, “Above all, this book exists to amplify your understanding of the complexities of Black food.”
“Pass the Plate: 100 Delicious, Highly Shareable, Everyday Recipes” by Carolina Gelen
If you’ve encountered Gelen’s Instagram, you know she devises simple, appealing recipes with a minimum of fuss (she calls them, “highly doable”). Having grown up in a small Transylvania town watching TV chefs and learning to cook from her mother (as well as stints working in restaurants here in the States), she’s got a flair for food that’s simple and classic and looks and tastes great. And whether roasting citrus slices to add caramelized depth to a simple salad or tinkering endlessly to craft what she deems a “perfect” chocolate cake, she creates recipes that will have you heading to the kitchen to get started. (For a sense of her charming, funny videos, watch the one where Gelen’s mother delivers frank, sometimes withering opinions of her daughter’s book.)
“Rebel Girls Cook” edited by Eliza Kirby and Molly Birnbaum
From smoothies and spam musubi to chili and chow mein, this kid-tested cookbook offers more than a hundred recipes for young people (and the less-young, too) to eat, prepare and enjoy. The book includes anecdotes from chefs like Asma Khan and Rahanna Bisseret Martinez and also cleverly includes (and credits) Marcella Hazan’s recipe for buttery tomato sauce with onion that’s as simple as it is delicious: It’s a terrific gateway recipe for anyone looking to create memorable meals.
