Dozens of new cookbooks flood the market each year. All are beautifully photographed and impeccably designed, but which ones are really worth anyone's while? Here are the instant classics that will either make great gifts this holiday season or that will live on your own kitchen shelves for decades to come.
Prices and availability are subject to change.
$25 from Amazon
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More into romance than science in the kitchen? Cortney Burns' lessons in techniques and preservation help make the most out of those ingredients that most of us just can't find a way to use up but don't want to throw away. Burns shies away from technical talk to offer a warm-hearted and varied presentation of processes that she uses to give dishes that umami-rich kick.
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$21 from Amazon
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This highly acclaimed, New York Times bestseller by Samin Nosrat provides less in the way of specific recipes and more in the way of how to manipulate ingredients to achieve the results you are looking for. Nosrat provides a roadmap that will help amateur chefs put delicious dishes together with whatever they have lying around. An added bonus, her lessons in how to think like a chef are accompanied by delightful illustrations from Wendy McNaughton.
$26 from Amazon
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J. Kenji López-Alt's kitchen bible is an extensive lesson in flavor dynamics and kitchen science. His wide-ranging experience as a food writer and test-kitchen chef shines in a cookbook that will make anyone feel like they do, actually, know what they're doing in the kitchen.
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$15 from Amazon
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Here's one for the kiddos, because we all know how much they love or hate food, depending on the season, time of day, or direction of the wind. J. Kenji Lopez-Alt attempts to sway the pickiest of eaters in his most novel cookbook. While meant for children, this book may even open the minds and hearts of parents to new ideas in the kitchen.
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$34 from Amazon
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While the first step to cutting costs in the kitchen is cutting down on proteins, the prospect of freezer broccoli or steamed brussel sprouts often ruins those ambitions. Jeremy Fox gives us a cookbook that is just at home as a coffee table art book as it is getting stained on the kitchen counter. But beyond looks, "On Vegetables" provides recipes and suggestions for how to take vegetable cookery to the next level. If you or a loved one are looking to elevate your vegetable dishes to fine-dining status, this is the cookbook for you.
$36 from Amazon
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If you've ever wondered what the evolution of the Black American culinary tradition looks like, Toni Tipton-Martin will more than satisfy your cravings. A historian and researcher, Tipton-Martin provides a catalog of lives rather than of recipes. Her reader will learn of the ingenious cooks and pioneers as they built the foundation of much of the American culinary landscape.
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$34 from Amazon
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This tome from Nancy Singleton Hichasu provides the context and thought behind many of the recipes included. Often, the scraps from one dish are used in another, to be served in separate courses of the same meal. As much a cookbook as it is a crash course in Japanese culture, it provides hours of enlightening content.
$18 from Amazon
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An ingredient whisperer with a Middle Eastern twist, Yotam Ottolenghi, highly acclaimed for his beautiful cookbooks, here comes to terms with the fact that sometimes you just don't have time to put on a feast. "Simple" offers solutions for those times when readers just want to get dinner on the table.
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$27 from Amazon
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While many of us have gone through a sourdough phase — especially while stuck at home during the coronavirus lockdown — few have done so like Chad Robertson, who brings together his years of travel, research, and work into a cookbook that will lay the foundation for all of your future bread baking. With a basic country loaf recipe and successive adaptations of it to anything from pizza dough to brioche, Robertson is a reliable teacher to have at hand.
Related: Top Bread Makers and Other Bread-Making Supplies for Baking at Home
$23 from Amazon
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Diana Henry is masterful at making the elegant simple. In her recent cookbook, with its peach-textured cover, she offers a selection of menus that will transport readers through seasons and continents. But the greatest lesson here is that it doesn't take much to throw together a fancy dinner.
$27 from Amazon
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Where do pickles come from? How does wine become balsamic vinegar? How can I avoid my daily $5 splurge on kombucha? The answer to these and many other questions can be found in this guide from René Redzepi and David Zilber at Noma, considered by many to be the world's top restaurant. But beware: Anyone who owns this book will soon have a lot more than sourdough fermenting on their kitchen counter.
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$27 from Amazon
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This James Beard Book Award winner by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg is a combination encyclopedia-thesaurus for building dishes. Color-coded and practically arranged, it will help any cook experiment in their kitchen or find replacements for ingredients that they don't have at hand.
$24 from Amazon
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By now a classic, Harold McGee's textbook of cookery science and lore describes why what happens in the kitchen happens the way it does. Can't figure out why you struggle to make a certain dish every time? Always wondered why a recipe calls for one thing instead of another? Maybe McGee can help you solve those mysteries.
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$22 from Amazon
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Michelin-star winner Anita Lo offers readers a look into the life of a chef cooking for one. From going grocery shopping to dealing with leftovers, cooking for one always poses a challenge. With humor and grace, Lo provides solutions and recipes for the solo diner that will make quality ingredients count.
$23 from Amazon
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We'll admit it, meat preservation is not for everyone. But if you've ever wondered how to stretch your dollar when it comes to meat, this may be the answer. And with artisanal sausage-makers and specialty butcher shops experiencing a renaissance across the country, readers will be in good company with Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn's revised cookbook.
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$28 from Amazon
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Sandor Ellix Katz is a legend in the world of fermentation, claiming that this classic preservation technique was critical in saving his own life. Having traveled far and wide to learn from various cultures, Katz presents a guide that will make pantries and fridges burst with probiotic umami.
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