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These titles will upgrade your cooking game instantly
The best cookbooks are far more than a straightforward list of recipes. Whether you want to hone in on a particular cuisine for your next cooking adventure, garner some tips to elevate your culinary game, or expand your gastronomic horizons – the best way to start is by purchasing a stellar cookbook.
We’ve rounded up seven trending cookbooks every food lover will love!
For the beginners
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Mastering The Art Of French Cooking by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle, and Simone Beck
Mastering the Art of French Cooking features 524 delicious recipes and over 100 instructive illustrations to guide readers in making good food. Apart from being a good foundation for beginners, the cookbook will also look beautiful on your kitchen shelf. By the end of the year, you will be able to produce delights of French cuisine including boeuf bourguignon, crêpes Suzette, and the most perfect hollandaise sauce.
For the burnt-out home cook
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Ottollenghi Simple
Curated by British chef, restaurateur, and food writer, Yotam Ottolenghi, Ottolenghi Simple is perfect for the burn-out cook with its 130 straightforward and flavourful recipes that require 10 ingredients or less. The recipes can be cooked in a single pan and be ready in 30 minutes or less. He focuses on using pantry staples, so it can bring ease to weeknight dinners when you have no clue on what to cook.
From a delicious pistachio salad to lamb and feta meatballs, and braised eggs with leek and cauliflower, Ottolenghi’s signature Middle Eastern-inspired recipes are bound to increase anyone’s culinary repertoire.
For the snack queens
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Cravings: Hungry For More
Chrissy Teigen is known for many things – supermodel, television personality and now, author of three cookbooks. However, this cookbook has stolen our hearts the most with its quick comfort food and snack recipes – think Super Bowl and midnight snacks essentials. The recipe book ranges from jalapeño and parmesan-crusted grilled cheese, to delicious grilled Thai-glazed chicken wings, fluffy corn dogs, skillet peanut butter chocolate chip blondies, and more. Trust us on this – you will find something hearty and comforting that will speak to your snacking soul.
For the vegans
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Vegetable Kingdom by Bryant Terry
Bryant Terry is an African-American vegan chef, food justice activist, and author. He has written four vegan cookbooks and this is one of the best. There are nine chapters – Seeds, Bulbs, Stems, Flowers, Fruits, Leaves, Fungi, Tubers, and Roots – each filled with distinctive recipes, with the added bonus of an Afrobeats, hip-hop, and R&B playlist to listen to while you’re cooking.
Throughout the book, he focuses on key recipes that form the backbone of vegan cookery and bring Southern, African, and Caribbean traditions to the fore.
For the Asian superfan
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To Asia, With Love by Hetty Mckinnon
Hetty McKinnon’s To Asia, With Love, curates Asian recipes but with a modern flair. The book pays homage to her Chinese mother’s kitchen while highlighting plant-based dishes that aren’t easy to find in stores. Beyond that, she has also increased awareness by stressing the importance of good technique to hone your culinary skills even more.
From fresh leafy kimchi salad to miso squash ramen, most of the recipes are perfect for those who love Asian-inspired dishes and hate a rigorous set of cooking rules.
For the bake-off wannabe
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Baking With Dorie by Dorie Greenspan
A James Beard Award winner and New York Times best-selling author, Dorie Greenspan has curated a baking book of more than 150 recipes including peanut-butter chocolate chip cookies, a s’mores ice-cream cake, and more. The chapters range from breakfast stuff, cakes, cookies, pies, tarts, cobblers and crisps, pastries, and salty delights. All of the recipes are simple and use basic techniques, and you’ll find just about everything you need to bake your way through the book at your local supermarket.
For the Malaysian foodie
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Sambal Shiok: The Malaysian Cookbook by Mandy Yin
This cookbook is a soulful tribute to Malaysian cuisine, from snacks, soups and salads, to rice and noodle dishes, curries and sweet things – Sambal Shiok is a brilliant collection of over 90 accessible recipes that were handed down from Mandy Yin’s mother as well as those that she has developed for her critically acclaimed, award-winning London restaurant. You’ll see food recipes for Malaysian favourites like curry laksa, Penang asam laksa, beef rendang, sambal mapo tofu, and more – all to be enjoyed at a family meal or a dinner party.
