Every year, hundreds of new cookery books are published, but which are the best cookbooks ever written, the ones cooks and chefs themselves turn to again and again? Over the years, we've asked many of our favourite cookery writers to recommend their own favourite recipe books, books that have stood the test of time.
We've had some of the world's greatest cooks give their recipe book recommendations, including Nigel Slater, Yotam Ottolenghi, Mary Berry, Ruth Rogers and Ruth Reichl. BBQ expert Steven Raichlen and British restaurant critic Giles Coren have also recommended books for us, and you can find all their choices listed below.
You can also browse for cookbooks listed by country/national cuisine, including the best Greek, Persian, French, Italian and American cookbooks. Whether you're looking to bake a cake or make pastry, host a BBQ, or delve into French cuisine or try tapas for the first time, you can find the cookbook you're looking for below.
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1
Flour Power: The Practice and Pursuit of Baking Sourdough Bread
by Tara Jenson -
2
Watermelon and Red Birds: A Cookbook for Juneteenth and Black Celebrations
by Nicole A. Taylor -
3
Good Enough: Embracing the Joys of Imperfection and Practicing Self-Care in the Kitchen
by Leanne Brown -
4
The Complete Chinese Takeout Cookbook: Over 200 Takeout Favorites to Make at Home
by Kwoklyn Wan -
5
That Noodle Life: Soulful, Savory, Spicy, Slurpy
by Mike Le & Stephanie Le
The Best Cookbooks of 2022, recommended by Becky Krystal
The Best Cookbooks of 2022, recommended by Becky Krystal
Do you enjoy cooking up a storm in the kitchen? If so, you’ll love food writer Becky Krystal’s selection of the five best cookbooks of 2022—including a guide to sourdough bread, a fun exploration of all things noodle, and a collection of Juneteenth celebration foods.
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1
Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook
by Isa Chandra Moskovitz -
2
The Homemade Vegan Pantry: The Art of Making Your Own Staples
by Miyoko Schinner -
3
Dirt Candy: A Cookbook: Flavor-Forward Food from the Upstart New York City Vegetarian Restaurant
by Amanda Cohen -
4
Raw
by Charlie Trotter & Roxanne Klein -
5
Sweet + Salty: The Art of Vegan Chocolates, Truffles, Caramels, and More from Lagusta's Luscious
by Lagusta Yearwood
The Best Vegan Cookbooks, recommended by Alicia Kennedy
The Best Vegan Cookbooks, recommended by Alicia Kennedy
Vegan cooking has been transformed over the past 20 years. No longer is it trying to replicate non-vegan tastes and dishes or provide an alternative to meat. As the food writer Alicia Kennedy explains, the best vegan cooking is just excellent cooking, on its own terms. She recommends five vegan cookbooks to help you get to grips with vegan cooking techniques and to understand the range of vegan culinary possibilities.
The best books on Italian Food, recommended by Ruth Rogers
A culinary tour of Italian food, with co-founder of the acclaimed River Café restaurant Ruth Rogers. She tells us about the books that have inspired her, including the one she asks all her chefs to read!
Yotam Ottolenghi recommends some of his Favourite Cookbooks
Yotam Ottolenghi, the accomplished chef, bestselling author and owner of several high-end London eateries, names the cookbooks he loves the most.
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1
One Tin Bakes: Sweet and Simple Traybakes, Pies, Bars and Buns
by Edd Kimber -
2
The Flavor Equation: The Science of Great Cooking Explained in More Than 100 Essential Recipes
by Nik Sharma -
3
Vegetable Kingdom: The Abundant World of Vegan Recipes
by Bryant Terry -
4
In Bibi's Kitchen: The Recipes and Stories of Grandmothers from the Eight African Countries that Touch the Indian Ocean
by Hawa Hassan & Julia Turshen -
5
Ottolenghi Flavor: A Cookbook
by Ixta Belfrage & Yotam Ottolenghi
The Best Cookbooks of 2020, recommended by Becky Krystal
The Best Cookbooks of 2020, recommended by Becky Krystal
If nothing else, 2020 has at least given many of us a lot of time to experiment in the kitchen. Here Becky Krystal, lead writer for the Washington Post’s Voraciously, recommends cookbooks relevant for a year in which grocery shopping has been complicated and the world has become more interconnected than ever.
Wonderful Cookbooks, recommended by Rose Levy Beranbaum
The bestselling author of The Cake Bible, Rose Levy Beranbaum, explains why English cakes don’t rise, how to make the perfect croissant, and how to get holes the size of radishes in your artisan breads
Mary Berry recommends her Favourite Cookbooks
Mary Berry has written over 70 books—but what are the cookbooks she returns to, time and again? Here she shares her top five with us.
Best Cookbooks of All Time, recommended by Nigel Slater
Which is the one cookbook the cookery writer can’t do without? Who writes the best recipes? Who is the best writer? Who does he turn to for a breath of fresh air? Nigel Slater picks his all-time favourite cookbooks.
The best books on Desserts, recommended by David Lebovitz
Great desserts can be amazingly simple, and even low in fat. The pastry chef and author cooks up a mouth-watering reading list to bring your recipes up to date
The best books on Cakes, recommended by Claire Ptak
Claire Ptak, owner of the Violet Bakery in London and former pastry chef at Chez Panisse, recommends some of her own favourite cookbooks. [Since speaking to us in 2015, Claire Ptak has subsequently designed Harry and Meghan’s wedding cake]
The best books on American Food, recommended by Ruth Reichl
The Puritans got modern American cuisine off to a bad start. But the food writer and critic says subsequent immigrants have helped create a culture where food is appreciated.
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1
Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human
by Richard Wrangham -
2
Historia General y Natural de las Indias
by Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdes -
3
Leipoldt’s Cape Cookery
by C Louis Leipoldt -
4
Seven Fires
by Francis Mallman with Peter Kaminsky -
5
Thrill of the Grill
by Chris Schlesinger and John Willoughby
The best books on Barbecue and Grill, recommended by Steven Raichlen
The best books on Barbecue and Grill, recommended by Steven Raichlen
America’s master griller chooses books on the world’s oldest cooking method. He discusses why brown tastes better, and how our primal urge to play with fire helped us evolve.
The best books on Favourite Cookbooks, recommended by Jojo Tulloh
The best cookbooks according to food editor of The Week. Raves especially about the Chez Panisse cookbooks. Says she’d like “it was my pleasure” carved on her gravestone
The Best Baking Cookbooks of 2021, recommended by Becky Krystal
Every year Becky Krystal of the Washington Post and staff writer of “Voraciously”, a food column with a strong ‘how-to’ focus, chooses the best cookbooks of the year for us. In 2021, she’s focusing on books about baking, an activity she’s passionate about—and many of the rest of us have been doing more of in the past year or two.
The best books on French Cooking, recommended by Elisabeth Luard
The food writer and journalist says it was a Pole, Edouard de Pomiane, who taught the French housewife how to cook.
The best books on Mediterranean Cooking, recommended by Diane Seed
Cook and bestselling author Diane Seed selects five books on Mediterranean cuisine. From the forgotten spices of Turkey to the stews served to Greek freedom fighters, the variety of the region’s food is unsurpassed
The best books on Cooking, recommended by Sophie Dahl
The author and food writer talks about honey pancakes, mushy peas, drop scones, choux pastry, baked onions and Winnie the Pooh. Perfect lunch-break reading (as long as you’re having a good lunch)
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1
Mastering the Art of French Cooking
by Julia Child & Louisette Bertholle and Simone Beck -
2
The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking
by Marcella Hazan -
3
The Key to Chinese Cooking by Irene Kuo
by Irene Kuo -
4
A Platter of Figs and Other Recipes
by David Tanis -
5
The Cake Bible
by Rose Levy Beranbaum
Wonderful Cookbooks, recommended by Madhur Jaffrey
Wonderful Cookbooks, recommended by Madhur Jaffrey
The author, chef, and actress Madhur Jaffrey recommends five of her favourite cookbooks.
The best books on Greek Cooking, recommended by Diana Farr Louis and June Marinos
The authors of Prospero’s Kitchen take us on a culinary tour of Greece and explain how the country’s history has influenced its cuisine in sometimes surprising ways
The best books on Persian Cookery, recommended by Jila Dana-Haeri and Shahrzad Ghorashian
In this interview two celebrated chefs discuss the best books to help you capture the complex flavours and colours of Persian food. Along the way they describe their favourite Persian treats, including mouth-watering lattice window syrup cakes and rice with saffron and morello cherries.
The best books on Food Writing, recommended by Giles Coren
The London Times award-winning food columnist takes an irreverent look at the world of food writing, from restaurant critics to celebrity chefs
The best books on Spanish and Moorish Cooking, recommended by Samantha Clark
Samantha Clark, co-founder of the award-winning restaurant Moro, tells us about the camper van trip to Morocco that inspired her, and why we should all get acquainted with chicharrones and calzots!
The best books on Simple Cooking, recommended by Bruno Loubet
The Michelin-starred chef Bruno Loubet chooses the book that taught him the shortcomings of everything he had learned in catering school, and four other favourites. Two are by Australian chef Stephanie Alexander