11 Great Cookbooks for Everyone on Your Gift List
Cookbooks make great gifts. A good cover is useful and inspiring, and if the cover is beautiful, it can also serve as a functional interior decoration. However, a bad cookbook simply takes up valuable space on your bookshelf. Over the past few months, I’ve reviewed many cookbooks that will bring food and joy to your loved ones. Here are the best cookbooks to gift based on your culinary taste.
Great for Beginner Bakers: Hershey’s Most Favorite Recipes
Hershey’s Most Favorite Recipes was my first cookbook and it holds a special place in my heart. This chocolate-centric hardcover book from 2000 is filled with tempting cakes, cakes, cookies, mousses and other treats. The book is written simply and each recipe is accompanied by a close-up photograph, making this book ideal for the blossoming baker. Read my full review of this cookbook for details.
A cookbook for vegetable lovers (and those who want to be them): much more
Yotam Ottolenghi and his team have a magical eye when it comes to vegetables. These humble characters become the main attraction of Plenty More recipes. Ingredients that may seem contradictory at first glance come together in surprising ways to create harmonious dishes that look elegant and awaken your taste buds. This cookbook is completely plant-based and you will never wish for anything else after trying one recipe. Buy this cookbook for the person on your list who loves vegetables or wishes they would. Read the full text of my article here .
Recipes for Amateur Bakers: Milk Street Baking
If you’re buying a gift for a baker who hates taking risks, don’t give him this cookbook. Scroll up to see this gift idea. However, Milk Street Bakes is the best baking cookbook you can buy for those who want to try breads, pastries, and doughs inspired by people and cultures from around the world. Featuring both sweet and savory recipes, this comprehensive cookbook’s pages are sure to be bookmarked again and again. My full review of this book is ready here .
The Curious Recipes Cookbook: The Complete Cookbook of America’s Test Kitchen.
Whenever I’ve needed a foolproof recipe for a birthday, a holiday party, or a craving, The Complete American Test Kitchen cookbook has never—count ’em, zero times—let me down. There are more than a thousand recipes in this book. You can find pizza dough, shrimp scampi, pumpkin pie or sesame crusted salmon. Get this cookbook for the person who always wants to try something new. Read my full review here .
A great cookbook if you’re stuck: Life’s Mysteries.
Anyone who cooks regularly has fallen into a culinary rut. You find yourself repeating the same four actions and begin to dread dinner. Give yourself the gift of making a difference with The Woks of Life . A Chinese-American cookbook with page after page of tempting recipes that will remind you of favorite flavor combinations and ingredients you might not have noticed at the grocery store. Here’s the full review .
A great cookbook for the busy: Go-To Dinners
Ina Garten’s dinners are perfect for the person on your list who’s always in a rush. They are kept late at work or called to pick up their children from school early, and food is another concern. Here’s a cookbook they can rely on to create delicious meals and simple meals that can be made ahead without sacrificing flavor. Plus, the recipes typically serve four to eight servings, so you can feed a group or organize lunches for one person for the week. Here’s my full review of Go-To Dinners .
Drink book for the party host: Batch cocktails.
Being a party host is not for the weak. Every detail and worst-case scenario are taken into account. In addition to planning music and food, they also need to think about drinks. Batch Cocktails is the perfect cookbook to help them get it right. Instead of making single-serve drinks to order, this book will teach you how to make large batches of impressive libations in advance for any occasion, any time of year. You can read all about packaged cocktails here .
Best Cookbook for Bigger Lovers: Chaat
Sometimes the occasion calls for a short list of ingredients and complete simplicity. But if you want your food to have that unmistakable wow factor when it hits the table, turn to Chaat . This cookbook showcases a wide variety of Indian street foods. Here you will find tempting recipes that are sure to brighten up the dreary days of winter; each is a vibrant combination of ingredients that feel like a gift straight from your kitchen. Here’s my full review of Chaat from Cookbook of the Week .
A cookbook for anyone who loves a good story: cook, eat, repeat.
Nigella Lawson’s Cook, Eat, Repeat is , of course, full of recipes – and they are delicious – but what I find so special is how captivating her storytelling is. The book is filled with many personal stories about food, both humorous and heartfelt. You will also find recipes hidden in these stories, so this cookbook is best for those who truly love to read as much as they love to cook. Get all the details on Cook, Eat, Repeat here .
For the avid baker: Rose’s Heavenly Cakes
Rose Levy Beranbaum is legendary in cake baking. Long before the word “influencer” took on its current meaning, Beranbaum influenced cake baking techniques that are best practices today. Rose’s Heavenly Cakes is the perfect cake cookbook for the person on your list. Everyone, from the novice cake decorator to the professional pastry chef, can and will use the recipes she offers in this indispensable resource. I wrote all the details about the book here .
Cookbook for the tortilla lover in your life: Masa
This is the perfect cookbook for the person on your list who is dedicated to making tortillas and learning everything about them, who rave about empanadas from a local Colombian restaurant, or is interested in the history, cooking techniques, and different uses of masa harina. . Or maybe you know someone who loves to cook dumplings, bake bread or fry pancakes from flour. Masa knocks them out of the park with recipes that use the same techniques with delicious flavors and ingredients from South and Central America. Read Masa’s full review here .