The Want List: Display-Worthy Cookbooks
These stunners aren’t meant to be stowed under the counter. Judge them by their covers, and show them off accordingly.
From the artistry of their design to the poetry of their recipes, each of these titles are as much works of art as they are culinary instruction manuals. Serve them on coffee tables like a tray of scones. Feature them in the kitchen like a glistening roast chicken. However and wherever you display them, your guests will know your good taste knows no bounds.
Tartine: A Classic Revisited | Elisabeth Prueitt and Chad Robertson
The team behind this renowned Bay Area bakery, which sprouted in San Francisco’s Mission District in 2002, has been generous with their knowledge, passing baking prowess to fans of flour near and far. In Tartine: A Classic Revisited, 55 favorite recipes get a brush-up while Robertson and Prueitt introduce 68 new ones. You’ll be eager to source ancient grains for Teff Carrot Cake. Gaze at pictures of high-caliber carbohydrates and then manifest them into your kitchen by wielding bread, salt, water, and sometimes butter together. Keep a cloth napkin nearby in case any drool leaks on the pages as you flip through.
$40.00 at Kitchen Arts & Letters
Mexico: The Cookbook | Margarita Carrillo Arronte
Phaidon’s entire collection of cookbooks is a bevy of beauty, but it’s Mexico: The Cookbook by Margarita Carrillo Arronte that stands out as a book that exclaims “I know culinary excellence” without saying it aloud. Stuffed with over 700 recipes, you’ll be well equipped to recreate tamales, melon seed juice, and mole at home. Descriptive in its instructions, you’ll avoid a Moira Rose moment of not exactly knowing what “fold the cheese in” means. The hot pink hardcover reveals a tome bold with colorful flavor. So go ahead, electrify your home with robust aromas, and brighten your shelves with the vibrancy of a Baja sunrise.
$54.95 at Phaidon
The Big Texas Cookbook | Editors of Texas Monthly
Do mess with Texas, at least when it comes to cuisine. The minds behind Texas Monthly have rounded up recipes from across the state’s vast and storied food culture for a menu as massive as the state itself, which we can’t forget spent almost a decade, between 1836 and 1845, as its own country. Explore the scenery from page to plate. Taste the state’s streams through a crawfish boil, not just one but two ways. Visit the Gulf with a bowl of Seafood Gumbo. Harvest heat from the pepper fields with a Competition-Style Texas Chili. In the scheme of Texan cuisine, brisket is but a chapter. The Monthly’s designated taco editor (hello, dream job) has not only shared their top taco recipes, but also a dissertation on the difference between Mexican and Tex-Mex. The only thing not Texas about this book? It earns far more than a lone star.
$37.20 at Bookshop.org
Home Style Cookery | Matty Matheson
Canada’s coolest cook-turned-small screen star wants you to make the most of your kitchen. Matheson has an undeniable flair for flavor, and it’s captured in all his recipes. Sandwiches are slapped together with intention — like a double beef patty melt with Gruyère on molasses bread. The love is evident not only in the high quality ingredients and techniques, but also in the photography capturing home life vibes: An abundance of vegetables soaking in a burnt orange stock pot, worn kitchen linens, soft light, and kids in colorful socks dangling over a kitchen counter. Propping this cookbook up next to your stock splotched Le Creuset assures guests of two things. 1) You know a good thing when you see it. 2) They’ll leave your home well fed. And to that, we say thank you, chef.
$35.00 from Matheson Cookware
Six Seasons: A New Way with Vegetables | Josh McFadden and Martha Holmberg
Vegetables are not a side quest. In fact, Joshua McFadden, the Portland, Oregon-based culinary juggernaut behind the Rose City’s Ava Gene’s, Tusk, and Cicoria, makes the case they’re the whole darn meal. Within these pages, the James Beard Award-winning chef, farmer, and Blue Hill alum (who also did stints in Chicago and Rome) emphasizes the true abundance of a season by understanding each vegetable’s versatility. From recipes that salute the raw flavor of a carrot at harvest’s peak to the techniques and pairings that extract flavor and promote interest just a tad past prime, every stage of a crop has potential, so give the forgotten farmer’s market radish wilting in the corner of your crisper a second chance. Recipes are supported by the charming illustrations of Melinda Josie and vibrant photographs by Laura Dart and AJ Meeker.
