Madhur Jaffrey

Amazon

Bookshop.org

Ammu

Ethiopia

Africana

Chicken and Charcoal

The Outdoor Kitchen

Charred

Mi Cocina

Persiana

Bavel

Cook This Book

Diasporican

Foodheim

Home Style Cookery 

In Bibi's Kitchen

An Invitation to Indian Cooking

Mezcla

Mission Vegan

Momofuku

Motherland

Night + Market

Ottolenghi Simple

A Super Upsetting Cookbook About Sandwiches

Win Son Presents: A Taiwanese American Cookbook

The Family Meal

The Food of Sichuan

The Modern Larder

The Woks of Life

The Tucci Cookbook

Turkey and the Wolf

Xi'an Famous Foods

A Good Bake

All Under Heaven

Veg-Table

Start Here

Make It Fancy

If you're someone who likes to explore classic cooking techniques and make spicy, warming foods available to guests when you entertain, then this cookbook is for you.

I found my way into this book because I wanted to make paneer from scratch one night. No reason — I just thought it would be fun to try. Anyway, I started rifling through a few cookbooks to see what the overall strategy was to making this dense and glorious cheese (spoiler: it's lemon juice).

While reading Madhur's paneer recipe, I quickly found myself down a rabbit hole and an hour later I was working out how to make her parathas, potatoes, and lamb. All I wanted to do in that moment was read more of her recipes; the paneer would have to wait.

So, after a week (and 18 dishes) of working exclusively with An Invitation to Indian Cooking, I learned that a pickled onion and some yogurt go a long way to fix any kitchen mishap and that the combination of fried rice and black-eyed peas is divine.

Eric Wareheim

Eric doesn't claim to be a professional chef. He's just talented and loves eating, cooking, and sharing what he knows with the world. Better yet, his charisma so clearly comes through in the writing — which is increasingly rare in cookbooks. There is zero stress in this book and that's a downright miracle.

Yotam Ottolenghi

If you cook daily, already have (or are willing to get) classic Middle Eastern ingredients like barberries, preserved lemon, rose harissa, sumac, urfa chile flakes, and za’atar. If you know the basics of cooking fish, chicken and steak, and have a little time to prep; then this is an excellent book to have on your shelf.

Let me explain…

I met another Sarah at a barbecue. Honestly, if you were born between 1985 and 1990 there’s a good chance you could throw a stick and hit a Sarah K, Sarah H, Sarah M, or — god forbid — a Sara.

Sorry to all Sara’s without the “H” out there. It’s nothing personal and I’m sure you’re a delightful human being, but your parents were monsters for leaving that last letter out and you can’t convince me otherwise.

Anyway, I met another Sarah and started talking about this project and she suggested Yotam Ottolenghi’s work. I’d had “Simple” on my shelf for years and never opened it because it always looked too gimmicky to be any good, but I took her recommendation and 14 dishes later, here we are.

These dishes aren’t super complex, the recipes are mega easy to follow and with a little bit of time and the correct ingredients you’ll be eating like royalty and loving all of these meals. (unless you’re feeding a kid who exclusively eats buttered noodles or you’re an adult who hates flavor, then you should just get a rice cooker and call it a day).

If you’re brand new to cooking, this book might be challenging, but who doesn’t like a good challenge? Just do a little research on properly cooking your chicken, fish, and steak and you should be well on your way. Even a mediocre chicken still tastes awesome, so just go for it already and even if it’s a little dry or overcooked, congratulations! You’re a master chef now, who can do anything and you should ride that high by cooking more things.

Great cookbook that really can’t go wrong for most people who enjoy cooking. Considering a lot of the dishes don’t take too many ingredients or too much understanding and time to prepare (plus the outcomes are often beautiful and delicious), it can be a great book to reach out to when you want to “get healthy” or simply just want to impress your friends when they visit! :P 

Sohla El-Waylly

This is a hefty book with lots of pictures, bold text, and super nerdy, science-y know-how. On top of that, it's split evenly between savory and desserts so you'll learn a lot of basic techniques in both worlds. 

But the real question is, "would a beginner benefit from this book?" Personally, I think that as a first-time cook, you’d basically need to cook through the book sequentially, repeating recipes often, to feel like you really understand what’s happening. 

That being said, I do think if you’re an elementary home cook today: meaning you already know what could happen if you leave milk heating on a stove unattended, but want a college level cooking 101 course to up your game and cook with the big dogs, then Start Here is a great book to add to your shelf.

This book takes more work to use than a lot of cookbooks. But that's because learning something is harder than just getting *a* meal to the table.

Sohla admirably goes out of her way to really teach home cooks as much as could reasonably be packed into a single volume (TWICE the size of a typical cookbook) about the WHY of cooking and not just the HOW of a meal.

My only concern is if the sometimes underwhelming flavors will put off home cooks who just invested way more time than would be typical for many books to get a meal out.

Hawa Hassan

This has quickly become one of my favorite books to cook from. Not only did I get to learn about these various cultures and their amazing food, but I also got to read some of the most heartwarming stories from grandmothers who view cooking as a way to show love to their families and community.

Ferran Adrià

I have a fascination with what the staff at restaurants eat for dinner before service — what's known in the biz as "Family Meal". So when I read that The Family Meal is a compilation of the 31 staff favorite meals from the kitchen at El Bulli, you better believe I had to do a review of this book.

By 31 meals, I don’t just mean leftovers with a side of bread. No, these recipes include a custom side, main course and dessert that the staff at this restaurant ate together every night before dinner service started.

The book was written so that no matter the experience, anyone can make a recipe out of this book. To test the theory I approached a group of food that I have very little experience with: fish.

Listen, it’s not that I’ve never cooked fish before, but I grew up in a landlocked state and good fish wasn’t something you could just go out and buy. Where I hailed from, you had to catch your own fish and that restricted your options to sunfish, crappie, walleye, or perch. The default method of cooking them being just a big vat of oil, a lot of heat, and a mysterious spice blend called "lemon pepper".

Upbringing aside, I chose a lot of fish dishes to work with out of this book. Aside from some of the varieties being common in Northern Spain but completely unavailable to me in Northern California — and unlocking a new fear in gutting a fish — I found the writing to be fairly straightforward.

After a week with this book, I can confidently say that if you’re just getting into cooking and want to have a few fine dining recipes at the ready to impress a significant other; I think this would be an excellent book to add to your shelf.

A little more about our rankings

The book is very readable. Each recipe has pictures and a timeline that helps to keep the project moving along. However, while most of the dishes are not complex, they do make bold claims such as browning whole turkey legs and braising veal shanks only taking 10-20 minutes. Either they were working with a magic stove, they used a huge pan, or the meat I purchased for this review was particularly stubborn. In both cases, I doubled the amount of time it took to get a color and texture that I expected. All this to say, if you're new to cooking you might need to spend a little extra time reviewing their photos or googling your way through a task or a preparation to understand what the author is asking you to do vs following the timed guidelines to the letter.

Steph

Tilit

Essential Apron

Crossback Apron

Supply Apron

Neon Chef Apron

Lowboy Apron

Luxe Chef Apron

Utility Apron

Beelzebib

I appreciate the size-inclusivity of a big apron like this, but really wish it was just a big version of the Chef Apron or the Supply Apron.

The leather neck strap is super uncomfortable and while Tilit's pocket game is impeccable, these are easily the worst ones they make...

I am way too short to wear this apron. It's a monster. If you're tall, I can see the argument, but for all us shorties....no thanks. 

On top of it being designed for the giants among us, it's get a neck strap made of leather and 15 minutes into wearing this thing my neck got sweaty and irritated. 

I get the appeal if you're making brisket and need a heavy floor length apron to protect you from the elements, but if you're a home cook making mac n' cheese this might be overkill.

Luxe Chef Apron

Beelzebib

Lowboy Apron

Supply Apron

Neon Chef Apron

Utility Apron

Essential Apron

Crossback Apron

Luxe Chef Apron

Bryn

Sarah