The 25 best cookbooks of 2024

delicious. Cookbook Of The Year

Greekish
Award-winning food writer and delicious. favourite Georgina Hayden delivers again with 120 vibrant recipes that transport appetite and mind to the sunny Med. Inspired by her Greek-Cypriot roots and travels, the recipes and combinations are often familiar, but only to a point – hence the title. Hayden’s recipes – brilliant breakfasts, appetising small plates and salads, and I-want- that-now desserts – are as reliable and inspiring as ever, with her usual emphasis on flavour and minimal fuss.

There really is so much to enjoy: when I was eating the simple genius of whole grilled halloumi with apricots, I couldn’t help anticipate the spanakopita jacket potatoes to come. I love a book that’s a full, unpretentious expression of its author and Greekish is just that. As Hayden says, “These Greekish dishes are all me,” and that springs off every page. Published by Bloomsbury (£26).

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Why it’s a winner: When this was published, it brought a welcome ray of sunshine into a moody March. I knew even then that it would take something truly exceptional to knock it off its perch as book of the year. There have been a good number of great books and yet here it remains.

Cook Georgina’s filo-wrapped feta with spiced honey from this book →

Best Cookbook For Learning

Whether the topic is preserving, patisserie, bread making or barbecue, the winner in this category is an indispensable resource of knowledge and will improve cooks’ skills

Sift
Pastry chef Nicola Lamb’s first book is a masterclass in baking. Chapters like ‘All About Flour’ and ‘How To Build A Bake’ help you understand why something did or didn’t happen and what to do about it. There’s just enough science, delivered with an incision that illuminates the invisible elements of the baking process.

If you bought this book only for the base recipes – tart pastry and the like – it would be worth it. The recipe chapters, however, organised by duration – afternoon bakes, day-long projects and weekend undertakings – cover everything from amazing gateaux to simple biscuits.

I couldn’t not make the miso walnut double-thick chocolate-chip cookies: they’re even better than they sound. A remarkable book, written with an enthusiasm that has you embracing what once seemed intimidating. Published by Ebury Press (£30).

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Why it’s a winner: I’m a reasonable, if unspectacular, baker: Sift turns me into a genius. Everything in this superb book will improve what you do, the results will be consistently excellent and – thanks to just the right amount of science and explanation – you will understand why.

Head of food Tom Shingler rates this book: “Great recipes and a clever layout mean you can dip into the techy science behind baking as much or as little as you like. I’m not a natural baker and don’t have a particularly sweet tooth, but I genuinely get excited to make things from Sift.”

Bake Nicola’s French toast cinnamon buns from this book →

Best Cookbook For Home Cooking

A hardworking book that will furnish cooks with exciting, achievable recipes to enrich their weekly repertoire

Ottolenghi Comfort
The latest from the Ottolenghi team – Helen Goh, Verena Lochmuller, Tara Wigley and Yotam himself – focuses on comfort food with typical Ottolenghi inventiveness. Comfort professes to combine ‘nurture, convenience, nostalgia, indulgence’, and the recipes deliver on that. The authors’ heritage and experience takes in a global sweep – look forward to cucur udang (prawn spoon fritters) from Malaysia, summer cacciatore with herb salsa from Italy and more. Recipes feel familiar yet new – even pea and ham soup is taken into new territory by a fabulous pea and mint salsa; mashed potato becomes garlicky aligot potato with leeks and thyme. There are great ideas for less common ingredients, too – butter-braised kohlrabi with olive chimichurri, for one.

If you enjoy big-flavoured food – largely simple, always inventive – with the emphasis on pleasure (and why wouldn’t you?), this will be right up your street. Published by Ebury Press (£30).

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Why it’s a winner: Somehow, the Ottolenghi team repeatedly succeeds in the trickiest of kitchen asks – introducing new flavours, inventive combinations and culturally diverse recipes to an audience of home cooks – and Comfort does this as well as any. Everything from recipes to design to photography work together to create an exceptional book.

Cook Ottolenghi’s curried cauliflower cheese filo pie →

Home cooking runner-up

Second Helpings
Food writer (and regular delicious. contributor) Sue Quinn is widely admired for deeply researched and tested books, and this may be her best yet. Focusing on innovative ways to use leftovers, fridge odds and ends, and tail-ends of packets, the 100 recipes are a celebration of what otherwise might not get used. There are ‘master’ recipes (such as risotto) to adapt to what’s at hand, as well as everything from handy tricks (including whipped flavoured butters) to mains such as lemony yogurt pasta with (leftover) chicken and za’atar. I particularly liked the emphasis on generating leftovers intentionally – roasting double batches – as a way of saving energy and part-preparing the next meal. As Quinn says, “Framing a dish around food that needs using up is a helpful guide” to creating great meals. Saving money and wasting less never tasted so good. Published by Quadrille (£18.99).

Before I read this book, I didn’t know that… The delicious crisp crust on the bottom of a paella is known as socarrat.

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Best Cookbook For Storytelling

This category rewards a cookbook you’d take to bed and lose track of time reading: alive with inventive, thoughtful, characterful prose on any facet of food ­– with recipes, too

Nights Out at Home
Restaurant critic, broadcaster and author Jay Rayner’s first cookbook has the author fully on each page, seemingly in direct communication with the reader, and having the best time doing it. Here, he shares the restaurant dishes that have stolen his heart (and stomach) over the decades.

From first drink to dessert, Rayner takes us to his favourite tables, tells us stories that make sense of the people, places and flavours, and shares his own versions of the restaurant recipes he loves best. Between chapters, short essays on, for example, what restaurant reviewing entails, set the context for everything that follows.

Aside from a few menu shots, the book is without photography, but frankly it isn’t needed: the words on roast chicken had me starving before I got anywhere near the recipe. Opinionated, bright, serious, hilarious and revealing, Nights Out At Home is written with obvious love for the restaurant world and those who inhabit it, and a warm enthusiasm to share that with the reader.

This book would make a seriously good cookbook without the stories, and a brilliantly written, engaging read without the recipes; that we get both makes it essential for anyone who’s into the wider pleasures of food.

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Why it’s a winner: Having read this a second time, the thing that strikes me most about this joy of a read is just how full of love it is: for the world of restaurants and those who create them, for the recipes and ingredients that bring us pleasure, and for the reader.

Editorial assistant Anthony Noonan rates this book: “Nights Out At Home is a little bit different from your typical cookbook and that’s why I enjoyed it so much. It reads more as a memoir of the evolution of British restaurant culture, as well as the world of food writing, in the past 25 years. Rayner reflects mindfully on his honest attempts to capture some of that magic in the home kitchen.”

Best Cookbook For Exploring

The prizewinner in this category transports readers with immersive recipes, words and photography ­to offer a characterful taste of a specific place

Bethlehem
Franco-Palestinian chef and hotelier Fadi Kattan’s first book fully lives up to its subtitle, A Celebration Of Palestinian Food. Organised into seasons, recipes include classic ingredients such as lamb, chickpeas, yogurt, cumin and sumac – along with less familiar purslane and mastic. Essays introduce us to friends, family and Kattan’s life in Bethlehem, as well as, for example, the importance of bread in Palestine. Recipes such as manakish (flatbreads) with fresh and dried tomatoes, parsley cream and olive oil made my mouth water. A hungry-making book. Published by Hardie Grant (£28).

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Why it’s a winner: In a year of so many notable explorations of a country’s, region’s or city’s food, it’s been hard to select one above all, but Bethlehem – with its exuberance, superb design and photography – just takes it. As much a celebration of the people and landscape as Palestine’s food.

Exploring runners up

Sebze
Food writer Özlem Warren’s second book is a warm, joyful celebration of Turkish food that happens to be vegetarian (sebze is Turkish for vegetable). I loved the street food recipes so much, I ate enough of the nohut dürümü – spiced chickpea wrap with piyaz salad – for two. The casseroles and rice dishes look so good too, but I was particularly lost to the meze and salads. Warren’s love for the food of her home comes through as much on the plate as in her words. Published by Hardie Grant (£28).

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Before I read this book, I didn’t know that… Anatolia, comprising most of today’s Turkey, is regarded as the home of wheat, as it was first cultivated there.

Italian Coastal
Amber Guinness’s second book explores the food of Italy’s west coast. Expect plates of pasta (the buttery spaghetti with bottarga, dried cured fish roe, was simple but delicious), mouthwatering salads, joyous desserts and more. You’ll also find stories, history and plenty to stir the imagination, all inspired by the area Guinness knows so well from growing up here. I loved the menu ideas and short recipes (beer and lemon granita shandy…), as happy-making as the long ones. The book is a pleasure for the eyes too. Published by Thames & Hudson (£29.99).

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Editorial director Laura Rowe rates this book: “The photography is stunning and, combined with Amber’s evocative storytelling (and even the playful tiled texture of the front cover), really gave it a sense of place that made me want to book my next sun-drenched trip to Ischia.”

Cook Amber’s chicken with capers, lemon, chillies & thyme from this book →

Best Cookbook on a Niche Subject

An engrossing deep dive into a singular, specific topic in the food world with richly rewarding results (and recipes)

Steak
If anyone was going to write a love letter to steak, who better than food writer and broadcaster Tim Hayward. His book takes the reader on a journey through butchery and cuts to cooking techniques (traditional and new), and has plenty of recipes. The writing is characteristically lively, entertaining and full of love for the subject. In examining the historical, cultural and social significance of steak, Hayward doesn’t shy away from discussing issues of sustainability and how we might better source our meat. If you’re seeking an unashamedly nerdy guide to everything steak has to offer, this is it. Published by Quadrille (£30).

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Why it’s a winner: Every time I pick this book up I smile. Never mind the wonderful recipes, the words on the history and culture of steak, and the lively, original design; the thing that grabs me most about Steak is the author’s wonder and enthusiasm for his subject, dripping from each page. A modern classic.

Polly from the delicious. food team explains how to make the ultimate steak tartare →

The Best Cookbooks Of 2024

The rest of our top picks, in no particular order…

Bahari
British-Omani chef Dina Macki takes us on a journey through the flavours of Oman and Zanzibar, exploring their history and culinary influences. Chapters focus on the cuisines of the capital, Muscat, the interior of the country, the extensive coast (bahari means ‘ocean’ in Swahili) and the island of Zanzibar, as well as the author’s early life in Portsmouth. The flavours are bold and the combinations often surprising: shuwa (48-hour spiced lamb), habbar bil-tamar (date squid salad), and avocado and cardamom ice cream are among over 100 recipes. Interspersed are personal essays on identity, community, the role of food in bringing us together and understanding where we’re from, and more. A thoughtful, beautifully photographed book that will be enjoyed as much as a cover-to-cover read as a cookbook. Published by DK (£26).

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Bake Dina’s khaliat nahal (Omani honeycomb bread) from this book →

Every Last Bite
You may know chef and author Rosie Sykes from her excellent The Sunday Night Book of a few years ago; her latest offers recipes, tips and practical advice for cooking on a budget, while minimising waste and energy use. As useful and timely as this may be, worthy it isn’t. Every recipe appeals: from quick suppers like anchovy butter toast with a fried egg to storecupboard pleasures such as Catalan-style beans with chorizo and fregola with peas and bacon. Within a few pages you forget you’re being guided along a low-waste, low-energy path because the touch is so light and the recipes so rewarding. Published by Quadrille (£18.99).

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Seasoning
Writer and cook Angela Clutton’s third book explores the seasonality of over 50 fruit and veg. Those familiar with her award-winning The Vinegar Cupboard know she does a deep-dive brilliantly; to this we can add – as Rachel Roddy’s cover quote states – the ‘poetic and practical’. Each season includes a list of what’s at its best but also what’s on that season’s shoulders, where overlaps and culinary possibilities exist.

The 75 recipes offer ideas for doing something different with the familiar: broccoli tempura with white miso mayonnaise, and kohlrabi and sprout winter slaw tasted every bit as good as they looked on the page. Beautifully photographed and illustrated, Seasoning is both a toolkit for delicious seasonal eating and a joy of a read. Published by Murdoch Books (£30).

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Before I read this book, I didn’t know that… Mackerel can swim at 10km per hour.

Gennaro’s Verdure
Few have done so much to inspire us to rejoice in Italian food than author, chef and presenter Gennaro Contaldo. His latest book focuses on making vegetables “the hero of the plate”, with sections related to colour.

Bold, inventive recipes feature throughout, from the simple – such as celery pesto – to the inventive (carrot soufflés). In keeping with the cucina povera tradition, the book isn’t entirely meat-free, but inclusions are minimal and easily omitted. With vibrant photography and mini-essays about each vegetable, this is a seriously satisfying read. Published by Pavilion (£26).

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Before I read this book, I didn’t know that…  Potatoes weren’t used in Italian kitchens until the 1800s.

Cook Gennaro’s cheesy spinach terrine from this book →

Good Eggs
Award-winning author Ed Smith has long championed the joy of eggs on his Instagram account and finally turns his ovoid enthusiasm to the printed page with 100 recipes and ideas to celebrate eggs. If you don’t know how to do the basics, you’re in good hands; if you do, perhaps you’d like to try a poached egg with ’nduja butter or truffle paste toast.

This book succeeds brilliantly in its tricky aim: offering us inventive and appealing ideas for the most familiar of ingredients. I mean, who doesn’t fancy dippy eggs with tempura soldiers, or kimchi and gochujang skillet eggs? Published by Quadrille (£22).

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Easy Wins
Once again, bestselling author Anna Jones shows us how deliciously pleasure-giving thoughtful modern vegetarian food can be. Taking 12 hero ingredients (lemons, tahini, olive oil and so on) Jones offers us 132 easy-win recipes for 365 days of the year. Simplicity is a seam that runs through the book, as is helpfulness. Tips, tricks and rules build confidence over the pages: the importance of “the final layer” (crispy sage, salsa verde, herbs) is one of many. Somehow Jones makes even the simplest recipes, such as lemon soda bread, miso rarebit, and leeks and peas with spiced mustard butter, taste special.
Published by 4th Estate (£28).

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Pocha
In her second book, food writer Su Scott explores the street food of Seoul, where she grew up. A pocha (short for pojangmacha) is a small, tarpaulin-covered cart serving simple Korean food, which Scott invokes in the 80 recipes that span the entire day, from breakfast treats to late night snacks. The food and location photography are as vibrant as the recipes, together conveying the spirit and distinctiveness of Seoul’s 24/7 street food scene. I loved the fresh kimchi, turmeric pickled radish and candied sweet potato – the latter from the genius 4pm Slump chapter. So much is simple yet utterly appealing. Published by Quadrille (£27).

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Love Vegetables: Delicious recipes for vibrant meals
Chef Anna Shepherd’s debut cookbook couldn’t have been published in a year more full of excellent vegetarian recipe books and yet still it rises into this year’s list with the very best of them. Organised by chapters including Alliums, Tender Greens and Tougher to Love Roots, it’s full of characterful, nourishing deliciousness. The more I cook from it, the more of a friend it becomes: recipes such as smoky buttered romanesco with creamy white beans, sweetheart red curry (an extraordinarily good pointy cabbage curry) and lemony celeriac and fennel comfort soup are among my favourites. Published by White Lion (£20).

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Fruitful
Formerly of California’s Chez Panisse and now London’s Spring restaurant and Heckfield Place in Hampshire, Sarah Johnson’s heritage of farm-to-fork cookery translates beautifully to the pages of her first book. It’s full of desserts I could eat every day – the apricot and muscat tart, and hazelnut and pear cake immediately caught my eye. There are enticing preserves such as blackcurrant conserve with rose geranium, and appealing mains like lemony chicken piccata and slow-cooked salmon with pickled rhubarb relish. Chapters include Stone Fruit and Berries (which encourages substitution, using raspberries in place of blackberries and so on). Perhaps my favourite thing about Fruitful is the many thoughtful touches: the use of leaves (peach, fig) to embellish, season and add contrast is particularly pleasing in recipes like roasted figs on fig leaves. The recipes are punctuated by stories from fruit farmers in this inventive, elegant book. Published by Kyle Books (£30).

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Before I read this book, I didn’t know that… The loganberry (a blackberry-raspberry hybrid) was bred in a private garden in Santa Cruz, California.

Deputy digital editor Phoebe Stone rates this book: “I love making desserts, steered by what berries and so on are in season, and am a huge fan of fruit in savoury dishes – the premise is right up my street. Beyond the recipes, it’s a great reference for how to cook fruits to their best advantage (from purées to poaching) and what (unexpected) flavours to pair them with. So inspiring!”

Verdura
The subtitle – 10 Vegetables, 100 Italian Recipes – tells you all you need to know about the structure and much about the simplicity of chef Theo Randall’s latest book. Potato recipes include celeriac, potato and turnip rösti; potato cjarson (like ravioli) with peas, asparagus and butter; and tomato, aubergine and potato al forno with mozzarella. With his celebrated CV, you’ll be unsurprised by the excellence of Randall’s recipes – a glorious mix of comforting (baked eggs with zucchini and spinach) and bright, such as zucchini, fennel and radish salad with walnuts and pecorino. Published by Quadrille (£28).

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For the Love of Food
I don’t know how many years ago I first ate chef Paul Ainsworth’s food at his restaurants in Cornwall, but I’ve been patiently waiting for his debut book. Ainsworth is a Michelin-starred chef – he’s worked with everyone from Rhodes to Ramsay – and while this book reflects those stepping stones, the recipes are approachable without being over-simplified. Homemade ‘land and sea’ crumpets (smoked mackerel and poached eggs), lemon sole with Camel Valley sparkling wine sauce, and lime and vanilla rice pudding with earl grey tea prunes give you a flavour of what to expect.

For the most part, these are recipes for when you can invest a little time and attention in making great food. Elevated as Ainsworth’s restaurant food may be, this book wears its Michelin credentials lightly: everything about it is unpretentious but special. The sort of food most of us want to eat at the drop of a hat. Published by Pavilion (£26).

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Make Paul’s taramasalata on toast from this book →

Dinner
Having Post-it-noted so many of the 120 vegetarian and vegan recipes, I can confirm Meera Sodha’s fourth book is one to make a friend of: flavours are large and recipes mainly quick. Broccoli spaghetti with zhoug is already a family favourite, the baked butter paneer next and hasselback celeriac with miso next in line. For all the mains, fear not, there are desserts: my daughter has already instructed me to make Sodha’s ‘A big bowl of chocolate mousse’. Beautifully photographed, it’s also cleverly organised: the Alternative Contents lists recipes by season and type. It’s personal too, underscored by Sodha’s return to her kitchen having felt inexplicably distanced from it. Thank heavens she found her way back.

With recipes that draw on many cultures, organised in such a clever way, this will become the book many people reach for to answer the question ‘What’s for dinner?’ Published by Fig Tree (£27).

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Rick Stein’s Food Stories
This is an utter joy of a characterful read. It’s a culinary adventure around the country involving producers, cooks, foragers, chefs and more – and every page reads as if Rick Stein has taken you along for the ride. The recipes are endlessly hungry-making: crumpets with potted shrimps and poached eggs had my stomach grumbling, as did the chips and curry sauce and, well, virtually everything. Published by BBC Books (£28).

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Everyday Pressure Cooking
I have too many implements in my kitchen and yet I have added one more, courtesy of the only person who could so persuade me: Catherine Phipps, among the very best food writers. As well as demystifying “the most useful piece of kitchen equipment”, Phipps makes the case that we could save time, energy and money pressure cooking dishes as diverse as one-pot sausage and mustard mash, Caribbean seafood curry and teriyaki chicken and mushroom noodles. As Phipps promises, “My best onion gratin (and soup)” provided two really superb lunches in less than 20 minutes, start to finish. The recipes are, as ever, infallible, delicious and inventive, and that perfect crossover of adventurous and utterly practical. Published by Quadrille (£22).

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Cook Catherine’s pressure cooker pot-roast chicken →

Fermentation Kitchen
There have been many books on fermentation in recent years and you might be forgiven for thinking you have all you need; chef, grower and author Sam Cooper’s book is a highly worthy exception. While he covers the most familiar ferments – kombucha, sauerkraut and kimchi among them – you’ll find much inspiration in recipes such as lacto rhubarb honey, koji hot sauce, miso, and pine cone syrup. There’s just enough science to illuminate and reassure, while the recipe variations (such as fig leaf kombucha) are really appealing. Cooper works at the creative edge of fermentation, while keeping it blissfully accessible. Published by DK (£18.99).

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Real Healthy
2024 saw many books encouraging us to eat more healthily and un-process our diet; none were so appealing as Hemsley’s. It’s full of wholesome, delicious food that just happens to do us good, with a balance that feels real life-friendly. A book that over-delivers on every promise it makes. Published by Ebury Press (£26).

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Team top picks

Projects editor Hugh Thompson chooses Doma by Spasia Pandora Dinkovski. “This book is all about Balkan diaspora cooking and I bought it especially for a recipe for pita (pie) that my Croatian wife, Ira, pines for – it’s the taste of home for Balkan expatriates. I cooked it, she loved it and it has entered the repertoire. Friday is Pieday!” Published by DK (£22).

Editorial director Laura Rowe chooses Good Time Cooking by Rosie Mackean. “A series of showstopping menus for easy entertaining, from game nights and date nights through to dinner parties that can be whipped together when you’re working from home. Mackean’s charming writing style makes you feel like you’re a guest at her party.” Published by Pavilion (£26).

Special mentions

Vegetables by Mark Diacono. delicious. books reviewer Mark is an expert grower as well as an award-winning author and his latest dishes up close to 100 vegetarian dinners to “strengthen your relationship with the seasons”. The appealing recipes, such as aubergine kedgeree and cauli caesar salad, include a few surprises (fried lettuce on toast; tomato and plum crumble!) and Mark packs personality and delightful turns of phrase into each short introduction. All the inspiration and encouragement you need to eat more plants. Published by Quadrille (£27).

Don’t Waste Your Pumpkin and Don’t Waste Your Turkey by Emily Gussin. delicious. food team member Emily is a sustainability champion and has penned a pair of books on how to make the most of two often-wasted seasonal favourites: pumpkin and turkey. They’re filled with practical advice and creative recipes; we’ll be making kimchi turkey fried rice on Boxing Day. Published by Murdoch Books (£8.99 each).

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