Gift Books for Your Favorite Cooks
Kristina’s Bookshelf
Reviews by Kristina Sepetys
It’s the rare cook who isn’t delighted to receive a book full of recipes and photographs. Here are some of the latest titles to raise your game in the kitchen. Perfect for the holidays!
Taste & Technique: Recipes to Elevate Your Home Cooking
by Naomi Pomeroy
(Ten Speed Press, 2016)
James Beard Award-winning and self-made chef Naomi Pomeroy’s debut cookbook features nearly 140 lesson-driven recipes to improve the home cook’s understanding of professional techniques and flavor combinations to produce simple-but-artful meals.
Food52 A New Way to Dinner:
A Playbook of Recipes and Strategies for the Week Ahead
by Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs
(Ten Speed Press, 2016)
The founders of Food52 share instructions for planning, shopping, and cooking meals throughout the week. Their secret? Cooking ahead. As an example, blistered tomatoes are first served as a side, then become sauce for spaghetti with corn. Learn to cook more efficiently and reduce the stress surrounding meals.
SymmetryBreakfast: 100 Recipes for the Loving Cook
by Michael Zee
(powerHouse Books, 2016)
SymmetryBreakfast began as a popular Instagram project and evolved into a cookbook featuring 90 internationally inspired recipes and handsome photography shot entirely on an iPhone. This unconventional cookbook explores what breakfast is and what it means to people around the world.
Everything I Want to Eat: Sqirl and the New California Cooking
by Jessica Koslow and Maria Zizka
(Harry N. Abrams, 2016)
Jessica Koslow and her Los Angeles restaurant, Sqirl, are all about healthy, fresh, flavorful dishes. Koslow shares 100 of her favorite recipes for vegetarians and vegans. Notes with each recipe show how just about any dish can be modified for specific tastes and dietary needs.
Mad Genius Tips: Over 90 Expert Hacks and 100 Delicious Recipes
by Justin Chapple
(Oxmoor House, 2016)
The star of Food & Wine’s Mad Genius video series shares his best kitchen tool hacks for creating easy, delicious recipes. Use a muffin tin to poach a dozen eggs at once and transform a Bundt pan into a rotisserie! Each chapter addresses a different tool, including resealable baggies, wine bottles, and plastic takeout-container lids.
Sous Vide at Home: The Modern Technique for Perfectly Cooked Meals
by Lisa Q. Fetterman, Meesha Halm, and Scott Peabody
(Ten Speed Press, 2016)
Sous vide, a technique that relies on vacuum sealing and partial cooking to prepare food, has been a popular cooking technique in restaurants for years. From the creator of Nomiku—the first affordable sous vide machine—comes an easy-to-follow cookbook with over 100 recipes for dishes like Halibut Tostadas, Grilled Asparagus with Romesco, Chicken Tikka Masala, and even homemade Coffee-Cardamom Bitters.
