Our Food Editor on the 8 Cookbooks Everyone Should Have in Their Kitchen

As a chef and the author of two cookbooks—Cooking For Artists and Lemon, Love & Olive Oil—I can only really describe making one as a labor of love. 

It’s a dance between various skills: the ability to write both prose and a formatted recipe, go into intensive research mode, translate it all with photography and illustration, provide a consistently unique perspective, promote it… I could go on and on. I have met many cookbook authors that daydream about writing a novel. “How easy,” they say. “You can just sit and write!”

A good cookbook is a lifelong teacher. My personal collection is a window into what truly interests me about food. As I reflected on my cookbook canon for this story, I was reminded that I’m most drawn to cooking rooted in seasonality with a Greek/Middle Eastern slant. My relationship to food is also indissociable from my experience of art and the art world, so I couldn’t help but throw in my two favorite art-adjacent cookbooks as well. 

When deciding which cookbooks would make the cut, I let myself be guided by one simple question: Which ones do I open up every week? I can ensure you the eight I selected below will give you a lifetime of inspiration. 

1. Sunday Suppers at Lucques: Seasonal Recipes from Market to Table by Suzanne Goin, 2005

This was the very first cookbook I could call my own. It was gifted to me by my friend, Leah, when I was 20 years old. It changed the trajectory of my career in ways I could not foresee at the time. Before reading this cookbook, I had never imagined that food could be combined in the ways Suzanne Goin did. I read it cover to cover, making almost every recipe in the book, and it informs how I think of combining flavors to this day. 

2. The Palestinian Table by Reem Kassis, 2017

I love the recipes in this book, especially because so many of them are Reem’s family recipes. This is where I learned to make my own pomegranate molasses, kafta and tahini bake, rose water milk pudding (mhalabiyeh), and toasted bread pudding with cream and pistachios. There is so much crossover with Greek cuisine that it feels very familiar. Simple ingredients, with a big pay-off in flavor. 

3. The Aleppo Cookbook: Celebrating the Legendary Cuisine of Syria by Marlene Matar, 2017

This is a beautiful book filled with traditional Syrian recipes I make and adapt constantly. The photographs are small, and the book is concise yet text-forward. You can really READ this book. Syrian bulgur and yogurt with brown butter pinenuts, muhammara, and mujaddarah are recipes I have been making for over 20 years. The list goes on and on. 

4. The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons, and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution by Alice Waters, 2007

A sign of a great cookbook is good recipe testing, and no one comes close to Alice Waters. Every recipe you make will come out perfect if you follow the instructions. (This ensures another essential for a good cookbook: trust.) I come to The Art of Simple Food for the failsafe basics (broths, pie crusts), and you’ll never find a better recipe for lemon curd. 

5. Cooking for Artists by yours truly (yes!), 2015

It feels gauche to mention my own book, but I have a terrible memory. I open it more often than I care to admit for the recipes I have not memorized, that are yes, my own. Emotionally, seeing a picture of my grandma and all the artwork when I flip through the book makes me happy and reminds me of why I cook. All my life staples are there: braised chickpeas, roasted salmon with grape salsa, and of course, olive oil cake. The cover is very dirty.

6. Turkish Flavors: Recipes from a Seaside Cafe by Sevtap Yuce, 2012

A lightweight, easy-to-read Turkish cookbook that holds so many recipes I make over and over again until they barely resemble the original one. I got this book after a trip to Akyaka on the Turkish coast and had some of the best food of my life. The carrot dip, beetroot dip, and fried feta breads are mainstay recipes.

7. Les dîners de Gala by Salvador Dalí, 1973

I look at this book because it reminds me that cooking can be ANYTHING. Food can be gross and funny, totally outlandish and mhmmmm… surreal. From prawn parfait to eels with beer, this is a testament to the true love between Dalí and his wife, Gala.

8. A House with a Date Palm Will Never Starve: Cooking With Date Syrup by Michael Rakowitz and Friends, 2019

Based on artist Michael Rakowitz’s ongoing work with food, specifically dates, this is a beautiful cookbook filled with recipes by incredible chefs highlighting date syrup as an ingredient. The Iraqi onion dolma with date syrup (it does not get better than this) and Halawat Megadi (a “beggars” baklava—think “way simpler to make”) are not to be missed. 

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