Essential Comfort Food Cookbooks

George Lee grew up with his A-Gong (grandfather) in the quiet refuge of Tamsui, Taiwan. While writing this book, George wandered all over Taiwan with his friend Laurent Hsia, who took photos along the way. Together, they sought out the foods and places tied to their memories of growing up. A-Gong’s Table follows the rhythm of their footsteps: a pulse that takes you quietly through the book and through Taiwan, from morning to night.

Having cooked for her large family from a young age, Tieghan Gerard loves the feeling of sharing great food — and now she wants to share that feeling with you. This collection leans into the comfort food she’s known for, but with an eye toward getting it ready in a hurry. With many recipes doable in one pot or pan, most in under 45 minutes, and a more-is-more focus on flavor (but not ingredients), you’ll be feasting fast.

In search of the recipes and traditions that made her feel at home, food historian and Salvadoran Karla Tatiana Vasquez took to the internet to find the dishes her mom made throughout her childhood. But when she couldn’t find any, she decided to take matters into her own hands. What started as a desire to document recipes turned into sharing the joys, histories, and tribulations of the women in her life. In this collection of 80 recipes, Karla shares her conversations with moms, aunts, grandmothers, and friends to preserve their histories so that they do not go unheard.

Grandmothers from eight eastern African countries welcome you into their kitchens to share flavorful recipes and stories of family, love, and tradition in this transporting cookbook-meets-travelogue.

A definitive compendium of Jewish recipes from around the globe and across the ages, from the James Beard Award-winning, much-loved cookbook author and “the queen of American Jewish cooking” (Houston Chronicle). Gorgeously illustrated and filled with fascinating historical details, personal histories, and delectable recipes, King Solomon’s Table showcases the dazzling diversity of a culinary tradition more than 3,000 years old.

A highly personal love letter to the beauty and bounty of México in more than 100 transportive recipes, from the beloved food writer and host of the Babish Culinary Universe show Pruébalo on YouTube and Food52’s Sweet Heat. Rick’s poignant essays throughout lend context — both personal and cultural — to quilt together a story that is rich and beautiful, touching and insightful.

You’re invited to pull up a chair to a year of meals, friends, and fun with the Partons, as Dolly and her sister (and favorite cook) Rachel share beloved, crowd-pleasing recipes and family stories. Filled with more than 80 delicious dishes as well as photographs of Dolly and Rachel cooking and hosting all year long, Good Lookin’ Cookin’ is a treasured cookbook that will make you feel like part of the Parton family.

During her childhood in Lebanese communities in Sierra Leone and Michigan, Yumna Jawad grew up eating home-cooked meals and learned time-saving shortcuts from her mother to prepare traditional, Middle Eastern recipes. As an adult, she started her blog Feel Good Foodie to make healthy cooking easy and helped fuel the “Baked Feta Pasta” trend that took over the internet. Now, in her first cookbook, she shares many more unfussy, healthy meals that are enhanced by Middle Eastern flavors.

New York Times staff writer Eric Kim grew up in Atlanta, the son of two Korean immigrants. Food has always been central to his story. In his debut cookbook, Eric shares these recipes alongside insightful, touching stories and stunning images shot by photographer Jenny Huang. In this book of recipes and thoughtful insights, especially about his mother, Jean, Eric divulges not only what it means to be Korean American but how, through food and cooking, he found acceptance, strength, and the confidence to own his story.

Throughout her career, Toni Tipton-Martin has shed new light on the history, breadth, and depth of African American cuisine. She’s introduced us to black cooks, some long forgotten, who established much of what’s considered to be our national cuisine. Jubilee presents techniques, ingredients, and dishes that show the roots of African American cooking—deeply beautiful, culturally diverse, fit for celebration.

In videos that have captured the hearts of millions online, Old Time Hawkey, aka Fritz and his dogs Donnybrook and Kris Draper, is always there to offer a hot apple cider or an ice cream sundae on a tough day, to help you drift off to sleep with a story or a retro video game. Fritz’s first cookbook, Old Time Hawkey’s Recipes from the Cedar Swamp, features over 100 cozy recipes inspired by three generations of campfires, deer camps, and family gatherings spent in Northern Michigan.

For all who love the magical flavors of good Indian cooking and want to reproduce effortlessly some of the delectable dishes from that part of the world, here is a groundbreaking book from the incomparable Madhur Jaffrey that makes it possible. By deconstructing age-old techniques and reducing the number of steps in a recipe, as well as helping us to understand the nature of each spice and seasoning, she enables us to make Indian dishes part of our everyday cooking.

Yotam Ottolenghi — the beloved chef who has captured the hearts of home cooks looking for inspiration and great-tasting cooking — is back. In Ottolenghi Comfort, he brings his inspiring, flavor-forward cooking to comfort dishes.  This is a book filled with meals that are easy and exciting, familiar and fresh, new and nostalgic, and revelatory yet reassuring.

Author Andrea Nguyen first tasted pho in Vietnam as a child, sitting at a Saigon street stall with her parents. That experience sparked a lifelong love of the iconic noodle soup. Here Andrea dives deep into pho’s lively past, visiting its birthplace and then teaching you how to successfully make it at home.

Melissa Clark brings her home cook’s expertise and no-fuss approach to the world of one-pot/pan cooking. With nearly all of the recipes being made in under one hour, the streamlined steps ensure you are in and out of the kitchen without dirtying a multitude of pans or spending more time than you need to on dinner. These are simple, delicious recipes for weekdays, busy evenings, and any time you need to get a meal on the table quickly — with as little clean-up as possible.

In this, her most personal book, Marcella Hazan welcomes home cooks into her kitchen to discover the intricacies of good Italian cooking — and her rules for getting it right. Across almost 250 timeless recipes, both beloved classics and less well-known regional delicacies, Hazan traverses the country from top to tip, imparting the secrets to replicating the true flavors of Italy at home. Packed with a lifetime’s wisdom, delivered in Hazan’s inimitable way, Marcella’s Italian Kitchen is a glorious celebration of “simple food that has only one objective: to taste good.”

In this dazzling and wholly original cookbook, culinary authority Sonoko Sakai redefines what Japanese cooking can be. Wafu (literally “Japanese style”) food is fusion at its best, combining flavors, ingredients, and techniques from around the globe with a distinctly Japanese personality. A book that reflects as much the author’s own journey — a life spent in New York, Los Angeles, Mexico, and elsewhere — as it does the foods of Japan, Wafu Cooking is an utterly unique, thoroughly modern cookbook.