What’s better than a cup of coffee and a new book? Winter is the best time for catching up on your reading, and literate food lovers will have a lot to digest with this crop of recently released books. We chose 15 books about cooking, wine, meat, culinary history and more that are sure to warm any foodie’s heart this season. So here’s our winter reading list.
You may have seen our list of cookbook picks from the new crop of fall releases – but there are more to add! If you didn’t get any of these books under the Christmas tree, order them for yourself
1. Spice Up Your Winter
Let Lior Lev Sercarz, the country’s biggest expert on spice, teach you how to master flavor with 250 recipes. Spice things up in the kitchen!
2. Develop Deep Techniques
This book explores 10 favorite meals and expands them into 175 recipes that can take an hour or a week, depending on how deep you want to go. Readers will more profoundly appreciate “from scratch” cooking.
3. Learn About the Lion Diet
Are we intended to eat an animal-based diet? Proponents of the new carnivore movement would say so. Dr. Shawn Baker has been eating primarily meat for several years and gathering data on a growing community of fellow carnivores who have seen remarkable health benefits with this elimination diet.
4. Go Inside One of the World’s Best Restaurants
Did you miss out on the two-volume, signed, limited (to 11,000) edition of the first Eleven Madison Park book? Never fear. This new version is revised and unlimited so everyone can get a peek into one of the best restaurants in the world.
5. Drink an Apple a Day
There’s a hard cider revival going on, and Andy Brennan is a hero of the movement. His Aaron Burr Cidery in New York state produces small-batch ciders made with wild apples. Readers will learn about how mass-produced ciders are made and why Andy’s process is so different.
6. Explore Two Great Cookbooks
This box set from famous chef Yotam Ottolenghi contains his two cookbooks Plenty More and Ottolenghi Simple with 280 dazzling Middle Eastern recipes. Both of these books took the culinary world by storm and will be a welcome addition to any cookbook shelf.
7. Master Charcuterie
Brian Polcyn and Michael Ruhlman provide a comprehensive guide to the most elegant and accessible branch of the charcuterie tradition with Pâté, Confit, Rillette. A great companion to Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing, by the same authors.
8. Bottoms Up!
The only wine book you’ll need, by Aldo Sohm is one of the most respected and widely lauded sommeliers in the world. We know him because he’s worked with Eric Ripert at Le Bernardin for over a decade. You’ll find his simple approach to wine accessible and informative. The book is also beautiful and employs bold graphics on every page.
9. Be an Armchair Traveler
Travel with Jeff Gordiner as he follows Rene Redzepi – the “greatest chef in the world” – around the globe, tasting everything along the way. This is an insider view of Redzepi’s process and interesting life.
10. Celebrate Soulful Cooking
With recipes and stories, Toni Tipton-Martin shares the techniques, ingredients, and dishes of African American cuisine. The 100 classic recipes are sure to inspire celebratory meals with family and friends.
12. Know Thy Meat
Fifth-generation butcher Anthony Puharich believes that sustainably raised meat can and should remain the pinnacle of the kitchen: a special and wonderful treat, handled with care by the best farmers and butchers and eaten with respect. Information on breeds, techniques, butchery and hundreds of illustrations and diagrams make this an ultimate guide to meat.
13. Taste the Mediterranean Bounty
What can we say beyond this review? “Yasmin Khan draws on her vast experience as a storyteller, cook, human rights activist, itinerant traveler and writer to create a moving, empathetic, hugely knowledgeable and utterly delicious book.” ―Anthony Bourdain
14. Dig into the History of American Food
With an ambitious sweep over two hundred years, Paul Freedman’s lavishly illustrated history shows that there actually is an American cuisine … and we are curious to uncover its secrets.
15. A Sweet Ending
Acclaimed for her award-winning desserts at NYC’s Gramercy Tavern, Claudia Fleming is one of the biggest names in the pastry world – and she’s sharing her secrets in this book of 175 recipes for the home cook.