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Cookbooks make fantastic gifts. A good one is helpful and inspiring, and if the cover is beautiful then it can serve as a functional bit of interior decorating too. A bad cookbook however, just takes up valuable bookshelf real estate. Over the course of the last few months I’ve eaten my way through a variety of cookbooks that will bring your loved ones nourishment and joy. Here are the best cookbooks to give, according to cooking personality.
Great for beginner bakers: Hershey’s Best-Loved Recipes
Hershey’s Best-Loved Recipes was my first cookbook and it holds a very special place in my heart. This chocolate-centric hardcover from 2000 is full of tempting cakes, brownies, cookies, mousses, and other treats. It’s written with simplicity and each recipe has a close-up photo, making this an ideal book for the blossoming baker. Read my full review of this full review of this cookbook for the details.
A cookbook for veggie lovers (and those who want to be): Plenty More
Yotam Ottolenghi and his team have a magical touch when it comes to vegetables. These humble characters become the main attraction in the recipes from Plenty More. Ingredients that might initially seem at odds come together with surprising balance, creating harmonious dishes that look elegant and wake up your tastebuds. This cookbook is completely plant-based, and you’d never wish it otherwise after you taste one recipe. Buy this cookbook for the person on your list who loves vegetables, or wishes they did. Read my full write-up here.
Recipes for the adventurous baker: Milk Street Bakes
If you’re buying a gift for a baker who hates taking risks, don’t get them this cookbook. Scroll up for that gift idea. Milk Street Bakes, however, is the best baking cookbook you can buy for someone looking to be challenged by breads, pastries, and doughs inspired by people and cultures from all around the globe. Featuring both sweet and savory recipes, this thorough cookbook’s pages are certain to be bookmarked time and again. Ready my full review of this book here.
A cookbook for the recipe curious: The Complete America’s Test Kitchen Cookbook
Whenever I’ve needed a reliable recipe for a birthday, holiday bash, or craving, The Complete America’s Test Kitchen Cookbook has never—count them, zero times—let me down. There are over a thousand recipes in this book. You can find pizza dough, shrimp scampi, pumpkin pie, or sesame-crusted salmon. Grab this cookbook for the person who always wants to try something new. Read my full review of it here.
A great cookbook if you’re in a rut: The Woks of Life
Anyone who cooks on a regular basis has fallen into the cooking rut. You find yourself making the same four things on repeat and start to dread dinner time. Give the gift of shaking things up with The Woks of Life. A Chinese-American cookbook with page after page of tempting recipes that remind you about delicious flavor combinations you love, and ingredients you might be overlooking in the grocery store. Here’s the complete review.
A great cookbook for the perpetually busy: Go-To Dinners
Ina Garten’s Go-To Dinners is perfect for the person on your list who always seems to be rushing. They get held up at work or called to pick up their kids early from school, and meals are yet another to-do. Here is a cookbook they can rely on for delectable meals and simple make ahead dishes that don’t sacrifice flavor. Plus, the recipes are usually built for four to eight servings so you can feed a group—or set up one person with lunches for the week. Here’s my full review of Go-To Dinners.
A beverage book for the party host: Batch Cocktails
Being a party host is not for the weak. Every detail and worst-case-scenario is considered. Besides planning the music and food, they’ve got drinks to think about too. Batch Cocktails is the perfect cookbook to help them do it right. Instead of making single serving drinks to-order, this book teaches you how to prepare large batches of impressive libations ahead of time, for any event and any time of year. Read all about Batch Cocktails here.
The best cookbook for those who like a big payoff: Chaat
Sometimes the occasion calls for short ingredient lists and complete simplicity. But when you want a meal that has that unmistakable wow factor when it hits the table, turn to Chaat. This cookbook features the wide variety of street food in India. Here you’ll find tempting recipes that are sure to light up the dreary winter days; each one a bright tapestry of ingredients that feel like a gift straight from your kitchen. Here’s my full Cookbook of the Week review of Chaat.
The cookbook for anyone who loves a good story: Cook, Eat, Repeat
Nigella Lawson’s Cook, Eat, Repeat is full of recipes, of course—and they’re delicious—but what I find special is how mesmerizing her storytelling is. The book is filled with plenty of personal food stories, both humorous and heartfelt. You’ll find recipes hidden inside these stories too, so this cookbook is best for someone who truly enjoys reading as much as they love to cook. Find out all the details about Cook, Eat, Repeat here.
For the earnest cake baker: Rose’s Heavenly Cakes
Rose Levy Beranbaum is legendary when it comes to cake baking. Long before “influencer” developed its current meaning, Beranbaum influenced cake baking methods that are best practices today. Rose’s Heavenly Cakes is a cookbook for the person on your list that is devoted to making excellent cake. Everyone from the wannabe cake decorator to professional pastry chef can, and will, use the recipes she provides in this indispensable resource. I wrote up all the details about the book here.
A cookbook for the tortilla nerd in your life: Masa
This is the perfect cookbook for the person on your list that is fully invested in making and learning all about tortillas, who raves about the empanadas from the local Colombian restaurant or has an interest in the history, cooking techniques, and various uses of masa harina. Or maybe you know someone who likes to boil dumplings, bake breads, or fry fritters using flour. Masa will knock them off their feet with recipes that employ some of the same methods with the delicious flavors and ingredients of South and Central America. Read my full review of Masa here.
