9 New Cookbooks We’re Escaping Into Right Now
Spring cookbook season gets me almost as excited as rhubarb crumble. I said almost.
I wrote that line months ago, when I drafted this story for our April issue. My rhubarb-tinted optimism has waned recently, but books are still coming out, people are still cooking, and while your carefree shopping habits may have changed, diving into cookbooks can either give you a time-consuming project to tackle or at least a brief bit of escapism. Below, I’ve compiled a list of very different cookbooks with the hope that you can find the one your heart is after. Or maybe that’s your stomach talkin’. Either way: follow it.
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Photo Courtesy Penguin Random House1/9ATTN Tahini Lovers: Falastin
Ottolenghi BFF Sami Tamimi and co-author Tara Wigley send us a postcard from Palestine with lush photographs, impressive reporting, and colorful, dinner-friendly recipes. Three of my 27 flagged recipes include: butternut squash and saffron soup, baked fish with tahini sauce, and sweet tahini buns. ❤️SO MUCH TAHINI. ❤️ Bustling street scene photos, like a merchant pushing a huge cart stacked with bagels and kids lined up to jump from an ancient wall into the sea, pop up between food pics so vibrant you can practically smell the kofta. By the middle of the book you’re totally sucked in. Beyond the recipes (the reason we’re usually here), the short pieces on Palestinian food figures—the founder of an heirloom seed project, a tahini master, a woman teaching cooking lessons in a refugee camp—could be pulled from the pages of a magazine. Hell, this magazine. Truly, one of the best cookbooks of the year so far.
Buy it: Falastin, is now out July 14, preorder it for $35 on Amazon
Photo Courtesy ARTISAN, a division of Workman Publishing Co., Inc.2/9If You Have Big Gumbo Goals: Mosquito Supper Club
Chef Melissa M. Martin of the Mosquito Supper Club restaurant in New Orleans, takes us to the now-vanishing bayou where she grew up in Louisiana to share traditional Cajun recipes and a glimpse at a life outsiders largely misunderstand. It’s not all gumbo and “bam!” (But she does have an entire gumbo chapter, every way to eat a crawfish, and a shrimp jambalaya I wish would spontaneously appear on my table.) There are complex soups, platters of stewy-spicy vegetables, and delicate poached fish too. Her evocative essays on Cajun culture, especially a piece on how Cajun women have carried on and documented their culinary history while the most famous Cajun chefs are men—stayed with me longest. Multiple recipes have the antecedent “smothered” and that’s something we could all use once in a while.
Buy it: Mosquito Supper Club, out April 21, is $35 on Amazon
Photo Courtesy Penguin Random House3/9Shout Out to the Beanheads: Cool Beans
This is the bean bible we need. And I’m not going to say “especially right now,” because you’ve already thought it. Joe Yonan’s fun-loving, very comprehensive guide will leave you smarter (did you know the carbohydrates in beans that make you gassy are called oligosaccharides?) but you’ll also be psyched to bake a white bean bundt cake (seriously!), stir up a Tunisian chickpea soup, and divebomb some chips into white bean and artichoke dip.
Photo Courtesy Penguin Random House4/9Gather Your Mesh Produce Bags: Vegetable Kingdom
As he did in Afro-Vegan, Bryant Terry annotates each recipe here with a song, and along with his upbeat voice narrating, Vegetable Kingdom feels like a party of a cookbook. The recipes are flavor-blasted Afro-Asian-Southern-Caribbean vegan fare (Jerk tofu! Lacto-fermented beets!) and if that wasn’t enough hyphens for you, it’s kid-friendly too. Terry peppers the book with references to The Office, funny stories from his life that had me cracking up, and yeah, plenty of peppers, too. I’ve bookmarked: a spicy spring pea and jalapeño green sauce, garlic-herb braised fennel, and panko-crusted cauliflower with coconut curry.
Photo courtesy FSG Books5/9The Book Club Pick: Everything Is Under Control
Dancer-turned-chef Phyllis Grant shares a fast-paced, heart-smacking memoir about cooking and motherhood—with recipes. I don’t want to give away the juicy stuff, but I devoured this before noon one Sunday and have been thinking about one particular postpartum meal months later. She writes in visceral, short scenes that leave a lot of white space on the page for you to fill in (with deep thoughts). The recipes in the back of the book—a strawberry balsamic tart, vanilla ice cream, a salad dressing—are supporting characters here.
Buy it: Everything Is Under Control, out April 21, is $25 on Amazon
Photo Courtesy Penguin Random House6/9Read with a Bottle of Pet Nat: La Buvette
The endlessly cool Parisian wine bar is blessing us with a cookbook that’s equally cool. (I used some of their tips about navigating the Paris flea market when I went in February...before...uh...the world changed). The recipes are a mix of simple but snazzy bar snacks—their famous giant beans with lemon zest, sardines and seaweed butter—and dinner party fare like a casual roast chicken in hay. The essays on pioneering winemakers, wine misconceptions, and types of wines I’ve never heard of but am now intrigued by (blanc de noirs?!) feel like they’re written by a close friend letting you in on her secrets.
Photo Courtesy Penguin Random House7/9In a Pickling Mood: Beyond the North Wind
I saw the food scholar Darra Goldstein do a presentation about corn iconography in art history—oh yes—and it was as hilarious as it was eye-opening. I became a big fan. Her latest book, on Russian food and culture, is a necessary resource for food writers and for eaters, a fascinating read and good excuse to make fermented oatmeal. Yes, it’s wintry in mood (there’s an essay on “The Allure of the Arctic” with a big photo of snowy peaks), but infused vodka is a year-round mood if you ask me. There’s a chapter called “An Abundance of Pies” that does not disappoint. Get your kvass on.
Photo Courtesy Octopus Books8/9I Want to Be Near Paneer: Chetna’s Healthy Indian Vegetarian
I love this lime green follow-up to Chetna Makan’s 2019 Chetna’s Healthy Indian. The cookbook is packed with transportive, sun-dappled photos of bright salads (lentil and mango, to be precise), creative vegetarian dishes (asparagus paneer, yes please), and Indian market scenes. Chetna’s introductions to each recipe get straight to the point, and so do the recipes. A magenta beetroot chapatti, lovely little halva cakes, and a spinach and coconut dal as lime green as the cookbook cover caught my hungry eyes.
Buy it: Chetna’s Healthy Indian Vegetarian, out June 2, is $30 on Amazon
Photo Courtesy Phaidon9/9The Chef Flex: Ana Roš: Sun and Rain
This is the coffee table wowee stunner of the round-up, which you could guess from the price tag. This is the cookbook of the celebrated Slovenian chef Ana Roš, who you might remember from Chef’s Table. The book is organized similar to Everything Is Under Control, with memoir up top, using each dish as an occasion to tell a life story, but the actual recipes at the end. The photos by Suzan Gabrijan, of the misty countryside, herds of cows and goats with silky hides, and dishes presented on tree barks, are quiet and calming (yes, even the one of post-hunt bloody deer heads).
