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Up your kitchen etiquette with the best cookbooks to buy now
If you're in the mood for some culinary inspiration, we've selected the best and freshest recipe books to delight and inspire.
If your weekday meals are lacking a certain je ne sais quoi, or your dinner party menus feel lacklustre and uninspired, it may be time to invest in some new cookbooks.
The latest brilliant and innovative new recipe collections include words of wisdom for connecting with your gut (like Anna Boglione's clever compendium Recipes to Reconnect) and shrewd tomes on ways to reimagine vegetarian or vegan food (Philip Khoury's A New Way To Bake will revolutionise your approach to making vegan cakes). Many are compelling introductions to global cuisine, like Lara Lee's accessible guide to everyday Asian recipes or Gurdeep Loyal's moving portrait of her dual identity through food.
Of course, for a truly excellent night in you'll want to sign up to one the best wine delivery services in the UK right now, and maybe even order a bunch of flowers to beautify your table. And if it's presents for foodies you're after, our gift-guide is the best place to start.
Feeling hungry yet? Here's our pick of the best cookbooks to buy now.
A Splash of Soy, Lara Lee
Presented with kitsch, full-colour photographs reminiscent of old Asian cookbooks, Lara Lee's A Splash of Soy is a love letter to the food of this culinary region. Famed for her previous book, Coconut and Sambal, which focused on the pleasingly discordant flavours of Indonesian cuisine, Lee here tackles a wide range of dishes from Asia; from well-known staples to innovative updates and everyday meals.
The Farm Table, Julius Roberts
Packed full of seasonally guided recipes (think roast pumpkin, mozzarella, hazelnuts and sage; baked fish with herbs and asparagus; and steamed apricot sponge) this tome from first-generation farmer and chef Julius Roberts intersperses things you'll want to cook every day with honest tales of farming life. It's a lovely way to feel like you're reconnecting with nature and seasonal eating, through healthy and thoughtful dishes that taste delicious.
Mayumu, Abi Balingit
If you're on the hunt for some new, interesting and soon-to-become favourite dessert recipes, you need look no further than food blogger Abi Balingit's cookbook. Mayamu – which means 'sweet' in Kapampangan – includes 75 "remixed" Filipino treats, from an ube skillet crinkle cookie to her Balingit's viral adobo chocolate chip cookies. While some of the Filipino ingredients might be a little tricky to find, they're well worth seeking out online or at specialist food shops for the results, which look as good as they taste. These are recipes that are just asking to be served at your next dinner party.
A New Way To Bake, Philip Khoury
Vegans and those with allergies so often get left out of baking, but Philip Khoury's latest book, A New Way to Bake, reinvents the old classics so that they can be enjoyed by everyone. There are plenty of core recipes (for creams, different types of pastry and so on), with recipes that take advantage of them – for example, 'Vrioche' dough (a plant-based brioche) that provides the base for pain au raisins, sticky date and cardamom buns and more. You'll find all the details of ingredients listed in the cutely named 'Plantry', and QR codes to help you navigate the recipes, too. Easy to follow, fun and endlessly useful.
On The Curry Trail, Raghavan Iyer
Raghavan Iyer is a master when it comes to curry: after exploring curry’s prominence across the Indian subcontinent in his book 660 Curries, this final tome from the chef examines how curry has become a global favourite. Well-researched, warm and conversational, this is an approachable and absorbing collection of recipes and vibrant illustrations across four sections: Asia; Africa and the Middle East; Europe and Oceania; and the Americas. It's the ideal gift for a foodie friend.
Easy Wins, Anna Jones
The latest book from award-winning, bestselling cook Anna Jones has already won praise from Jamie Oliver and Yotam Ottolenghi for its super-simple recipes that are nonetheless bursting with flavour and promise. Jones takes 12 hero ingredients that are guaranteed to make your food taste great, and designs a chapter around each, with 125 new dishes in total, from double lemon pilaf with buttery almonds, to miso rarebit. Prepare to meet your new go-to for midweek dinners.
The Art of Friday Night Dinner, Eleanor Steafel
Eleanor Steafel's book is a warm and witty ode to the experience of hosting at home and cosy nights in. Steafel's recipes are as much about the atmosphere created and the emotions conjured as the food itself. That's not to say the food isn't stand-out: the creamy, salmon baked potatoes and nourishing roast chicken are particular favourites. This book is full of comfort food staples that will cheer up the grumpiest work week, as well as chilled and innovative tipples to kick off your intimate dinner parties.
The Flavour Thesaurus: More Flavours, Niki Segnit
We'd go as far as to call Niki Segnit's third book (and the follow up to her global bestseller, The Flavour Thesaurus) an essential in most kitchens. The Flavour Thesaurus: More Flavours focuses on plant-based flavour combinations, including how and why they work, from kale to cashew, pomegranate to pistachio. With over 800 witty entries that combine recipes, tasting notes and stories, this will broaden your horizons when it comes to pairing ingredients.
Good Eggs, Ed Smith
The humble egg is often overlooked when it comes to creating fancy dishes, but Ed Smith is here to show us that you're unlikely to meet a more versatile ingredient. Whether you’re partial to fried, poached, boiled, baked, scrambled or set, in this definitive book you’ll find all the inspiration you need for breakfast, brunch and beyond. Try the fried eggs with a crisp cheese skirt or the kimchi and blue cheese omelette, and we guarantee you'll never look back.
Comfort & Joy, Ravinder Bhogal
Vegetarian and vegan food needn't be boring. Ravinder Bhogal's gorgeous new collection of recipes sets out to change the perception of vegetable or plant-based dishes as health conscious 'restraints' and instead re-positions them as sumptuous treats in their own right. There's a kale carbonara and mango and golden coin curry, as well as a full range of decadent desserts. This is feel-good food with an even bigger feel-good factor, a book which foregrounds the pleasure of vegetarian cuisine.
Vietnamese Vegetarian, Uyen Luu
Uyen Luu's guide to cooking vegetarian Vietnamese food is immensely practical, offering endless alternatives to ingredients, useful tips and tricks, as well as a range of recipes that take different times to make. From rice-paper pizza to sweet-potato noodles, Luu's book is a lovingly rendered guide to shifting your mindset on both vegetarian and Vietnamese food, encouraging you to experiment in ways you may never have imagined.
Recipes to Reconnect, Anna Boglione
From the founder of The Gut, the insightful Recipes to Reconnect is a collection of conversations and recipes from a coterie of influential chefs and writers, including Skye Gyngell, Satish Kumar, Jeremy Lee, Avinash Shashidhara and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. Framed as a series of dialogues about our connection with our food, each with accompanying recipes, this is a must-have book for anyone looking to forge a stronger tie between their mental and physical wellbeing.
Love Is A Pink Cake, Claire Ptak
Perhaps one of the most famous bakers in the world right now – she made Prince Harry and Megan Markle's famous lemon and elderflower wedding cake – Claire Ptak is a genius in an apron. Owner of east London’s popular Violet Bakery, she has now put her impressive recipes to paper in a gorgeous tome: think black tea poppy seed muffins; apricot, chamomile and honey scones; tahini halva brownies; and, of course, that famous royal cake.
Nourish, Gisele Bündchen
The world-renowned model and wellness advocate Gisele Bündchen has written a book of 100 delicious and approachable recipes based on everyday ingredients, which foregrounds a healthy lifestyle. Filled with thoughtful guidance on how to create a routine packed with positive intention, nourishing food and gratitude, the delectable recipes in this useful tome include dishes such as summer rolls with ginger-cashew dipping sauce, carrot muffins and beetroot salad.
Tandoori Home Cooking, Maunika Gowardhan
This is a bumper guide dedicated to the rich culinary traditions that have been spawned from the ancient art of tandoori cooking – the practice of cooking in a clay oven which dates back to the bronze age. Gowardhan's book takes you on a magical tour of these varied, delicious dishes, with more than 70 classic recipes to make at home, from Aslam butter chicken to Jal Jeera. The perfect gift for any fan of Indian cuisine.
Malta, Simon Bajada
If you don't know much about Maltese cuisine, now's your time to learn. Let Simon Bajada's new book transport you to the captivating archipelago between Sicily and the North African coast, which showcases a vibrant Mediterranean cuisine influenced by Arab, French, English and Italian flavours. This beautifully photographed book contains 70 recipes, ranging from seafood delights (octopus salad and stuffed squid) to Ftira, a flattened sourdough bread loaf drenched in tomato with tuna, capers and olives; and Bigilla, a broad bean paste used as a delicious dip.
Salt of the Earth, Carolina Doriti
The Athens-born chef Carolina Doriti has, in Salt of the Earth, curated a compendium of what makes Greek food so fascinating and inimitable. Bursting with as many stories as flavours, this is a full immersion into Greek culinary culture, highlighting local produce and ancient techniques, as well as innovative flavour pairings. It will instantly make you want to recreate the feeling of an island taverna in your own kitchen.
Mother Tongue, Gurdeep Loyal
Gurdeep Loyal has created something truly unique here: a moving and inspiring tome of British-Indian cooking; the second generation identity filtered through flavours and food. From traditional Punjabi staples to the distinct tastes of the British curry house, this is a clever blend of the 'authentic' and the 'inauthentic', investigating the imprints that different cultures leave on particular dishes and how much meaning and memory can be ascribed to cooking.
Rice Table, Su Scott
Rice Table's 80 recipes form an informative and personal narrative of Korean identity, as well as a toolkit for how to approach this national cuisine for beginners and experienced chefs alike. Su Scott's exploration of her own relationship with her Korean heritage adds an extra dimension to an already highly compelling read, which takes you through classic dishes like kimchi fried rice and spicy seafood noodles.
Hoppers: The Cookbook, Karan Gokani
The cult Sri Lankan London restaurant has put together a must-have guide to all its signature dishes, so you can make them at home. Delving behind the scenes at Hoppers, it tells the stories of those who work there with as much delight as it details the recipes for crab kari, crunchy deep-fried mutton rolls, dosas and sambols, kalupol chicken and satisfyingly rich kothu roti.
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