My Favorite Cookbooks of 2023

...and a peek into my upcoming Cracking the Cookbook class!

I love cookbooks. I have been making an effort to consume less of them, as it’s physically impossible to cook from all the books that are already on my shelves. But they are so beautiful…they sit on my bedside table as novels to be devoured.

Here is a selection of five cookbooks I have enjoyed immensely (reading and cooking from) this year -well, in fact, they are four cookbooks and one essay, so good it had to be on the list. Mind you, this is biased and not comprehensive, as I did not look into every single cookbook published in 2023, just a selection among my bookshelves.

PS: though it was not published in 2023, I still think The Sobremesa Cookbook is a great holiday gift for a loved one who wants to cook with Spanish flavors and good ingredients, please consider here.

Tenderheart by Hetty McKinnon

McKinnon is the recipe writer of recipe writers. I am blown away at how she seems to have inexhaustible amounts of recipes to share in her. Her previous cookbook To Asia with Love was already one of those books you want to keep on your kitchen counter or island and never stop cooking from, but this one tops it. A thick volume organized by vegetable, which makes it very convenient to look up when you have a vegetable on hand and want to do something new with it. I’m not sure whether it’s that McKinnon’s recipes are designed to be approachable, or that we have similar palates or pantries, but I can often just whip up a recipe from this book without the need to go to the store with a long grocery list. I love that. Her creativity with flavor combinations never ceases to renew what you can put on the table for your next meal.

The Secret of Cooking by Bee Wilson

I have been an avid reader of Bee Wilson for years now; chapters from The Way We Eat Now are mandatory readings for students in my Mediterranean Nutrition class at the University of Barcelona. This is her first cookbook, and though its premise begins with a sad event in her life -her husband leaving her- the book is full of joyful moments, built from simple ways to make a life in the kitchen without suffering or sacrifice. Wilson’s practical tips are always backed by her glorious prose and a solid background of academic knowledge, without a sliver of pretentiousness. A pleasure to read but also to actually cook from.

National Dish by Anya von Bremzen

This one is not a cookbook, but it is the best piece of food writing I have read in a long time, and so relevant to everything I teach in my academic classes. Von Bremzen questions the idea of a national dish/cuisine, and takes us on a trip around the world as she investigates the stories (because that is what they are, in the end) behind a handful of them. I rushed to include parts of this book in my course syllabi, so eager was I to share it with my students, and it has resonated with many of them and become an indispensable addition to my toolset. Moreover, though the topic might seem academic and serious, it’s a pleasure to read. Von Bremzen walks you through it with a knack for storytelling, which makes the serious themes read as if it were a good novel. We get to travel alongside her to Paris, Seville, Tokyo, Mexico, and Istanbul to boot. The conclusion on her relationship, as a Russian native, to borscht, hits a deep personal note without becoming overly sentimental, and allows us to reflect on our relationship to the foods we grow up on and their place in the world -and thus ours as well.