Travel the World with These Cookbooks

Mexico: The Cookbook, by Margarita Carrillo Arronte
If the gorgeous, melt-your-eyes-in-your-skull pink papel picado cover is not enough to make you pick up this tome of Mesoamerican cooking, then hopefully the 600+ recipes inside will convince you. Of course you’ll find tamales and tacos, but this is not Tex-Mex. This is Mexican like your abuelita used to make it.

Balaboosta, by Einat Admony
“Balaboosta” means “perfect housewife” in Yiddish. While we cannot guarantee your mother-in-law will agree, if you take a page or two from Einat Admony’s culinary playbook, you’ll have a fighting chance. The eponymous Nolita restaurant has been a favorite of New Yorkers for years, and these recipes, mostly Mediterranean and Israeli, are exotic enough to be exciting, but not so exotic to scare off the n00b.

A Kitchen in France: A Year of Cooking in My Farmhouse, by Mimi Thorisson
If the title inspires an eye roll and a heavy helping of FOMO, hold your horses. As much as you might envy Mimi Thorrison her French farmhouse filled with beautiful babies, an Icelandic photographer husband, and the aromas of French cooking, here’s the thing: she’s put together a delicious and inspirational (or aspirational) cookbook based on a year of seasonal meals at her family’s picturesque home in Médoc, France. Jealousy, after all, is a dish best served with Salted Butter Crème Caramel.

Mastering the Art of French Cooking, by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle, Simone Beck
Yes, France deserves two visits on this list because it’s the birthplace of both haute and nouvelle cuisine—and, thanks to the authors of this two-volume cookbook, it’s the country that taught America how to cook. Like the Bible in the hotel nightstand, every kitchen needs one. Gift a single testament volume or the boxed set.

Chloe’s Vegan Italian Kitchen, by Chloe Coscarelli
Who is this Chloe of whom we speak? She’s the vegan chef who won Food Network’s Cupcake Wars and has gone on to publish two popular vegan cookbooks, Chloe’s Kitchen and Chloe’s Vegan Desserts. Now she does the unthinkable and turns her magic wand to pizza and pasta. A perfect gift for that vegetarian, vegan, or health-conscious eater who mistakenly thought he was persona non grata in Italia.

The Slanted Door, by Charles Phan
It’s been a big year for Charles Phan. In May, the Vietnamese-born chef won a James Beard award for Outstanding Restaurant for his 19-year-old San Francisco eatery, The Slanted Door, and in October he launched a cookbook of the same name. The book follows the making of a legend in three acts, for the restaurant’s three locations (the current one is in the city’s Ferry Building). The subtitle is Modern Vietnamese Food, but don’t think that modern means without heart. These recipes are street- and home-inspired.
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