As we celebrate family, faith and friends during the holidays – food is the centerpiece of the season. And thanks to this year’s hottest cookbooks, we can still get creative in the kitchen long after Christmas. A cookbook makes a perfect gift for foodies on your list, (and to sneak under the tree for you), with tempting recipes from culinary experts including celebrity chefs and a Charlotte blogger. Check out these 20 cookbooks featuring fare from fresh and healthy to sweet and decadent:
1) 100 Days of Real Food
By Lisa Leake The Queen City creator of the 100 Days of Real Food blog draws from her hugely popular website to offer simple, affordable, family-friendly recipes and practical advice for eliminating processed foods from your family’s diet.
2) Extra Virgin: Recipes & Love from Our Tuscan Kitchen
By Gabriele Corcos and Debi Mazar In Extra Virgin, food, family, and style come together in a celebration of the pleasures of the rustic Italian table with 120 recipes for simple yet exquisite meals that are accessible, full of fresh flavor, and easy to prepare.
3) Saveur: The New Classics Cookbook
By the editors of Saveur magazine The New Classics Cookbook features more than 1000 well-curated global recipes in an essential collection for home cooks everywhere.
4) My Paris Kitchen: Recipes and Stories
By David Lebovitz A collection of stories and 100 sweet and savory French-inspired recipes from popular food blogger David Lebovitz, reflecting the way Parisians eat today and featuring lush photography taken around Paris and in David’s Parisian kitchen.
5) The Best Cookbook Ever: with recipes so deliciously awesome, your life will change forever
By Eli Sussman and Max Sussman This tongue in cheek volume shares recipes so deliciously awesome, parties so incredibly mind-blowing, pictures so breathtakingly beautiful, menus so expertly crafted, and stories so heartbreakingly poignant that you will cry as you cook from it, and it will change your life forever.
6) Thug Kitchen: The Official Cookbook: Eat Like You Give a F*ck
By Thug Kitchen Thug Kitchen started their wildly popular website to inspire people to eat some Goddamn vegetables and adopt a healthier lifestyle. Beloved by Gwyneth Paltrow (“This might be my favorite thing everâ€) and named Saveur’s Best New Food blog of 2013—with half a million Facebook fans and counting—Thug Kitchen wants to show everyone how to take charge of their plates and cook up some real f*cking food.
7) Heritage
by Sean Brock The chef behind game-changing restaurants Husk and McCrady’s in Charleston, SC offers all of his inspired recipes in his first book. With a drive to preserve the heritage foods of the South, Brock cooks dishes that are ingredient-driven and reinterpret the flavors of his youth in Appalachia and his adopted hometown of Charleston.
8) The Skinnytaste Cookbook
by Gina Homolka The miraculously low-calorie recipes are made from all-natural, easy-to-find ingredients. Homolka’s blog, Skinnytaste is the number one go-to site for slimmed down recipes that you’d swear are anything but.
9) America–Farm to Table
by Mario Batali and Jim Webster Bestselling author and world-renown chef Mario Batali pays homage to the American farmer-from Maine to Los Angeles-in stories, photos, and recipes.
10)How to Cook Everything Fast
by Mark Bittman Homemade wonton soup in 30 minutes. Chicken Parmesan without dredging and frying. Fruit crisp on the stove top. The secret to cooking fast is cooking smart—choosing and preparing fresh ingredients efficiently.
11) The Pollan Family Table
by Corky Pollan, Lori Pollan, Dana Pollan, Tracy Pollan, Michael Pollan (Foreword). A gorgeous, fully illustrated collection of recipes, cooking techniques, and pantry wisdom for delicious, healthy, and harmonious family meals from the incredible Pollan family—with a foreword from Michael Pollan.
12) Danielle Walker’s Against All Grain: Meals Made Simple: Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, and Paleo Recipes to Make Anytime
by Danielle Walker The author transformed her diet after being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, and discovered the healing powers of food. The follow-up collection to her best-selling Against All Grain shares gluten-free, dairy-free, and Paleo-friendly recipes for easy weeknight meals.
13) How to Cook Like a Southerner
by Johnnie Gabriel The Georgia chef isn’t just sharing her recipes; she’s taking her Southern expertise to the next level, offering step-by-step photos for 35 of the most iconic Southern dishes, curating and testing over one hundred recipes from some of the best and most gracious cooks in the South, and offering tips to help you dress up even the most basic recipes for special occasions.
14) Sugar Rush: Master Tips, Techniques, and Recipes for Sweet Baking
by Johnny Iuzzini The James Beard–award-winning pastry chef returns to basics, sharing his expert tips on fundamentals such as making caramel and mixing butter cakes, with accompanying step-by-step photographs, before moving on to recipes for Salted Caramels and Sticky Caramel Date Cake.
15) The Slanted Door: Modern Vietnamese Food
by Charles Phan The award-winning chef and restaurateur opened The Slanted Door in San Francisco in 1995, inspired by the food of his native Vietnam. Since then, The Slanted Door has grown into a world-class dining destination, and its accessible, modern take on classic Vietnamese dishes is beloved by diners, chefs, and critics alike.
16) MEAT: Everything You Need to Know
by Pat LaFrieda The third generation butcher and owner of America’s premier meatpacking business, presents the ultimate book of everything meat, with more than seventy-five mouth-watering recipes for beef, pork, lamb, veal, and poultry.
17) Plenty More: Vibrant Vegetable Cooking from London’s Ottolenghi
by Yotam Ottolenghi The hotly anticipated follow-up to the London chef’s bestselling and award-winning cookbook Plenty, featuring more than 150 vegetarian dishes organized by cooking method.
18) Prune
by Gabrielle Hamilton From the bestselling author of Blood, Bones & Butter, comes her eagerly anticipated cookbook debut filled with signature recipes from her celebrated New York City restaurant Prune.
19) The Baking Bible
by Rose Levy Beranbaum The legendary baker is back with her most extensive “bible†yet. With all-new recipes for the best cakes, pies, tarts, cookies, candies, pastries, breads, and more, this magnum opus draws from Rose’s passion and expertise in every category of baking.
20) Baking Chez Moi
By Dorie Greenspan A “culinary guru†and author of the award-winning Around My French Table and Baking: From My Home to Yours returns with an exciting collection of simple desserts from French home cooks and chefs
