Category: Cookbooks

The 7 best cookbooks for beginners, according to an insider

by Maria

Need to find the best cookbooks for beginners? A cookbook publishing insider shares the 7 best cookbooks for beginners, no matter what kind of beginner you are!

There’s almost nothing more exciting than new beginnings, and to me, there’s definitely nothing more exciting the start of a new cookbook collection.

Anytime a graduation, wedding, baby shower or any other gifting occasion comes up, I have to physically restrain myself from buying 5 new cookbooks for that friend entering a new stage of life. And I mean it–someone (ahem, Jarrett) has gotta hold me back.

best cookbooks for beginners 3

Because, you see, I think that finding your way in the kitchen is one of the great pleasures of life. And that’s not even mentioning the practical incentives. Like that whole thing about how cooking at home is the #1 best thing you can do to save money, save your health, and save your relationships.

It’s true: cooking is magic for every corner of our lives, which is why it can be so rewarding to give yourself or someone you love the gift of a few cookbooks. But which are the best cookbooks for beginners? Can there even be one set of best cookbooks for beginners?

The 7 best cookbooks for beginners: why this list is different

In researching for this article, I found that many of the other online lists of the best cookbooks for beginners weren’t really for beginners. They shared books that were either too comprehensive (read: intimidating) for beginners or too high-brow (read: doubly intimidating) for beginners. And many didn’t acknowledge that there are many different kinds of beginners, and that therefore, the best cookbook for one type of beginner just wouldn’t do for another.

So instead, I decided to research and prepare my own master list of the best cookbooks for beginners. It’s organized by the type of beginner you might encounter, as well as by what that beginner might actually be interested in learning.

This list is sourced both from my 10+ years of editing and working on cookbooks, as well as my own life as a home cook and a bordering-on-obnoxious gifter of cookbooks. (And no, I haven’t personally worked on any of these–these truly are just my favorites to gift!)

I hope you find this list helpful for spotting that one best cookbook that will work for your beginner, so you can set them (or yourself) on the path of good cooking and good living.

Read More

The best cookbooks of 2018 to buy + gift

by Maria

The best cookbooks of 2018: these are the best cookbooks of 2018 to buy and gift this year!

I’m still not ready to talk about fall, but I do want to talk about all the cookbooks coming out this season-that-shall-not-be-named.

Because, guys. The coming crop of cookbooks is INSANE. AMAZING. BANKRUPTING. DIET-CRUSHING.

And I’m ready.

We’ve got the heavy hitters like Ina Garten, Ottolenghi, Dorie Greenspan, Chrissy Teigen, Gina Homolka, Melissa Clark. Then we have the up-and-comers: Naz Deravian, Nik Sharma, Julia Turshen, and many, many more. The best cookbooks of 2018 might end up being the best cookbooks of the past five seasons.

The Best Cookbooks of 2018

If you don’t know what to cook, don’t have any motivation to cook, or don’t think you need more cookbooks, there are approximately 50 reasons coming up to change your mind.

That means the real problem we’re faced with is selection: how do we find the best cookbooks of 2018 for us? How do we know which voices we’ll jibe with and which are better for gifting to someone else?

If you haven’t heard of the Salt + Spine podcast yet, I think it’s the perfect solution to finding the best cookbooks for you. Brian Hogan Stewart launched Salt + Spine only this May, but it’s already had an all-star roster of guests—cookbook legends like Nigella Lawson, Diana Henry, and Samin Nosrat.

And if you love to talk about food, books, and books about food, I can’t think of a better listen than this. It’s basically the podcast I’ve been waiting for my whole life.

You, too? Then come on over to the blog and get to know Brian. I interviewed him about how he got started in food media, how he fell for cookbooks, and best of all, his picks for the best cookbooks of 2018. (There are a few that will surprise you!)

Brian Hogan Stewart of Salt + Spine on almost going to culinary school, cookbook podcasting, and the best cookbooks of 2018

Read More

Best summer cookbooks 2018: new cookbooks for fresh, easy dinners

by Maria

Best summer cookbooks 2018: these are the best summer cookbooks of 2018 for making the easiest, freshest meals!

Lately, I am completely drunk off the smell of fresh mown grass and the feel of warm sunshine on my face. It makes all my usual nerves and worries melt away and makes me almost giddily, irresponsibly ready to run outside and play instead of plugging away at my to-do list.

Can it be summer forever, please?

So here’s what I want to tell you this week: if you do just one thing differently now that it’s summer, cook outside. Or picnic outside. Or pour yourself a boozy lemonade, round up charcuterie board scraps, and stretch out on the grass for dinner.

The less you do, the more I will be high-fiving you.

And if you need ideas for how to eat better while doing a lot less, here are the 7 best summer cookbooks 2018 edition. These are the cookbooks coming out this summer that will get you out of that dark kitchen and into the delicious outdoors.

Best summer cookbooks 2018: new cookbooks for fresh, easy dinners

This article originally appeared on The Kitchn.

best summer cookbooks 2018

In the deepest part of our hearts we all believe one thing: you don’t really have to cook in warm weather. (You can blow it off entirely, in fact, if you cover your tracks well.)

That’s because the vegetables are blooming and the ambition is wilting just in time to call in sick and head to the beach with a bag of apricots. But after we’ve had our fill of unadulterated spring produce, our stomachs might finally start grumbling for cooked food.

Luckily, there’s a fresh batch of cookbooks this season that are going to let us outsource the thinking-and-planning part, so we can pull together easy spring dinners that hardly feel like cooking at all.

 

Click here to keep reading on The Kitchn!

 

For more cookbook recommendations, try:

how to use cookbooks more to cook    best cookbooks for cooks who love travel   cookbooks to help with healthy eating

5 quick reads for the week

  1. The cutest cartoon of kids at the library (“I sing the body electric!”).
  2. Great questions to ask when you’re creating a new culture in your story.
  3. Hurrying is a state of mind.
  4. The science of sabbaticals. (And maybe a sabbatical is just what you need to refresh the ol’ idea well?)
  5. So sad we missed the season this year.

What we’re eating this week

I’m here, there, and everywhere this week with work travel, and I would like to know why it is so hard to find something delicious, healthy, and not soul-suckingly boring to eat on the road. Why, why, why? Answers are demanded.

Monday: I’m in NYC, which luckily means Brazilian food at my Yaya’s. The very opposite of a sad away-from-home meal.

Tuesday: ?? Question marks for dinner? Can that be a thing?

Wednesday: Screaming at the top of my lungs at the airport until someone brings me Shake Shack. (Works e’ry time!)

Thursday: We’re blitz-flying to St. Louis, meaning I’ve hit a new personal record: 4 nights straight in a different bed. This is what New Orleans–>DC–>NYC–>St. Louis in 5 days looks like, and let me tell ya, it ain’t pretty.

Friday: I’m told I will be home on Friday, but I won’t believe it until my butt hits the couch and my Pepper Ann hits my lap.

Cheers!

Get one free tip for reading more + living better each week!

How to get more out of your favorite cookbooks: 7 cookbook tips

by Maria

7 cookbook tips for getting more out of your cookbooks: a cookbook agent and editor on the 7 cookbook tips for getting more out of your cookbooks so you can finally start using your cookbook collection!

Jarrett and I are riding The Crescent down to New Orleans for Tales of the Cocktail this week–it’s a trip we’ve long dreamed about, and I’m excited about having 30+ hours on the train to catch up on reading, listen to music, daydream, watch the scenery, and maybe even sip a G&T. (Just writing that makes me realize how close to Bliss that all is!)

But I promise I won’t leave you without a few things to read this week.

Speaking of reading: do you read the comments?

I do, if it’s a site I know sticks to useful thoughts on happy topics: y’know, the food, the books, the writerly pep talks. But you couldn’t pay me to read the comments on news sites, or political sites, or health sites. Ugh. It’s like taking a bath in slime and then tossing yourself in a dumpster.

But one of my favorite comment threads of all time to return to is the extended conversation on cookbook tips that happened on the last post on this page on The Kitchn. If you need two minutes of happy, read a few of the comments–people went into amazing detail about how they use their cookbooks, how their families passed them down, where they stand on dog-earing and writing in cookbooks, and all the other cookbook tips they’ve accumulated.

My favorite comment on cookbook tips?

“My mother passed away in April and I can’t seem to move on from her passing. Opening her cookbooks and seeing her notes, especially her hilarious reviews of recipes that weren’t so successful, brings her back to me. Cooking these recipes helps me keep her close to me even though she is gone. So, write in your cookbooks! Your daughters will thank you one day.”

Our cookbooks can speak so loudly about who we were and each little meal we made in our lifetimes. So here are my 7 best cookbook tips for getting more use out of your books–these are the ones that will help you turn your favorite cookbooks into treasured family records of your life!

cookbook tips

Read More