Best food books and cookbooks from 2023

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The Secret of Cooking
Invitation to a Banquet
A Splash of Soy
A New Way to Bake
Ginger Pig Christmas Cook Book
Brutto
National Dish
Comfort & Joy
The Everlasting Meal Cookbook

By The Week UK

published 17 December 2023

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When her husband of 23 years left her during the pandemic, Bee Wilson found that cooking helped her forget her darker thoughts – and she became determined to find ways to make it easier. The result is this "appealing" book, said David Sexton in The Times. Eschewing gadgets and tricks, Wilson focuses on things that simplify, such as "universal sauces and stews". Her book is superbly written, and makes for a "wonderful companion".

Fuchsia Dunlop has written many excellent cookbooks about Chinese food, said Harriet Fitch Little in the FT. Her latest work contains no recipes, but it's marked by the "same confidence and originality": it charts the history of Chinese cuisine, and explains what makes it so rich and fascinating. A fine "describer of things", Dunlop brilliantly conjures tastes and textures – from the "wet crunchiness" of a chicken's foot to the "skiddy" feel of duck intestines.

Australian food writer Lara Lee is best known for "Coconut & Sambal", about the "pleasingly discordant flavours of Indonesian cuisine", said Harper's Bazaar. Here, she expands her repertoire with a "love letter" to the "everyday food" of Asia. Lee can make even multi-step recipes feel "chaos free", said Epicurious. Ranging from "sub-30-minute dinners" to "party-worthy showstoppers", this book has "something delicious" for every type of cook.

While it's relatively easy to make savoury vegan dishes, pastries and desserts are more of a challenge, said Delicious Magazine. And so this plant-based baking book, by the head pastry chef at Harrods, is a "game-changer". How Khoury injects such richness and lightness into his desserts is little short of a miracle, said Tony Turnbull in The Times. I've sampled his tiramisu and brownies alongside traditional versions – and "honestly, it's hard to tell the difference".

With its "comprehensive roster of canapés, starters, mains and puddings", this book will certainly help reduce the stress of festive catering, said Tony Turnbull in The Times. But it's not just a book for Christmas – and nor, despite being the work of a master butcher, is it only for meat lovers. Most of the recipes here – baked leeks, fish pie, rib of beef – are the kind you'll crave "on any winter's evening when you want rib-sticking comfort food in your belly".

The food world was shocked by the death of restaurateur Russell Norman in November, aged 57, said David Sexton in The Times. This cookbook, published weeks earlier, "shows just what a loss" it was. It's based on Norman's most recently opened restaurant, Brutto, which concentrates on the cucina povera of Florence. Like Norman's "excellent" "Polpo" cookbook, this is an "exquisitely produced" volume packed with dishes – such as risotto with meat sauce and Florentine T-bone steak – that you will "want to cook straight away".

Why is it that certain dishes have been "anointed as national", asked Rachel Roddy in The Guardian. In this fascinating book, the Russian-American writer Anya von Bremzen seeks to find out. She travels the globe with her partner Barry, delving into the complex backstories of dishes such as pot-au-feu, pizza margherita, ramen and mole. Von Bremzen is a "sharp and compassionate guide", and her book is "spectacularly intelligent and funny".

Born in Ghana to Indian parents, Ravinder Bhogal moved to London as a child, said Delicious Magazine. In this "engaging" vegetarian cookbook, she offers inventive, cross-cultural recipes that reflect the "richness of her heritage". Bhogal revels in the pleasure-giving possibilities of vegetables. From kale carbonara to mango and "golden coin" curry, each one of the dishes here is a "sumptuous" treat.

This ingenious encyclopaedia is one of the year's most useful cookbooks, said Harriet Fitch Little in the FT. It shows you how to create an "everlasting meal" by cannily using leftovers – from "A (artichoke liquid, great for boiling potatoes) to Y (how to make white sauce from the sad end of a yoghurt pot)". Unlike many "sustainability-minded" food writers, Adler is economical and funny. "You trust her because of it."

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