15 Cookbooks Worth Buying Right Now, According to Cooking Experts

“I know I’m not alone in missing Tony Bourdain’s sharp, smart voice even more than usual. I imagine he would be advocating for restaurant workers, millions of who are now out of work, while others risk their own health to keep cooking and serving take-out and delivery, doing their best to stanch the financial bleeding as the world economy grinds to a halt. Also, unlike many of our so-called elected officials, Tony knew a thing or two about deadly contagion, having written a very good, but little-discussed book called Typhoid Mary, in which he explores “the story of a proud cook — a reasonably capable one by all accounts — who at the outset, at least, found herself utterly screwed by forces she neither understood nor had the ability to control.”

In the sad absence of Actual Tony, I’m rereading Typhoid Mary, and have been cooking the comforting basics from his first cookbook, Anthony Bourdain’s Les Halles Cookbook, most notably the roast chicken, the onion and mushroom soups, the mashed potatoes, and the blueberries with lime sugar.”

“I’ve also been making chicken and tofu variations on the coconut fish curry from Munchies Guide to Dinner, which is both a solid resource for people who are just starting to cook for themselves, and just a generally smart and fun book, full of good ideas like saucing charred broccoli with a tahini mustard sauce, and using a fast, durable calzone dough to make grandma-style pizza.”

“Although I keep thinking that I should use this extra time at home to take on a complex project like sourdough bread baking or perfecting pizza dough from scratch, when my husband and I left Brooklyn two weeks ago to head to our Catskills place, the one cookbook I grabbed was all about the easy, fresh cooking I already know and love: Susan Spungen’s new book Open Kitchen. Susan is a food stylist who’s worked on magazine and film sets for decades, so I knew that her recipes would actually work! She also has an eye for color in her cooking, and for health, two things we all need as much of as we can get right now. And I love that so many of her dishes include both warm and cool elements for contrast. The other night I made her cover recipe of roasted radishes with radish green pesto. I happen to have almost all the ingredients for a small batch of her smoky eggplant dip, and for her za’atar tofu bowls, so I think those are probably next. Yep, we’re getting down to the tofu.”

“My cookbook refuge right now is A Taste of Africa by Rosamund Grant, the kind of cookbook you kinda have to dig about to find. Her work is an excellent introduction to West and East African foodways for Western kitchens. My favorite recipes include jollof rice, kachumbari, Ethiopian collard greens, suya, Nigerian meat stew, and tamale. The recipes lend themselves beautifully to Instapot, Crockpot, and stew pot, and fit the bill for stretching for a budget and feeding a small crowd.”

“Tu Casa Mi Casa: Mexican Recipes for the Home Cook came out in March 2019. Within days, it became my most sauce-splattered, dog-eared cookbook. It’s full of deeply comforting recipes like Chicken Tinga and Crispy Potato and Quesillo Flautas, which are so soothing to eat that they’re like having Jim Dale whisper-read Harry Potter directly into your ear. In the book’s introduction, Enrique Olvera writes that “cooking at home … is a therapy of reconnecting and reconstructing the relationship with yourself.” That feels especially poignant now that many of us are confined to our spaces, and also makes me feel better about the amount of time I’ve been spending eating bites of things straight from pots while wearing oversize sweatpants.

“The great thing about Diana Henry’s From the Oven to the Table is you don’t have to fuss around. Ten minutes worth of kitchen work and then everything goes into a Dutch oven or onto a sheet pan. Half an hour, dinner’s ready. Henry loves flavor, too, and she’s got a gift for contrasts that always wakes me up. Chicken with feta cheese, dill, lemon, and harissa yogurt. Pork chops with beets and apples. Baked beans with bacon and pork belly and a hint of molasses. Plus, she’s a beautiful writer and there’s something incredibly calming about reading her. That’s an extra bounty these days.”

“Meals, Music, and Muses by Alexander Smalls is giving me so much life. I was classically-trained violinist, so, I connect with Chef Smalls background as an opera singer. I love the way he has curated these recipes like a set list, and discusses the ways that food and music are inextricably linked. He pays homage to Leontyne Price, Kathleen Battle, Tina Turner and Diana Ross, as well as dishes like Pepper Pot, also known as Philadelphia Gumbo. I’m going to be trying all the fish and seafood recipes in the opera section.”

“The book that I often turn to is Nigella Lawson’s How to Eat because of the ease with which she communicates her instructions, but also because the recipes are categorized in a very practical way like “Cooking in Advance” or “Weekend Lunch”. There’s even a section on feeding babies and small children that I presume a lot of families will find helpful. In addition, the book is replete with cooking tips and I find that very useful when adapting her recipes to what I have at home in the kitchen.”

“Right now I want to eat a lot of vegetables. And since I love to play with spices, I have been spending time with Madhur Jaffrey’s Vegetarian India. Like all her books, it is incredibly well-researched, with 200 recipes from all over India. There is not one recipe I don’t want to make. Many are quite simple, like the highly seasoned raw Cucumber Spears or the Stir-Fried Carrots with ginger and coconut; the Roasted Cauliflower with Punjabi spices; and Banarasi Potatoes with turmeric and garam masala. I love the selection of dal preparations, made with dried beans, lentils, chickpeas and even mung bean sprouts. Red Lentils with cumin and fried shallots Black-Eyed Peas with cilantro and green chilies are at the top of my list of favorites. And there is an extensive array of rice and grain dishes, as well as recipes for flatbreads, parathas and mouthwatering savory pancakes. All this and more — a collection of chutneys and pickles, along with drinks and a few sweets — makes this book a valuable, informative resource.”

“These days, in self-quarantine, I find myself returning to Anna Del Conte’s Risotto with Nettles, for the recipes, to be sure, but especially for the stories of wartime Italy, and how she and her family had to bolt themselves in from the outside world. This is a book for anyone who loves long headnotes and reading about the context behind food: whether that be national and cultural history or personal narrative. I’ve read this book from cover to cover a few times in my life, but right now I enjoy flipping to certain chapters based on what I want to eat and how I’m feeling. The other day I was writing about carbonara and comfort food, so I opened the chapter called “Carbonara must be eaten hot.” I’m eating a lot of rice right now, so one night I made her risotto al limone. Speaking of lemon, there’s an especially beautiful chapter about lemon granita; that day I wanted something sweet and cleansing, and had a can of lychee in my cupboard. I drained the fruit and squeezed a lemon into the syrup, froze it, forked it, and ate the fluffy, sweet-tart ice for dessert that night, alone in my apartment.”

“So, like everyone else at this moment, I am looking for comfort through baking. One of my all time favorite books that I have had for over 15 years is The Cheese Board Collective Works. I have recommended this book many times to bakers of all levels. The recipes are tried and true — when you think about it, these recipes are the product of a communal work place that has been in existence since 1971. Part of the charm of leafing through this book is the incorporation of photographs of the Collective — both of the store and various baked items. I actually used this book quite a lot one summer when I ran a cafe on the Jersey Shore. Crowd favorites: currant scones, pecan rolls (sticky buns), and the banana walnut muffins. There is a great section on yeasted and sourdough breads as well as pizzas, bagels, and calzones.”

“I decided that instead of continuing to binge-watch the news while suffering existential dread and maniacally eating chocolate, I’d figure out how to carbo-load in a more healthful fashion. So, I turned to my cookbook library and pulled down Chad Robertson’s Tartine Bread and began making my sourdough starter this week. Besides the step-by-step instructions, the photos of their bakery and the writing is providing me quite a bit of solace. Plus, if there’s ever a time to take up a new skill or master a hobby, I figure it’s now.”

“Cookbook wise, since the lockdown started I’ve continued to improvise in the kitchen I’m also a fan of Gabriela Camara’s My Mexico City Kitchen. Camara is the chef behind the restaurants Cala in San Francisco and Contramar in Mexico City and her book includes recipes that are a taste of what she grew up eating as well as some dishes from her restaurants. I love that she says everything can be a taco. I’ve been making her tacos de huevo — soft-boiled egg tacos — for lunch. They are super comforting because they have rice and black beans and soft boiled eggs and they’re so easy to make.”

“Like everyone else, I’m turning to comfort foods now, but mine aren’t grilled cheese and pasta. Give me jook and dumplings. I grew up on Cantonese food and while I enjoy complex cooking projects, I want simplicity right now. I want Martin Yan’s Chinese Cooking for Dummies. Years ago, a friend gave me a copy as a joke, but it’s become my go-to cookbook for the dishes I grew up eating. Neither of my parents really cook, but when they did, they made super-easy dishes like the one Yan shares in this volume. There are few thrills, but lots of essentials. The dishes don’t offer the mouth-numbing heat or intense savoriness of the spicy Chinese food that’s become popular in recent years, but they deliver the warmth of classic Cantonese dishes.”

“I’m enjoying Lukas Volger’s Start Simple. It wasn’t written with a pandemic in mind (what was!), but it feels just right for right now because each chapter focuses on a staple our local store is miraculously not out of (tofu, tortillas, beans, greens, and more) and the recipes have refreshingly short ingredient lists. It all feels very doable, which is welcome right now when many of us are cooking up to three times the number of meals each day we previously did. Oh, and it’s vegetarian, but it feels incidental — good food is good food, after all.”