Make way for the greatest gift to the adult world: the humble cookbook.
While once upon a time, a good old tomato and cheese toastie may have been your greatest kitchen accomplishment, rest assured, those days are now over. It’s now time for you to step into the world of kimchi croissants, billionaire's bacon, roasted beer tacos and a whole lot of braising and pickling.
Here are 15 must-have cookbooks you need to get your hands on in 2025, just in time for that dinner party you've been struggling to prep for or that last minute gift that slipped your mind.
Persian Feasts: Recipes & Stories From A Family Table
Leila Heller
Image credit: Renée Ardon-Coppinger | Supplied
Fancy shaking up your culinary prowess a little? You could easily lose an afternoon (and we did) meandering through the stunning imagery, touching family stories and delectable exotic recipes for Persian Feasts: Recipes and Stories from a Family Table. Each dish from appetisers to desserts is brimming with bold, unique flavours that are 200% guaranteed to wildly impress your next supper club guests.
Ottolenghi COMFORT
Yotam Ottolength and Helen Goh
Image credit: Amazon | Supplied
We've been hanging out for four years for another installment from our fave foodie and it's finally here. Set to arrive in stores 3 September this year, Ottolenghi COMFORT is helping you stock up on a recipe bank of cosy, hearty meals to feed the entire fam or crew with his signature twists and Middle-Eastern inspired flavours. The best bit? If you order right now, Amazon are giving you almost 50% off pre-order, so we've just got some of our Christmas shopping done early (and one for ourselves naturally too.)
Pasta Et Al: The Many Shapes Of A Family Tradition
Alec Morris
Image credit: Pasta et Al | Instagram
You can't be sad when you're flicking through Pasta Et Al—it's essentially a foodie lovers dopamine hit with every curious shape, colour and size you can imagine of the humble pasta creation. Filled to the brim with gorgeous recipes as well as touching family tales and stunning Italian photographs to inspire, this is perfect for any wannabe chef in your life.
Classic French Recipes
Ginette Mathoit
Image credit: Phaidon | Website
As a French cooking iconic, Ginette Mathoit's home cooking has taught three generations of avid chefs all over the world how to bring a little slice of France into their kitchens. This divine latest release Classic French Recipes is brimming with 170 charming authentic recipes that even those with limited culinary skills can master. Full of gorgeous images and plenty of heart, this is a perfect gift for those who love to whip up hearty dishes for sharing and savouring.
Tin Can Magic
Jessica Elliot Dennison
Image credit: Bam Bristol | Website
Keen to master dinner time but cozzi livs stopping you from grabbing that endless slew of ingredients on that quizzical recipe? Tin Can Magic is your solution. This bright, zingy cookbook is overflowing with simple, delicious recipes using nothing but common pantry staples as the base, meaning you can create a feast without all the fuss. Perfect for those short on time and cash, this is one of our absolute weeknight go-tos.
Italian Street Food
Paula Bacchia
Image credit: Amazon | Website
Meander through the narrow cobblestone streets of Rome as you embark on an quest through Italy's hidden laneways and bars on the hunt for the best of the country's street food offerings. Italian Street Food is a visually-stunning cookbook filled with quaint century-old snacks and unexpected recipes that via away from the pizza and pasta of norm. Ideal for those in desperate need of la dolce vita at home, trust us that you'll make thorough use of this one.
Too: A Book About Food And Then Some
Simone Agostino
Image credit: Simone Agostino | Website
Wrapped in a beautiful luxe linen cover and filled with gorgeous Italian recipes, TOO is the kind of cookbook you'll gladly leave on your kitchen table for guests to flick through. It's the second release from Perth author and food writer, Simone Agostino, and beyond just looking and feeling fantastic, this read offers a serious leg up in the cooking department. From handmade pasta to slow cooked family wonders, TOO is filled with simple Italian techniques and loads of helpful learnings that'll leave you feeling way more confident in the kitchen.
Shannon’s Kitchen: Healthy Food You’ll Actually F*cking Eat
Shannon Kelly White
Image credit: Shannon's Kitchen | Website
Shannon’s a good egg. She’s the Donna Hay of not giving a f*ck and that’s exactly why you need her cookbook sitting benchtop in your kitchen. This book is a no-frills approach to taking healthy eats under your wing and make them your...kitch-en staple. Not for the shy type, this gem is packed with an inappropriate amount of jokes and phallic references but on the plus side, it’s a glorious split of breakfast and salad feeds, easy-access ingredients, simple steps like “leave a wee dint in the middle so the centre doesn’t rise like Jesus” and 160 pages of pure comedy.
Smiths & Daughters: A Cookbook
Shanon Martinez and Mo Wyse
Image credit: Smith & Daughters | Website
Smiths & Daughters is the iconic plant-based restaurant in Melbourne but the brains behind this joint have also whipped one epic cookbook for every level of foodie out there (and by NO coincidence at all, all the recipes just happen to be vegan). In it, you’ll find no hard preaching about peace, love and save the animals but rather seven drool-worthy chapters divided by big plates, small plates, salads, sweets, dressings and drinks all with a little Spanish twist. Think Spanish “meatballs” in a saffron and almond sauce, chipotle cashew “cheese” and “tuna” and green pea croquettes. Now go wipe that drool off your chin.
From Crook To Cook
Snoop Dog
If there’s one guy on this planet who knows how to cook up a storm and whip up some serious gin and juice, let’s just say it’s probably going to be Snoop Dogg. Throughout this delicious stack of 50 recipes (divided by meals and specific occasions), you’ll be able to drop it like it’s oven-hot in the kitchen whenever you have mates over (or let’s be honest, a serious Sunday hangover) with the likes of baked Mac N’ Cheese, OG chicken and waffles, fried bologna sandwiches and Billionaire’s Bacon, for when you “ain’t got time for that regular swine”.
50 Shades Of Chicken
FL Fowler
Image credit: Amazon | Website
For dripping thighs, sticky chicken fingers, bacon-bound wings and mustard-spanked chicken – you’ve come to the right place. This bad boy is packed with 50 chicken recipes, each more seductive than the last, and will no doubt mark you as the undeniable master of the true heart of any home (the kitchen). Consider this one your secret weapon to leave you armed and ready to take on any situation be it a festive birthday lunch, wintery Sunday roast or a casual snack break to divvy up a late-night Netflix bender. 50 Shades Of Chicken takes food-porn to a whole new level and we’re not even mad about it.
Ottolenghi: SIMPLE
Yotam Ottolenghi
Image credit: Amazon | Website
Is it one of the best cookbooks to hit store shelves, ever? We’d back that. Created by the absolute god of the modern-day culinary world and owner of Ottolenghi delis and NOPI restaurant, Yotam Ottolenghi, this baby is 320 pages worth of the greatest food comas you could ever gift yourself, and anybody else for that matter. Think minimal hassle for maximum joy. Whether you’re keen to get a feed plated up in less than thirty, just have one pot clean and ready to go or have a few days of preparation up your sleeve, Ottolenghi has got your back.
Thug Kitchen: Eat Like You Give A F*ck
Thug Kitchen
What’s better than a vegetarian cookbook filled with every profanity ever? Nothing. Enter your new favourite kitchen companion – Thug Kitchen: Eat Like You Give A F*ck. This rude little thing will guarantee you get some veggie feeds in you and is made up of more than 100 solid recipes like roasted beer and lime cauliflower tacos, pumpkin chilli and grilled peach salsa. It’s also packed with all the info and techniques to nail every meal and tips on how to shop juicy on a not-so-juicy budget.
SLOW: Food Worth Taking Time Over
Gizzi Erskine
Image credit: Amazon | Website
For all things slow-cooked, the conveniently titled SLOW: Food Worth Taking Time Over is your proverbial jam. And just on the hush-hush, Nigella Lawson thinks it’s somewhat of a “warming, cosy treasure trove of a book” so in other words, it’s definitely the foodie god’s gift to the modern world. In a kind of nice way, this beauty re-teaches the art of cooking again and schools you on braising, baking, poaching and roasting so you can get big flavours out of every meal. Throughout this guy, you’re in for a lot of insanely good stews, melt-in-the-mouth roasts and rich puddings but you’ll also have some handy guides for making your own pasta, noodles, dumplings and pastries.
NOSH Gluten-Free
Joy May
If you’re keen to step up your cooking game sans gluten then NOSH is the only tangible hack you need in your life. Work your way through every chapter which spans themes like snacks, quick and easy, pop it in the oven, friends around and desserts and ear-mark the easy-to-read spreads which help you identify which ingredients you can and can’t eat (for our intolerant buddies out there). However, you’ll definitely want to skip to page 68, there’s a tender lamb pie recipe you need to get around and it’s just a casual life-changer.
Cornersmith
Alex Elliott-Howery and James Grant
Alex Elliott-Howery and James Grant are the power couple who brought Sydney its mecca of ethical eating and all things pickled at Marrickville’s Cornersmith. They also mustered up one hell of a cookbook which is a low-key must-have in any kitchen that encourages eating with the seasons and consuming local produce, avoiding processed foods and pickling and preserving to reduce waste. You’ll find a next-level mix of recipes that cover everything from breakfasts, lunches, dinners and desserts to jams, compotes, chutneys, relishes and fermented foods.
Momofuku Milk Bar
Christina Tosi
Image credit: Momofuku Milk Bar | Website
Look, if the New York Times loves it, so will you. Light-up your amateur baking career with compost cookies, cereal milk ice cream and crack pie – a sugar slash butter concoction worth every damn calorie. Though the sugar-life never really stops, brace yourself for the savoury sort of desserts too in this one, because everyone deserves to try a kimchi croissant with blue cheese at least once (or twice) in their life.
And here's every major food festival around the world to visit.
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