Whether you’re looking for a new recipe to make for dinner on Friday or simply love a stack of cookbooks for bedtime reading, you’re in luck. 2025 has been a great year for the cookbook lover. A special shout-out to Tra Publishing – a relative newcomer (they launched in 2016) – who are creating some gorgeous cookbooks that also celebrate the interesting and unusual in food.
Julia Leonard Takes Us Through the 13 Best Cookbooks of 2025
Padma’s All American: A Cookbook by Padma Lakshimi
Lakshimi’s latest book is a welcome reminder that American food is by definition the food of immigrants who have come here and call this country home. She draws on her years of travel for Top Chef and Taste the Nation as well as the work she’s done as an Artist Ambassador for immigrants’ and women’s rights for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to create a culinary tapestry of all that is best in what we eat and cook in this country. Published by Knopf.
Good Things: Recipes and Rituals to Share with People You Love by Samin Nosrat
Six years ago, on the heels of the massive success of Salt, Fat, Acid Heat, Samin Nosrat’s world turned upside down and the sense of joy that cooking brought her disappeared. Eventually she emerged with a renewed appreciation for the importance of feeding those we love. “It has reminded me that something as simple as cooking for my loved ones can carry as much meaning, as much worth, as any achievement or career milestone,” she says. This is sharing food whether it’s her Fluffy Pork Meatballs (served on olive oil-fried bread rubbed with garlic, please) or Chicken Braised with Apricots and Harissa. Nourishing, joyous, as well as loving dishes from a deeply thoughtful cook and writer. Published by Random House.
Lugma: Abundant Dishes and Stories from My Middle East by Noor Murad
Noor Murad is a Bahraini-British chef and author who worked as a sous chef at one of the Ottolenghi restaurants in London as well as the Ottolenghi Test Kitchen. I’d polish off her Sauteed Greens with Yoghurt, Fried Onions and Turmeric Oil – serves four but who’s counting – or Pan-Fried Tomatoes with Za’atar, Pine Nuts and Halloumi with abandon. These are beautifully conceived and then executed recipes in a cookbook that deserves space on your shelf. Published by Quadrille.
Service by Anna Hedworth, Food You Want to Eat by Thomas Straker, The King Cookbook by Clare de Boer, Jess Shadbolt, and Annie Shi
Three outstanding chef-driven cookbooks from three chefs who are at the top of their game. As Anna Hedworth says in Service, “A good restaurant welcomes you into its fold; it feels like family, like friendship, like home, sometimes like a raucous party that everyone wants an invitation to.” Service, Food You Want to Eat, and The King Cookbook, all bring that experience to the page – the feeling that we too can be the consummate host, polishing plates, as well as planning meals, ready to welcome friends and soon-to-be-friends to our table. Published by Quadrille, Bloomsbury, and Flatiron Books.
Italopunk: 145 Recipes to Shock Your Nonna by Vanja Van der Leeden
Italian cuisine is steeped in rules and rituals from the type of pasta you serve with Bolognese (never spaghetti, always tagliatelle) to what you’ll find in a ribollita. But Van der Leeden – who lived for years in Italy – wants to shake that up. A traditional basil pesto gets spicy with jalapeno and lime; mozza in carrozza (fried mozzarella) is sandwiched with a South American chimichurri; and a traditional Panzanella salad goes heretical with the addition of mango, lime, and a drizzle of fish sauce. Yes, Italian nonnas (grandmothers) will be shocked but I won’t tell them if you don’t. Published by Tra Publishing.
Boustany: A Celebration of Vegetables from My Palestine by Sami Tamimi and Sabzi: Vibrant Vegetarian Recipes by Yasmin Khan
My favorite vegetarian cookbooks this year by two of my all-time favorite food writers. I would gladly sit down to a bowl of Khan’s Spinach and Kale Soup (the perfect way to use up lingering greens from your fridge) topped with Crispy Chickpeas but that’s true of every dish in her latest cookbook. She is a consummate writer and deft cook. Tamimi – of Ottolenghi restaurant fame – creates food that sings, like his Pan-baked Tahini, Halva & Coffee Brownie or a colorful and zippy Chilled Tabbouleh Soup. Published by Ten Speed. Published by WW Norton.
Monsoon: Delicious Indian Recipes for Every Day and Season by Asma Khan
Food writer, chef, and restaurateur Asma Khan’s latest is an ode to the food of her native India as well as the seasons and flavors that influence it. She dedicates each of the six chapters to a season. They run through Summer, Monsoon, Fall, Dry Season, Winter, and Spring. They also showcase the six Ayurvedic flavors sour, tangy/astringent, spicy/pungent, sweet, salty, and bitter. The best meals, Khan feels, combine as many of these flavors as possible. She makes it easy for readers with menus that feature dishes like Gobi Manchurian – a stir-fried spicy cauliflower or Tawa Toastie – a grilled cheese on steroids filled with cheese, chopped onion, cilantro chutney, green chiles and a cilantro chutney on the side. Published by DK (Red).
Sour Cherries & Sun Flowers: Recipes from Eastern Europe and Beyond by Anastasia Zolotarev
A trip to Kyiv reminded Sydney-based food writer of her Ukrainian heritage and then started a journey to rediscover her culinary roots. The result are her twists on classic dishes like borscht as well as recipes that draw on Eastern European ingredients to surprising and delicious results like her Kefir Ice Cream with Blackcurrant Preserve. Published by Quadrille.
Mostly French: Recipes from a Kitchen in Provence by Makenna Held
In 2016, Makenna Held bought Julia Child’s summer home in Provence sight-unseen. Little wonder then that this inspired collection of recipes feels like hanging out with your best friend over a glass (or two) of rose on a sun-drench Provencal patio. And let’s be honest – who wouldn’t with dishes like Cherry Clafoutis with Cobanero Chile or Roasted Bone Marrow with Crisp Mushrooms and Herbed Vinaigrette. A great gift for the Francophile in your life who longs to luxuriate in the South of France, especially in the dead of winter. Published by Simon Element.
Green Mountain: Walking the Caucasus with Recipes by Caroline Eden
Caroline Eden is that rare author who writes equally well on both food and travel (Her memoir Cold Kitchen: A Year of Culinary Journeys is in our Best of Foodie Memoir list). In Green Mountain, she takes us along on a journey through the Caucasus with stops throughout Armenia and Georgia. Read it for the travel or read it for the recipes but really read it for both – it’s captivating journey with the most able guide to lead you along the way. Published by Quadrille.
Story by Julia Platt Leonard
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