This 2000 title remixes three of classics from the late, great Diana Kennedy: The Cuisines of Mexico, The Tortilla Book and Mexican Regional Cooking. British-born Kennedy, who lived most of her 99 years in Mexico, was widely regarded — even in Mexico — as the world’s foremost expert in traditional Mexican cuisine. Read more.

$26 at Bookshop - buy now

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Two of the most important titles from the immortal Marcella Hazan are collected in updated form here: The Classic Italian Cook Book (1973) and More Classic Italian Cooking (1978), along with 50 newer recipes. Read more.

$32 at Bookshop - buy now

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Fuchsia Dunlop's approachable, reliable book is one of our favorite cookbooks ever. Read our review.

$32 at Bookshop - buy now

$25 at Amazon - buy now

Anissa Helou is a gifted cultural guide, and this magnificent volume — which won a James Beard Award in 2019 — takes us on a journey around the Muslim world in more than 300 recipes, from the author’s native Lebanon to Senegal to the west, Turkey to the north, Tanzania to the south and Indonesia to the east. There are stops in Morocco, Egypt, India, Iran, Xinjiang and much more along the way. The sweep and scope and depth of the project is just incredible; it’s an awesome achievement. Read our full review, with recipes.

$55 at Bookshop - buy now

$30 at Amazon - buy now

J. Kenji López-Alt’s mammoth 2015 book, subtitled “Better Home Cooking Through Science” is a must-have for serious home cooks who wants to understand the whys, wherefores and hows of, well, just about anything you might want to produce in the kitchen. everything you want to cook encyclopedic volume filled with the whys, wherefores and hows of everything you want to cook, plus a bazillion good recipes. At 960 pages, the encyclopedic volume also has a bazillion good recipes, along with handy conversion and temperature charts on the inside covers. If your’e a fan of the Serious Eats approach to cooking, which López-Alt helped pioneer, this book belongs on your shelf.

$46 at Bookshop - buy now

$32 at Amazon - buy now

One of our all-time favorite authors, Paula Wolfert is a fabulous tour guide through one of the great food cultures of world, Morocco. Want to put together an elaborate bastila filled with chicken or quail, or a couscous with the legendary seven Berber vegetables, in the manner of fes? You’ll find the recipes (and their backstories) in Wolfert’s pages. She even teaches you how to make warqa, the paper-thin pastry used to make the bastila, in case you want to dive that deep, but also includes instructions using store-bought filo. There are also beautiful salads, tagines, breads, deserts and more. Want to learn how to purchase and prepare a tagine (the cooking/serving vessel) for use, or make preserved lemons? Those are all there as well. Here’s a sample recipe.

$41 at Bookshop - buy now

$24 at Amazon - buy now

If you want to really understand Spanish cooking, Claudia Roden’s 2011 tour de force is the ticket. At more than 600 pages, it also makes an impressive gift. Roden leads off with excellent sections on historical influences and Spain’s regions. The recipes are wonderful. Try this Medley of Spring Vegetables, Roden’s take on menestra de primavera. Or fry up a batch of Buñelos de Bacalao (cod fritters).

$47 at Bookshop - buy now

$31 at Amazon - buy now

Travis Lett's relaxed yet exuberant Venice style is its own subset of California cuisine. It may seem effortless in the restaurants, but the inspiring 2015 book shows how much thought and care goes into it. The great ideas that fill its pages (like this one) will be especially inspiring to chefs and more serious and experienced home cooks.

$32 at Bookshop - buy now

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This authoritative work from chef and historian Maricel E. Presilla is a must-have for anyone wanting to dive into the cuisines of Latin America.

$50 at Amazon - buy now

Author Jean-François Piège is one of France’s most accomplished and decorated chefs. His mammoth, French-language (not translated into English) book, which weighs in at nearly 1,100 pages, offers definitive recipes for just about every French dish you can think of, and many more besides, usually with no headnote. Requires pretty serious cooking skills and pre-existing knowledge of French cuisine (along with the ability to read French.) Story and/or review coming soon.

$82 at Amazon - buy now

One of the most thoughtful food writers in any genre, Andrea Nguyen is the reigning English-language authority on Vietnamese cooking. This is her debut cookbook — groundbreaking, comprehensive, authoritative and very personal. Unless you had Nguyen as your personal guide, there’d be no better way to learn Vietnamese cooking than to cook your way through this impressive book.

$37 at Bookshop - buy now

$29 at Amazon - buy now

Shizuo Tsuji's 1980 book is still in print after all these eons for a reason: It's essential. It's also comprehensive — Tsuji dives deep into every area of washoku (Japanese food), from the order of a Japanese meal to the months chrysanthemum leaves are in season (and of course how to choose and prepare them) to how to sharpen a knife, pickle vegetables, tenderize and octopus (by kneading it in grated daikon) or make dashi (the stock that's the foundation of washoku). Want to truly appreciate that $500 omakase meal you're about to experience? Immerse yourself in this 500+-page book first. There are only 8 pages of photos, along with a wealth of essential illustrations. If you know someone who's serious about Japanese cooking or eating, this is the best gift they'll ever receive. Here’s a sample recipe.

$41 at Bookshop - buy now

$30 at Amazon - buy now

Sonoko Sakai's book is another one of our favorite cookbooks ever — absolutely perfect for anyone (beginner or experienced cook) wanting to dive into Japanese cooking. Read our review.

$37 at Bookshop - buy now

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To put together the volume that won the 2020 James Beard Award for Best Cookbook, Toni Tipton-Martin culled more than 100 recipes from her personal collection of rare, historial African American cookbooks. Collectively they represent her curated expression of seminal African-American cooking. One of the reasons she wrote the book was she felt the sweeping story of African American cooking had never been told. Jubilee, she writes in the introduction, “broadens the African American food story. It celebrates the enslaved and the free, the working class, the middle class, and the elite.” Read our review.

$32 at Bookshop - buy now

$24 at Amazon - buy now

We love the quiet charms of the cooking of Shanghai and the Jiangnan region, and Dunlop is a trustworthy guide who tells engaging stories of her experiences in the region along the way. Her recipes are easy to follow and they work. Read our review.

$32 at Bookshop - buy now

$28 at Amazon - buy now

Lidia Bastianch’s magnum opus. If you love Italian cooking, you need this. Read our review.

$37 at Bookshop - buy now

$29 at Amazon - buy now