“A clean kitchen is a sign of a wasted life.”
In addition to offering delicious-tasting meals, cookbooks have become some of the most effective means of expanding our palettes and understanding cultures and ways of living around the world. They guide us in incorporating new diets into our lives and help us comprehend how different ingredients are paired and used in various countries. These books provide inspiration and guidance for cooks of all experience and skill levels. While TikTok and Instagram have introduced a wealth of new recipes and techniques in the kitchen, there’s still nothing quite like cracking open a well-written cookbook. With that in mind, join us at What We Reading as we showcase the best cookbooks from 2023!
Start Here: Instructions For Becoming A Better Cook – Sohla El-Waylly
Chef, recipe developer, and video producer Sohla El-Waylly aims to change how readers think about how they cook and eat in the first book of the best cookbooks from 2023, Start Here. Packed with over two hundred recipes perfectly balanced for both sweet and savoury palettes, it aims to equip readers with all the skills they need to level up their culinary expertise in the kitchen.
El-Waylly’s themed chapters range from ‘Break It Down and Get Saucy’ (stewing and braising) to ‘Whip (and Fold) It Good: Take Your Desserts to Fluff City.’ Rather than being another cookbook of steps to memories, all of these chapters and techniques also come with a wealth of scientific context behind them, helping readers fully understand what they’re preparing and eating. Delivered with wit and humour, El-Waylly serves as the dependable and supportive BFF we all need in the kitchen!
A Very Chinese Cookbook: 100 Recipes from China and Not China – Kevin Pang And Jeffrey Pang
Named the best Cookbook of 2023 by the New York Times, A Very Chinese Cookbook offers readers a heartfelt and hilarious guide to delicious Chinese cuisines from Kevin and Jeffrey Pang, hosts of America’s Test Kitchen series Hunger Pangs.
From American Chinese classics to Sichuan street foods, A Very Chinese Cookbook features over one hundred of America’s Test Kitchen’s most treasured recipes. Kevin and Jeffrey lend their passion and wisdom, providing readers with additional insights and the best techniques and tips to take into the kitchen. Their injection of personal stories helps make the book more accessible and alleviates the anxieties that readers looking to expand their palettes may be grappling with.
The Flavour Thesaurus: More Flavours: Plant-Led Pairings, Recipes and Ideas for Cooks – Niki Segnit
In her debut cookbook, The Flavour Thesaurus, Niki Segnit taught readers how ‘grassy’ and ‘floral fruity’ ingredients could be used to create new and imaginative flavours. Her 2023 sequel, The Flavour Thesaurus: More Flavours, takes these concepts and elevates them by showcasing the potential of pairing them together.
Segnit once again beautifully writes with humor and liveliness, while also meticulously researching plant-based flavor combinations. Each chapter is brimming with history, anecdotes, and scientific concepts that demonstrate exactly how and why these pairings work harmoniously. Segnit and The Flavour Thesaurus have already established themselves as some of the finest examples of contemporary food writing. More Flavours is equally primed to be an essential companion in the kitchen.
More Is More: Get Loose In The Kitchen: A Cookbook – Molly Baz
Another New York Times bestselling cookbook from 2023, More is More by Molly Baz, food editor and viral sensation, presents a plethora of recipes as bold and assertive as her personality.
From reducing a whole bottle of red wine to sauce her Drunken Cacio e Pepe to utilizing an entire stick of butter for her Last-Meal Scallops, More is More isn’t about excessiveness or indulgence; rather, it empowers readers to have more confidence in the kitchen, creating brilliant, bold flavours. Each recipe includes handy QR codes providing readers with audio experiences and vivid photography that guides them through each step, taking them on an intoxicating and inspiring culinary journey.
For The Culture: Phenomenal Black Women And Femmes In Food – Klancy Miller
Featuring multiple interviews and essays, Klancy Miller’s 2023 book, For The Culture, arguably stands more as an ‘anthology’ than a traditional cookbook. Nevertheless, for readers seeking the context and culture behind the meals they make, it remains one of the most powerful and comprehensive reads of the year.
Chronicling her passions, experiences, and lessons growing up, along with recipes passed down to her, the recipes in For The Culture centre around Black women and femmes, infusing each of them with a vibrant soul of their own. From decadent desserts to crowd-pleasing cocktails, these accessible recipes and the stories behind them serve as reminders of the lasting influence Black culture has had on our food.
Ever-Green Vietnamese: Super-Fresh Recipes, Starring Plants From Land And Sea – Andrea Nguyen
The vibrant flavours of Vietnamese cooking are blended with a plant-based approach in Andrea Nguyen’s 2023 cookbook, Ever-Green Vietnamese. The James Beard Award-winning author debunks the idea that Vietnamese cuisine is solely about fish sauce and beefy pho, showcasing how the people in the country have always utilized their natural resourcefulness and Buddhist traditions, incorporating a stunning array of vegetables and herbs to create comforting, flavour-filled food.
Featuring a minimal amount of meat and fish (with vegetarian and vegan alternatives provided), Nguyen’s practical cooking tips and cultural insights come together, making Ever-Green Vietnamese one of the best cookbooks of 2023 for anyone looking to incorporate a plant-based Vietnamese diet into their lives.
Love Is a Pink Cake: Irresistible Bakes for Morning, Noon, and Night – Claire Ptak
From a Californian native now running an uber-successful bakery in London, Claire Ptak brings her West Coast flair to a host of classic British desserts in her 2023 cookbook, Love Is a Pink Cake. Known for the wedding cake she made for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, Ptak’s baking recipes are innovative, homey, and dreamy.
Love Is a Pink Cake features seventy-five sweet and savoury bakes ranging from Huckleberry Basil Sugar Scones, Peaches and Cream Angel Food Cake, a strawberry-coconut meringue cake, and, naturally, the lemon and elderflower cake presented to the Duke and Duchess. With stunning photographs taken from both sides of the Atlantic and gluten-free, refined sugar-free, and vegan bakes, it is the perfect cookbook companion for anyone looking to enhance their baking skills.
Part-time reader, part-time rambler, and full-time Horror enthusiast, James has been writing for What We Reading since 2022. His earliest reading memories involved Historical Fiction, Fantasy and Horror tales, which he has continued to take with him to this day. James’ favourite books include The Last (Hanna Jameson), The Troop (Nick Cutter) and Chasing The Boogeyman (Richard Chizmar).
