This Season’s Best Cookbooks

Make It Ahead, by Ina Garten
Garten’s cookbooks have the same easy, conversational tone as her Food Network shows, and her latest, Make It Ahead, aims to help the home cook facing a stressful situation, such as weeknight dinners, those moments when unexpected guests drop by, and even Thanksgiving. Dishes like French Chicken Pot Pies, Decadent Chocolate Cake, and Make-Ahead Roast Turkey (!) become manageable—even relaxing!—when Ina shows you how to make them ahead of time.

Plenty More, by Yotam Ottolenghi
Visionary London chef Yotam Ottolenghi is already justly famous for his cookbooks (Ottolenghi, Jerusalem, and Plenty), which are legend among vegetarians. His newest, Plenty More, features more than 150 recipes divided by cooking method, and is illustrated with such radiant food photography, it might lure even the most devout omnivore into a more veggie-heavy eating style.

The Skinnytaste Cookbook, by Gina Homolka
Blogger Gina Homolka’s first book features beautiful photography of 150 recipes that combine good nutrition and flavor with lower calorie counts, such as Breakfast Tostadas and Slow-Cooker Chicken Enchilada Soup. This is how you eat better without depriving yourself.

Around the Table, by Martina McBride
Country star Martina McBride can sing the stuffing out of a revenge ballad, and it turns out she can cook, too. Around the Table is geared toward celebratory cooking for a crowd, and the recipes are organized around theme parties, like a Mistletoe and Martinis holiday open house (cider, cocoa, shrimp cocktail, lemon bars, and, of course, gin or vodka with just a hint of vermouth), or an outdoor spring brunch (mimosas, Bloody Marys, ham-and-cheese biscuits). McBride also includes playlists for your parties.

America: Farm to Table, by Mario Batali
Celebrity chef Mario Batali’s newest cookbook, America: Farm to Table, will remind you what a fabulous teacher he was on Molto Mario, explaining techniques and the origins of different kinds of Italian cooking. In it he does the same for regional American cuisine, sharing recipes from his chef friends inspired by food grown all over the country. This makes a great gift for the person in your life who has a backyard garden and likes to take advantage of the bounty of tomatoes, greens, and squash they haul in every year.

Silvana’s Gluten-Free and Dairy-Free Kitchen, by Silvana Nardone
As the editor of Every Day with Rachael Ray, Silvana Nardone had a clear and concise writing style that made her recipes both easy to understand and incredibly appealing, and she brings the same sensibility to her second cookbook for people with dietary restrictions. Silvana’s Gluten-Free and Dairy-Free Kitchen is a welcome resource, especially when it comes to dishes where gluten tends to set up camp—like cookies, biscuits, and pasta.

Marcus Off Duty: The Recipes I Cook at Home, by Marcus Samuelsson
Top Chef Masters winner Marcus Samuelsson is a fearsome competitor on TV, but his new book, Marcus Off Duty: The Recipes I Cook at Home, has a significantly more relaxed vibe, blending the cuisines of his heritage (Ethiopian), his upbringing (Swedish), and his travels (everywhere else) into the food he cooks for his family. This is a gorgeous book that any chef can use to expand his or her repertoire—or readers can just flip through the pages and drool.

The Chew: A Year of Celebrations, by the cast of The Chew
Food-focused daytime talk show The Chew has succeeded thanks to its immensely appealing personalities—genial teacher Mario Batali, delightful Top Chef vet Carla Hall, charismatic Michael Symon and his excellent eyebrows, cheery Daphne Oz, and, of course, natty Clinton Kelly. So their advice when it comes to planning holiday parties will be more than welcome for a host or hostess friend, and The Chew: A Year of Celebrations is a perfect guidebook for all sorts of occasions. Standout recipes include Carla’s combo pumpkin-pecan pie and Clinton’s candied bacon (which he insists must be eaten as part of a salad) and blueberry bars.

Thug Kitchen: The Official Cookbook, by Thug Kitchen
It’s frustrating to open a cookbook only to realize you need three gadgets and five kinds of herbs for every single recipe. Thug Kitchen, based on an award-winning food blog (warning: it contains lots of cursing), cuts out the hype and makes vegetarian eating accessible. If you love the profane, funny blog, or just want to get something delicious and healthy on the table between the end of the workday and the beginning of Modern Family, then Thug Kitchen is ready to guide you from door to dinner with attitude. Roasted beer and lime cauliflower tacos, anyone?

How to Cook Everything Fast, by Mark Bittman
Bittman makes cooking approachable, teaching fledgling chefs how to do everything from boiling an egg to baking a fish without talking down or skipping a step. How to Cook Everything Fast is the faster, but equally delicious sibling of his earlier kitchen bibles, including the indispensable How to Cook Everything, and it’s a home cook’s best bet for those nights when you want something almost as fast as cereal, but a lot more homemade.
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