Gift Guide: My Favorite Cookbooks of 2022

I love cookbooks and so many good ones came out this year. Cookbooks make great gifts for yourself or your favorite food lover.

I tend to look around in kitchen and in my head and just write, so I am sure I forgot a book or five—like Jaques Pepin’s latest book on chicken which I adore for its artwork and superb recipes. And apologies to “Noma 2.0” which I got in the mail on Friday and haven’t explored enough yet, and to Michael Twitty’s “Kosher Soul” which is BRILLIANT (it’s a personal narrative with about 50 recipes). Suffice to say I own all three and so should you.

If you’re looking for something other than a cookbook, try one of these incredible sketches from John Donohue at All the Restaurants. I’m a huge fan of the New York stuff. I have Barney Greengrass hanging in my office.

Selecting my top picks was a challenge, but here is my list. They all have a 2022 publish date.

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1.     “Bread Head” by Greg Wade: A superb bread book from one of America’s greatest bakers. I cook out of this a lot.

2.     “Persiana Everyday” by Sabrina Ghayour: An unapologetic look at real, personal Persian cuisine designed for weeknight cooking. I like that. It’s a follow-up to “Persiana, Food from the Middle East and Beyond.”

3.     “Rambutan, Recipes from Sri Lanka” by Cynthia Shanmugalingham: Food from Sri Lanka gets left out of too many conversations. This is a definitive and unvarnished look at some killer Desi cooking filled with spice and flavor.

4.     “Delectable” by Claudia Fleming: Sweet and savory baking from one of my favorite bakers in America.

5.     “The Woks of Life” by Bill Leung: If you love the blog you will love the book. The Leung family has created a superb bible of family favorites that’s highly detailed so even beginners can be successful from the start.

6.     “At Home” by Gavin Kaysen: Legit home cooking from a global superstar. Just make the coq au vin and give me call if you don’t believe me. Lots of sequential photography too, I think that’s something more people should incorporate in their books.

7.     “The Wok” by Kenji Lopez-Alt: Maybe my book of the year, but anyone who knows me knows I LOVE wok cookery and love J-KAY-L-A even more. Smart and meticulous work, and delicious.

8.     “Korean American” by Eric Kim: Defining what it means to be Korean American through a personal lens, from a New York Times writer who knows how to communicate both the fun and the culture struggles. 

9.     “Black Power Kitchen” by Ghetto Gastro: A culinary manifesto from the Bronx-based collective that is an art piece, a style catalog, and a collection of great recipes. Try the Jollof rice. It’s a good one.

10.  “Dinner in One” by Melissa Clark: From one of the most accomplished food writers in any category comes her take on one-pot meals. One of my favorite subjects and Clark delivers. Natch.

11.  “Via Carota” by Jody Williams and Rita Sodi: A classic book filled with real recipes from one of the best Italian restaurants in America. Yes, the green salad is in there. All the steps. I appreciate a restaurant book that isn’t afraid to keep their recipes intact and not dumb them down for home cooks. Home cooks are smart.

12.  “Forever Beirut” by Barbara Abdeni Massaad: A superb Lebanese food primer. Food from “the Paris of the east” filled with all the influence that make this cuisine so special. A must.

13.  “Joy of Pizza” Dan Richer and Katie Parla: The definitive pizza book for the home cook. Not even close. And these two are as smart as it comes on all matters culinary. Huge winner.

14.  “Arabiyya” by Reem Assil: The food of the Levant, the Middle East, central Asia, Eastern Mediterranean, Northern Africa is special. The food that blurs all those lines is the food of the region before colonialists put lines on a map. And Reem Assil mixes politics, civics, food, and her own personal story to help redefine the diaspora. And the food is superb.

15.  “Portugal” Leandro Carreira: Another masterpiece from Phaidon’s editors, finding a great chef and storyteller and letting them collect over 500 old and new recipes. One stop shopping smartly done.

16.  “The Latin American Cookbook” by Gill Nicholas and Virgilio Martinez. Phaidon again, but this time with a broader range and enlisting the brilliant and globally inspiring chef Virgilio Martinez. 

17.  “My America” by Kwame Onwuachi and Joshua David Stein: Kwame Onwuachi’s recipe-based version of “Notes from a Young Black Chef.” This book touches many lines of Black culture in America and as a cook I am here for all of it. As a human being, it’s about time.

18.  “Kin Thai” by John Chantarasak: From an English/Thai chef. Superb modern Thai cooking for the home cook and utilizing many western ingredients. Super fun and a great book to cook out from.

19.  “Life of Fire” by Pat Martin: As thorough and superb a book covering all aspects of live fire cookery as there is, from a man who lives it day in and day out. A must for any outdoor cooking enthusiast and a perfect gift for the weekend summer barbecue warriors.

20.  “Cooking Alla Giudia” by Benedetta Jasmine Guetta: Jewish Italian cooking is more than just fried artichokes. Guetta explores it all, including how the food of my people helped create Italian food foundations--hello Agro Dolce, table for two? I love cooking out of this one.

21.  “On the Himalayan Trail” by Romy Gill: Another cookbook of the year contender. From Kashmiri food to Nepalese, Gill tells the right stories and the recipes are simply superb. No small task considering the difficulty Americans have navigating food from this part of the world. A superb cookbook.

22.  “The Ultimate Japanese Noodles Cookbook” Masahiro Kasahara: The title says it all: soba, udon, ramen, somen, and more. Slurp-tastic. 

23.  “Mi Cocina” by Rick Martinez: Rick has created something personal yet vast as he explores numerous regions of Mexico and the food he loves to cook. This book was one that surprised me in the sense that I have a lot of Mexican cookbooks and didn’t know why I needed this one until I made his Oaxacan Albóndigas en Chipotle. A great book.

24.  “Core” by Clare Smyth: Clare is one of the world’s greatest chefs and her 3-star London restaurant now has a book so you can be inspired and amazed. Unlike other books in this category, you can actually make the recipes! Sure, they take time and have lots of components but if you love to cook you need this one. Brilliant food and stunning photography.

25.  “Paon: Real Balinese Cooking” by Tjok Maya Kerthyasa and I Wayan Kresna Yasa: Like Rambutan and what it did for Sri Lankan food, Balinese food gets its star turn thanks to this impressive duo. I have eaten my way around Indonesia and Bali more than a few times. Try the sambals and spice pastes and use them on everything. Make the Nasi Bekar (grilled rice) once and you will make it every week.

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Do you have any favorites you want to share with the rest of us? Drop them in the comments.