My favorite cookbooks this year!

Here I am at The Chew with Pati Jinich, one of my favorite cookbook authors!

I have the chance to look at so many cookbooks throughout the year that I thought I would share some of my favorites from the past few months with you, especially if you are looking for great cookbooks to give friends and family this holiday season!. If you have your own favorites, let me know what they are!

Genevieve Ko is the co-author of my own cookbooks, Cooking with Love and Carla’s Comfort Foods. I absolutely love this book! In Better Baking, Genevieve gives us delicious recipes using whole ingredients; feel-good desserts have never looked so scrumptious. Better Baking is a beautiful and thoughtful master class on how to bake your cake and eat it too.

Mexican Today is like having Pati in your kitchen, and all to yourself! Her friendly, warm personality and knowledgeable, kind voice guide you as you cook your way through these scrumptious recipes. Pati takes Mexican food into the present tense, which is where it should be.

The only book you’ll need if you truly want to master fish/seafood. Barton is a natural teacher, and his passion for food and his ability to make it accessible and interesting, no matter how inexperienced or experienced the cook, is a gift. No detail is too small to deserve a mention. Get ready to be engrossed in the world of fish and seafood with Two If By Sea.

Do you have a favorite restaurant where all the locals line up to get the dishes that really tell the story about your community’s food? The James Beard Foundation’s All-American Eats cookbook has collected classic recipes from local institutions across the country, from banana pudding to cedar plank salmon. This tome of mouthwatering classic recipes beautifully celebrates the history and the diversity of quintessential American dishes.

Pierre Thiam’s passion is palpable for his homeland in his second cookbook SENEGAL. He promises to transport the reader into the vibrant and diverse culture of Senegal through pictures, history, food and terenga or “hospitality”, and he delivers ten-fold. As an accomplished chef, Thiam gives a masterclass in what will probably be a food trend in the United States not too far into the future – West African Cuisine. Get ready to pack your bags for this culinary adventure.

Hot Chicken has long deserved a devotee such as Timothy Davis to chronicle the history, recipes, and culture surrounding this Southern specialty in The Hot Chicken Cookbook. Compiled here through stories and recipes, with vibrant photos, it’s a wonderful representation of the richness of Hot Chicken culture. Timothy truly puts our finger on the pulse of Nashville’s delicacy, the history, the levels of heat, the diehard community that surrounds it, the culture that it has created, and the dishes that have been inspired in the wake of its lure. Some like it hot. Some like it hotter.

Sneak peeks for 2017:

This is the only resource you’ll ever need for the myriad of greens, known and unknown. It’s inspiring. It’s comprehensive. And it’s completely accessible. Jenn Louis has knocked this one out of the park with The Book of Greens. Get ready for a fun adventure eating your greens.