The 24 Best Cookbooks of 2016
Photo by JP Bevins1/24Cooking with Loula
By Alexandra Stratou
This very untypical Greek cookbook wasn't written by a professional food writer, but by a woman paying tribute to a beloved family cook, Loula. Woven among time-honored recipes for stuffed grape leaves and chicken pie are reflections about life in the kitchen. As Epi contributor Paula Forbes wrote, “Loula is, at times, charming and chatty and warm and tragic and sloppy and comforting and frustrating and familiar, just like family. At all times, it is delicious.”
Photo by JP Bevins2/24Land of Fish and Rice
By Fuchsia Dunlop
At first glance, this cookbook devoted to the balanced, umami-rich of southern China appears to be just another catalogue of impossible-to-find ingredients. But there are shockingly accessible, crazy-delicious recipes here for red-braised pork, chicken with young ginger, and scalded tofu slivers. Dunlop traveled the region for years to write this book, and it shows.
Photo by JP Bevins3/24V Street
By Rich Landau and Kate Jacoby
You'll get delightful culinary whiplash cooking through this vegan collection, as the chef-owners of the acclaimed V Street and Vedge restaurants in Philadelphia shamelessly deploy flavorings and techniques from Korea, Morocco, India, and Argentina within the space of a few pages. Vegan home cooks hungry for flavor, not slavish authenticity, will love this treasure-trove of ideas.
Photo by JP Bevins4/24Molly on the Range
By Molly Yeh
Food blogger Molly Yeh is a woman of many talents. She can pronounce “Chicken Pot Tot Hotdish” without getting tongue-tied, she can make you want to cook Midwestern classics right alongside modern Jewish hybrids like pimiento cheese babka, and she knows how to weave salty, sassy tales of her life on a range in the Upper Midwest. Cooking from this book is as salty and cozy as a BFF sleepover—and way more delicious.
Photo by JP Bevins5/24Simple
By Diana Henry
Full disclosure: Simple isn't exactly simple. But if you crave simplified versions of stylish recipes that call for pomegranate molasses like it's NBD, put yourself in Diana's hands. Her cooking might have a few upper-crust twists, but she knows how to deliver graceful, satisfying dishes (sticky orange roast chicken, pork chops with mustard and capers) that always turn out moreish.
6/24Koreatown
By Deuki Hong and Matt Rodbard
"Remind me why I don't eat Korean food all the time?" That's what you'll ask yourself just a couple dozen pages into this story-filled ramble through America's Koreatowns. The genuine fanboy enthusiasm and epic knowledge the authors pour into every page will not only illuminate the difference between Gamjatang (spicy pork-neck stew with potatoes) and Andong Jjimdak (sweet soy-braised chicken), but render you desperate to taste—and cook—them both.
Photo by JP Bevins7/24Tasting Rome
By Katie Parla and Kristina Gill
Parla and Gill's collection of recipes won't just help you cook the foods of Rome, but actually understand the city itself. The two longtime expats curated delicious, approachable recipes that also tell a story about the Eternal City, from the real origins of carbonara to the hardships of the Jewish Ghetto to the immigrants who now do much of the work in the city's restaurant kitchens. The stunning shots of modern life in Rome? Just a bonus.
Photo by JP Bevins8/24Better Baking
By Genevieve Ko
We're in the golden age of healthier baking books, and this guide, from veteran food writer, recipe developer, and Epi contributor Genevieve Ko, is a standout. There are no strict dietary rules here—just an overall preference for more flavorful ingredients like rye, buckwheat, and almond flour, olive or coconut oil, and maple syrup or roasted fruit and a more mindful use of white flour, granulated sugar, and butter. What's more, the "better" in the book's title also means streamlined techniques and smart shortcuts that make baking even more of a joy.
Photo by JP Bevins9/24All Under Heaven
By Carolyn Phillips
"Getting this one dish right took me decades," Phillips writes in her headnote to her recipe for Shaoxing-style pork belly. And isn't that exactly the kind of obsessive food fan you want to guide you through the five "culinary regions" and 35 unique cuisines of China? The writer behind the blog Madame Huang's Kitchen, who has lived in and eaten across China since the 70's, has created a mammoth (over 500 pages) book that feels more like a memoir than encyclopedia, packed with cultural context, clear techniques, and her own hand-drawn illustrations. It's a voyage unto itself.
Photo by JP Bevins10/24Breaking Breads
By Uri Scheft with Raquel Pelzel
Two words: Chocolate. Babka. Anyone who's tasted the offerings at Breads Bakery in New York (or its locations in Israel) doesn't need any prompting to score this book. Everyone else will be quickly seduced by chef/owner Uri Scheft's collection of breads and pastries, inspired by his Danish, Middle Eastern, and Ashkenazi roots. The generous, fuss-free approach means the recipes have immediate appeal (multi-seed challah, anyone?) and come with the ingenious tips and reminders that can only come from a veteran baker.
Photo by JP Bevins11/24Victuals
By Ronni Lundy
Like Lundy's previous book, Shuck Beans, Stack Cakes, and Honest Fried Chicken, Victuals, (pronounced "vidles") explores the earthy, enchanting food of the southern Appalachian mountains. There's no better guide than Lundy to traveling those backroads and switchbacks, learning the stories behind "Doorbell" pork and sorghum sticky pudding. In her hands, caricature becomes character.
Photo by JP Bevins12/24Small Victories
By Julia Turshen
Whether you know how to cook just two things or 2,000, you'll find a friendly guiding hand in food writer Julia Turshen. A self-confessed "recovering food snob," Turshen is now an advocate for simplicity in the kitchen, and this book of modern desert-island recipes (Roasted Salmon With Maple + Soy, a killer chocolate cake) is packed with little insights and lessons (the "small victories" of the title) that will help anyone become a more confident cook.
Photo by JP Bevins13/24Modern Potluck
By Kristin Donnelly
A treasure-trove of answers to that perennial “what should I bring to that potluck?” question, Modern Potluck boasts portable, crowd-scale recipes that have just enough of a fresh twist to earn major cred in the hyper-competitive potluck environment. Feeding folks with special diets? Donnelly's got you covered there, too—recipes to suit a range of tastes are labelled clear as day.
Photo by JP Bevins14/24A Modern Way to Cook
By Anna Jones
Though the cover of Anna Jones' collection of vegetarian recipes features zucchini noodles, the book transcends its own trendiness with clever ways to boost flavor—the pistachios in that dish are toasted, the zucchini noodles are softened in hot water, sliced lemons get seared until "burnished and sticky." Even better, this sequel to Jones' A Modern Way to Eat sticks to a combination of fast recipes, company-worthy dishes that take a bit longer, and "investment cooking" that delivers dividends for weeks or months. If you're looking to get seduced into eating more vegetables, here's your playbook.
