I know it can be difficult to choose a favourite cookbook, but mine are two that I bought recently. They are 'Sift' by Nicola Lamb and 'Vegetables by Mark Diacono.
I am a Siftie too. I've only made the salted vanilla shortbread (she does love her salt doesn't she) and the (savoury) galette, but I've made several versions of 'any kind of cake' from Kitchen Projects.
The 3pm Oat Biscuits on page 194 are my favourite so far. I reduce the amount of salt it says in the recipe. I've also made the Roasted Strawberry Victoria Sponge which uses 3 eggs and 2 egg yolks. Quite different to the way I would normally made a sponge cake. I was very nice and would make that again.
I haven’t counted how many cookbooks I have for quite a while, it was over 300 back then, possibly closer to 400 now! My favourites are The Plain Cake Appreciation Society by Tilly Pamment, all of Georgina Hayden’s books (notably Taverna) and Leah Koenig’s books (notably The Jewish Cookbook and Portico). I also love Simple by Yotam Ottolenghi and I think that may be the book I cook from the most. What a lovely collection you have Lynn, a good number of Mary Berry’s there, her books are great.
Every once in a while I have a clear out of books that I have never used. Those I bought on a whim. They take up too much space. What I use and refer to most of the time, I keep them in my kitchen.
You are doing better than me, I struggle to part with cookbooks, though I do donate some every year or two. Even if I don’t use them I still see their value in other ways.
Yes Jerusalem is great too, I also like Sweet as well. From Simple I make the chicken Marbella all the time (I think at one point my family were getting sick of it!), I usually serve it will some version of the baked rice. I also love the salmon with celery salsa (the ‘Bridget Jones’ recipe), I’ve also made that many times. I haven’t tried the spaghetti with samphire and pistachios yet, mostly as I’ve never been able to buy samphire but I would like to try that one.
My name is Alison and I’m a cookery book addict! I must have well over 1000 (yes that’s four noughts) and my husband has imposed a strict one in one out rule. Favourites - varies, at the moment it’s Sebze by Ozlem Warren, fabulous Turkish vegetarian recipes. Loved seeing your bookshelf, needless to say my first reaction was “now which ones haven’t I got?”!
I don't know how many cookbooks I have, and no, I'm not going to count them :-) I think most of them are by Australian cooks, so not everyone's going to be familiar with these.
My favourites are the ones I use over and over again, Recipe Tin Eats: Dinner, by Nagi Maehashi is one of The Best cookbooks I have ever been gifted. Everything I've tried from there works and is absolutely scrumptious. The best thing yet is her quick crusty bread (OMG so good!) and I can't stop cooking her simple yet perfect crumpet recipe (online, not in the book). The Australian Women's Weekly Everyday Vegetarian is also a book I'm constantly dipping into - I'm not vegetarian, but at least once a week I like to give the meat a rest and eat wholesome, light and delicious things. Fave from that book would be the cauliflower dhal with cashew topping. I have a few cookbooks by Donna Hay, some of her recipes are overly fiddly and have expensive options (i.e. four yolks where two whole eggs will suffice) (and yes, I'm a chef so I know when I can swap stuff out) but on a whole, they're great recipes and she has amazing photographers. My favourite thing from her The New Classics book is her Pork and Fennel meatballs OMG so good! And excellent as a sausage roll!
I also have an old recipe card index thingy where I have collected recipes for all manner of things from as far back as in the 1990's.
I think anything by Nagi, AWW and Donna are staples for Australian cooks! The Women’s Weekly ones are such classics and I think have probably helped many Australians learn to cook, it’s strange to think cookbook lovers in other countries wouldn’t have any books from them or possibly ever heard of them.
We have the number of cookbooks that slightly overfills a small billy bookcase in the kitchen (I haven't counted them!). I think cookbooks mean different things at different times of our lives. My first (and still treasured!) was Jane Pettigrew's Tea Time, which has the fabulous Easter Egg of realising that all the food for the photos was cooked by Nigel Slater. It's covered in teenaged pencil annotations and first got me interested in recipes.
The cookbook that sparked a cooking revolution in myself and my husband was Persiana - when we first had disposable income and were becoming more adventurous cooks. Anything Sabrina Ghayour writes is simple, delicious and rarely fails.
More recently, I think anything written by Mark Diacono is wonderful - particularly a taste of the unexpected, Herb and Sour. I suspect this is because I am planning my first proper kitchen garden and I want to grow "the unbuyables" that Mark mentions.
I love having a range of cookbooks, some in regular use, others pulled out for only the one recipe that thrilled. And then there are the unexpected, even life-changing, surprises. Samarkand, covering Central Asia and the Caucuses, by Caroline Eden and Eleanor Ford, is bursting with unusual tastes now in regular rotation (lentil and pomegranate soup! omelet with chicken and chestnuts! and that spoon salad with green olives, walnuts and dill!). And its pictures and tales opened up a Central Asian rabbit hole, which culminated in an amazing trip to Uzbekistan with a visit with an Uzbek cooking vlogger. Why did you want to go to Uzbekistan??, so many asked. Because of a cookbook!
In my crazy trove of Italian cookbooks, my fav right now is Viola Buitoni’s Italy by Ingredient, an true encyclopedia of stories and flavors. I’ve never read another cookbook that so closely matches my food experiences living here in Italy. What are other people’s favorite Italian cookbooks?? I’m always on the hunt for more authentic recipes! 🤓
Do you have any of Emiko Davies books? She has a few Italian cookbooks each with a different regional focus, I think Tortellini at Midnight is my favourite. Her Substack is great too.
Not yet, Kath! But Emiko’s gorgeous looking books are on my list. Thank you so much for calling her out and sending your fav. On my current list of 49 (!) books I want, I have 3 Emily books: Acquacotta, Cinnamon and Salt, and Florentine. Do you have any of them and recommend?
Haha I know what it’s like to have a long cookbook wish list! I really like all of Emiko’s books (and have all the ones you mentioned), they are each so different, interesting and well researched. I don’t cook often from them but they are still valuable additions to my cookbook collection. Which is probably a super unhelpful opinion if you are trying to choose just one, but I do think it possibly depends on what your are looking for in a cookbook and what elements of Italian cooking you are most interested in.
I love and have all the books from Nigel Slater, Nigella, Yotam Sabrina Ghayour Anna Jones, oh the list goes on. The book I am most cooking from is Mezcla Ixta Belfrage! I love flavour bombs and unusual combinations of ingredients to excite! What do our books say about us. Mine are like old friends and I return to them with love, flicking through the pages and seeing new ideas I had not taken note of before!
Oh no! My Nigel books are my prized possessions…..love his writing love his simplicity in recipes! Fav Nigel slater recipe- first up fishcakes and all variations- delicious
i reckon i own about 25 cookbooks as i’ve only lived in my own place for a couple of years since graduating and have started to purchase books for my own collection (i’m already on a self-induced cookbook buying ban though!) my favourites and the ones i cook from the most are a modern cook’s year by anna jones and the farm table by julius roberts, they are both already tattered and cooked through and everything i make from them feels so simple and yet turns out so delicious!
The tattered books are the best. Much loved by the people who use them. I have to leave mine open to make sure the pages are dry before I close them. Once the pages stick it can be hard to open them again.
Six Seasons by Josh MacFarland probably most fundamentally changed the way I think about ingredients. Darina Allen’s Forgotten Skills is probably referenced most often. The Turkey Book by Jesse Griffiths is probably my favorite to read.
I honestly try not to have favourites. It's easy to reach out towards the glossy shiny new publications, whilst older books get relegated to the 2nd division. I try to have cook books on a cycle, from my 'library' into my kitchen or bedside and back again. Even the old fashioned ones I don't want to give away. I don't want them to feel unwanted. Then none of them need be jealous of the others for being favouritaised. How long does a new book have in the spotlight before its place is taken? I was told many years ago that the reason we keep buying new cook books is because we only ever cook a couple of recipes before we move on. Is that true for anyone here?
It's possible true of me. I have only made one or two recipes from many of the cookbooks I own. Some, none at all. A few, I've made from 1 - 5 recipes. I've made one or two recipes from cookbooks that didn't seem to work for me. So never bother trying to make any more from them.
I call myself a cookbook collector. I have over 400 & I’m out of shelf space so I’ve slowed down on the buying this year. Finding cookbooks in second hand shops or book fairs is a favourite hobby of mine.
What are your favourite cookbooks?
I love Jamie Oliver’s Ministry of Food. I feel like it made me a more co didn’t cook. I love Bill Grangers Basics for weeknight dinners. As mentioned in another comment Nagi of Recipe Tin Eats fame first book Dinner is a winner. And you can’t beat an Australian Woman’s weekly cookbook for baking recipes.
How many cookbooks do you have? Last count was over 400
Which cookbooks would you recommend?
Any of the ones I’ve mentioned as my favourite.
Which recipes do you make from them?
From Jamie’s I love the curry pastes.
From Bill’s it’s the satay chicken & chicken curry.
Nagi’s chilli con carne is fabulous & has replaced a Jamie recipe I’d used for 20 years.
And there’s a chocolate cake recipe in AWW baking book that cannot be beaten.
Bill’s books are great aren’t they, so sad we will never get anymore and that he passed away so young. AWW are such a classic staple for Australian cookbook shelves aren’t they!
I was really sad to hear of Bill’s passing. He is one of the cooks who taught me to cook as a young wife & mum & his recipes have been cooked hundreds of times.
And yes, no cookbook shelf is complete without an AWW cookbook!
Such a hard question to answer. I like books that you can dip into through the season. I go back to Nigel's kitchen diaries time and time again. As I grow as a cook there always seems to be something different to try that I might not have done the first time I went through the book.
Another favourite is anything by Annie Bell or Anna Jones. Then baking ..Dan Lepard. I'm sure others will come to me after I click Post!
I've been obsessed with Julius Roberts's "The Farm Table" ever since it came out, and have loved discovering the recipes little by little as the seasons have progressed.
The sausage stew with beans, swiss chard and cinnamon was on an almost-weekly rotation this past winter, and the "epic" tarragon roast chicken has been a hit with many friends!
How many cookbooks do I have? Both too many and nowhere nearly enough! At this stage, enough to fill an IKEA expedit bookshelf with some overflow into the living room, the dining table and the kitchen.
Favourites include:
Geometry of Pasta by Jacob Kennedy - beautiful design (yet no photos!) and great for looking up classic Italian pasta sauce recipes and what shape to pair them with
Shelf Love and Extra Good Things from Ottolenghi and the Test Kitchen Crew - I have many Ottolenghi books but these two are hands down the two books I cook the most from (and have repeated many dishes) - the green Minestrone with cheats preserved lemon, the chickpea and carrot stew with feta, the broccoli with gochujang, the blackened chicken with fish sauce caramel, the fennel and orzo dish, the roast lamb shoulder with fig and pistachio salsa etc etc etc. All very doable and delicious. I really wanted to like Sweet as well but was hoping for more exiting flavours and flavour combinations!
Momofuku - for the Bo Ssam, the ginger scallion sauce, the Ramen broth, pickled Shiitake, Bao Buns, Ramen noodles etc. It looks cheffy at first glance but there are plenty of straightforward recipes
Seven Spoons by Tara O'Brady - for the espresso walnut butter, her naan recipe, the green apple (!) and fresh coriander chutney, the fried chicken with spicey honey butter (by far my favourite fried chicken recipe!)
Istanbul and Beyond - for the fingerprint flatbread, the pumpkin and meatball stew, ezme, lentil soup, beetroot with walnut and yoghurt etc.
And anything by Alison Roman especially Dining In - for the Bucatini with Anchovies and Tomato, the Impostor al Pastor, the Paprika and Fennel Rubbed Chicken, the Spring Seafood Stew (which I made even during our kitchen reno when all I had was a hot plate, it's that good and easy), her quick kimchi, the mushroom carbonara etc.
And yes to Samarkand - lots of delicious recipes in there!
Sqirl is great too - delicious horchata, intriguing pickled carrots and the kale "tabbouleh" of sorts is so delicious it was enough to convince some friends of mine to buy a copy themselves
Right now my favorite is "Nothing Fancy" by Alison Roman, but I'm getting a delivery of "Pomegranates and Artichokes" by Saghar Setareh in a few days and am so excited.
Its so difficult to select one favourite cookbook but... Pasta Grannies! In a world where we are constantly flogged the shortcut or the 'hack' in home cooking, the PG project and these books by Vicky Bennison capture the tradition of Italian cooking as well as the stories of the people she documents.
I have nearly 40 cookbooks (which is nothing really!) and frequently resist the impulse to add to this number. I had a cookbook cull several years ago ahead of a house move, which I hugely regret...
I'd recommend Persiana by Sabrina Ghayour. I'm a huge fan of 'low and slow' cooking and there are tons of recipes like that in this book (and her other cookbooks for that matter). My favourite recipes from Persiana are the lamb and apricot stew, Persian saffron chicken, fennel and barberry stew and finally new potatoes with tahini butter.
I know it can be difficult to choose a favourite cookbook, but mine are two that I bought recently. They are 'Sift' by Nicola Lamb and 'Vegetables by Mark Diacono.
It's a shame we can't tag people in comments.
I am a Siftie too. I've only made the salted vanilla shortbread (she does love her salt doesn't she) and the (savoury) galette, but I've made several versions of 'any kind of cake' from Kitchen Projects.
and the chocolate shortbread
Ooh interesting, what are your fav recipes so far from these too?
The 3pm Oat Biscuits on page 194 are my favourite so far. I reduce the amount of salt it says in the recipe. I've also made the Roasted Strawberry Victoria Sponge which uses 3 eggs and 2 egg yolks. Quite different to the way I would normally made a sponge cake. I was very nice and would make that again.
Thank you for this, Lynn! I am especially intrigued about the oat biscuits 😍
I haven’t counted how many cookbooks I have for quite a while, it was over 300 back then, possibly closer to 400 now! My favourites are The Plain Cake Appreciation Society by Tilly Pamment, all of Georgina Hayden’s books (notably Taverna) and Leah Koenig’s books (notably The Jewish Cookbook and Portico). I also love Simple by Yotam Ottolenghi and I think that may be the book I cook from the most. What a lovely collection you have Lynn, a good number of Mary Berry’s there, her books are great.
Every once in a while I have a clear out of books that I have never used. Those I bought on a whim. They take up too much space. What I use and refer to most of the time, I keep them in my kitchen.
You are doing better than me, I struggle to part with cookbooks, though I do donate some every year or two. Even if I don’t use them I still see their value in other ways.
Hi Kath, I also find Simple absolutely brilliant to cook from!
It’s a great one isn’t it, I like all of Ottolenghi’s books however nothing has replaced Simple as my favourite yet!
I agree! I also love love love Jerusalem but cook more from Simple. What are your fav recipes in it? I adore the spaghetti with samphire and anchovies
Yes Jerusalem is great too, I also like Sweet as well. From Simple I make the chicken Marbella all the time (I think at one point my family were getting sick of it!), I usually serve it will some version of the baked rice. I also love the salmon with celery salsa (the ‘Bridget Jones’ recipe), I’ve also made that many times. I haven’t tried the spaghetti with samphire and pistachios yet, mostly as I’ve never been able to buy samphire but I would like to try that one.
My name is Alison and I’m a cookery book addict! I must have well over 1000 (yes that’s four noughts) and my husband has imposed a strict one in one out rule. Favourites - varies, at the moment it’s Sebze by Ozlem Warren, fabulous Turkish vegetarian recipes. Loved seeing your bookshelf, needless to say my first reaction was “now which ones haven’t I got?”!
That's the trouble when looking at other people's bookshelves. Seeing what you don't have.
Over 1000! Please post a photo of your collection, Alison! 😍
I don't know how many cookbooks I have, and no, I'm not going to count them :-) I think most of them are by Australian cooks, so not everyone's going to be familiar with these.
My favourites are the ones I use over and over again, Recipe Tin Eats: Dinner, by Nagi Maehashi is one of The Best cookbooks I have ever been gifted. Everything I've tried from there works and is absolutely scrumptious. The best thing yet is her quick crusty bread (OMG so good!) and I can't stop cooking her simple yet perfect crumpet recipe (online, not in the book). The Australian Women's Weekly Everyday Vegetarian is also a book I'm constantly dipping into - I'm not vegetarian, but at least once a week I like to give the meat a rest and eat wholesome, light and delicious things. Fave from that book would be the cauliflower dhal with cashew topping. I have a few cookbooks by Donna Hay, some of her recipes are overly fiddly and have expensive options (i.e. four yolks where two whole eggs will suffice) (and yes, I'm a chef so I know when I can swap stuff out) but on a whole, they're great recipes and she has amazing photographers. My favourite thing from her The New Classics book is her Pork and Fennel meatballs OMG so good! And excellent as a sausage roll!
I also have an old recipe card index thingy where I have collected recipes for all manner of things from as far back as in the 1990's.
It's nice when you can swap ingredients around and dip in and out of various cookbooks depending on what you want to eat that day.
I think anything by Nagi, AWW and Donna are staples for Australian cooks! The Women’s Weekly ones are such classics and I think have probably helped many Australians learn to cook, it’s strange to think cookbook lovers in other countries wouldn’t have any books from them or possibly ever heard of them.
I love both Nagi and Donna! I live in California and find their recipes so suited to how I eat!
I know, right? They’re so missing out!
I am so excited for Nagi’s new book later this year!
OMG! I just looked it up! She has a new book coming out called Tonight!
How did I not know about this 😱
Christmas present for me sorted 🙌🏼
Thanks for the tip, Reannon xx
We have the number of cookbooks that slightly overfills a small billy bookcase in the kitchen (I haven't counted them!). I think cookbooks mean different things at different times of our lives. My first (and still treasured!) was Jane Pettigrew's Tea Time, which has the fabulous Easter Egg of realising that all the food for the photos was cooked by Nigel Slater. It's covered in teenaged pencil annotations and first got me interested in recipes.
The cookbook that sparked a cooking revolution in myself and my husband was Persiana - when we first had disposable income and were becoming more adventurous cooks. Anything Sabrina Ghayour writes is simple, delicious and rarely fails.
More recently, I think anything written by Mark Diacono is wonderful - particularly a taste of the unexpected, Herb and Sour. I suspect this is because I am planning my first proper kitchen garden and I want to grow "the unbuyables" that Mark mentions.
Janette. Do you have Mark’s latest book ‘Vegetables’?
Yes! My husband and I were also at the launch event on Zoom - it was a really lovely chat.
I too was at Mark’s zoom book launch. I really enjoyed it.
I love having a range of cookbooks, some in regular use, others pulled out for only the one recipe that thrilled. And then there are the unexpected, even life-changing, surprises. Samarkand, covering Central Asia and the Caucuses, by Caroline Eden and Eleanor Ford, is bursting with unusual tastes now in regular rotation (lentil and pomegranate soup! omelet with chicken and chestnuts! and that spoon salad with green olives, walnuts and dill!). And its pictures and tales opened up a Central Asian rabbit hole, which culminated in an amazing trip to Uzbekistan with a visit with an Uzbek cooking vlogger. Why did you want to go to Uzbekistan??, so many asked. Because of a cookbook!
Love Samarkand. Had it in use for many years. My favourite is the Tajik bread salad, with crispy pitta chips, delicious! Everyone who has it loves it.
In my crazy trove of Italian cookbooks, my fav right now is Viola Buitoni’s Italy by Ingredient, an true encyclopedia of stories and flavors. I’ve never read another cookbook that so closely matches my food experiences living here in Italy. What are other people’s favorite Italian cookbooks?? I’m always on the hunt for more authentic recipes! 🤓
Do you have any of Emiko Davies books? She has a few Italian cookbooks each with a different regional focus, I think Tortellini at Midnight is my favourite. Her Substack is great too.
Not yet, Kath! But Emiko’s gorgeous looking books are on my list. Thank you so much for calling her out and sending your fav. On my current list of 49 (!) books I want, I have 3 Emily books: Acquacotta, Cinnamon and Salt, and Florentine. Do you have any of them and recommend?
Haha I know what it’s like to have a long cookbook wish list! I really like all of Emiko’s books (and have all the ones you mentioned), they are each so different, interesting and well researched. I don’t cook often from them but they are still valuable additions to my cookbook collection. Which is probably a super unhelpful opinion if you are trying to choose just one, but I do think it possibly depends on what your are looking for in a cookbook and what elements of Italian cooking you are most interested in.
I love and have all the books from Nigel Slater, Nigella, Yotam Sabrina Ghayour Anna Jones, oh the list goes on. The book I am most cooking from is Mezcla Ixta Belfrage! I love flavour bombs and unusual combinations of ingredients to excite! What do our books say about us. Mine are like old friends and I return to them with love, flicking through the pages and seeing new ideas I had not taken note of before!
My biggest regret is accidentally giving away a signed copy of one of Nigel Slater's books.
We need a OMG button on substack!
Oh no! My Nigel books are my prized possessions…..love his writing love his simplicity in recipes! Fav Nigel slater recipe- first up fishcakes and all variations- delicious
i reckon i own about 25 cookbooks as i’ve only lived in my own place for a couple of years since graduating and have started to purchase books for my own collection (i’m already on a self-induced cookbook buying ban though!) my favourites and the ones i cook from the most are a modern cook’s year by anna jones and the farm table by julius roberts, they are both already tattered and cooked through and everything i make from them feels so simple and yet turns out so delicious!
The tattered books are the best. Much loved by the people who use them. I have to leave mine open to make sure the pages are dry before I close them. Once the pages stick it can be hard to open them again.
Six Seasons by Josh MacFarland probably most fundamentally changed the way I think about ingredients. Darina Allen’s Forgotten Skills is probably referenced most often. The Turkey Book by Jesse Griffiths is probably my favorite to read.
Apologies to Josh as I butchered his last name. McFadden.
I honestly try not to have favourites. It's easy to reach out towards the glossy shiny new publications, whilst older books get relegated to the 2nd division. I try to have cook books on a cycle, from my 'library' into my kitchen or bedside and back again. Even the old fashioned ones I don't want to give away. I don't want them to feel unwanted. Then none of them need be jealous of the others for being favouritaised. How long does a new book have in the spotlight before its place is taken? I was told many years ago that the reason we keep buying new cook books is because we only ever cook a couple of recipes before we move on. Is that true for anyone here?
It's possible true of me. I have only made one or two recipes from many of the cookbooks I own. Some, none at all. A few, I've made from 1 - 5 recipes. I've made one or two recipes from cookbooks that didn't seem to work for me. So never bother trying to make any more from them.
I call myself a cookbook collector. I have over 400 & I’m out of shelf space so I’ve slowed down on the buying this year. Finding cookbooks in second hand shops or book fairs is a favourite hobby of mine.
What are your favourite cookbooks?
I love Jamie Oliver’s Ministry of Food. I feel like it made me a more co didn’t cook. I love Bill Grangers Basics for weeknight dinners. As mentioned in another comment Nagi of Recipe Tin Eats fame first book Dinner is a winner. And you can’t beat an Australian Woman’s weekly cookbook for baking recipes.
How many cookbooks do you have? Last count was over 400
Which cookbooks would you recommend?
Any of the ones I’ve mentioned as my favourite.
Which recipes do you make from them?
From Jamie’s I love the curry pastes.
From Bill’s it’s the satay chicken & chicken curry.
Nagi’s chilli con carne is fabulous & has replaced a Jamie recipe I’d used for 20 years.
And there’s a chocolate cake recipe in AWW baking book that cannot be beaten.
Bill’s books are great aren’t they, so sad we will never get anymore and that he passed away so young. AWW are such a classic staple for Australian cookbook shelves aren’t they!
I was really sad to hear of Bill’s passing. He is one of the cooks who taught me to cook as a young wife & mum & his recipes have been cooked hundreds of times.
And yes, no cookbook shelf is complete without an AWW cookbook!
Such a hard question to answer. I like books that you can dip into through the season. I go back to Nigel's kitchen diaries time and time again. As I grow as a cook there always seems to be something different to try that I might not have done the first time I went through the book.
Another favourite is anything by Annie Bell or Anna Jones. Then baking ..Dan Lepard. I'm sure others will come to me after I click Post!
Although I’m less traditional and I greatly appreciate a YouTube tutorial, my favourite cookbook would be ‘Caribbean Cookbook’ by Original Flava.
I've been obsessed with Julius Roberts's "The Farm Table" ever since it came out, and have loved discovering the recipes little by little as the seasons have progressed.
The sausage stew with beans, swiss chard and cinnamon was on an almost-weekly rotation this past winter, and the "epic" tarragon roast chicken has been a hit with many friends!
How many cookbooks do I have? Both too many and nowhere nearly enough! At this stage, enough to fill an IKEA expedit bookshelf with some overflow into the living room, the dining table and the kitchen.
Favourites include:
Geometry of Pasta by Jacob Kennedy - beautiful design (yet no photos!) and great for looking up classic Italian pasta sauce recipes and what shape to pair them with
Shelf Love and Extra Good Things from Ottolenghi and the Test Kitchen Crew - I have many Ottolenghi books but these two are hands down the two books I cook the most from (and have repeated many dishes) - the green Minestrone with cheats preserved lemon, the chickpea and carrot stew with feta, the broccoli with gochujang, the blackened chicken with fish sauce caramel, the fennel and orzo dish, the roast lamb shoulder with fig and pistachio salsa etc etc etc. All very doable and delicious. I really wanted to like Sweet as well but was hoping for more exiting flavours and flavour combinations!
Momofuku - for the Bo Ssam, the ginger scallion sauce, the Ramen broth, pickled Shiitake, Bao Buns, Ramen noodles etc. It looks cheffy at first glance but there are plenty of straightforward recipes
Seven Spoons by Tara O'Brady - for the espresso walnut butter, her naan recipe, the green apple (!) and fresh coriander chutney, the fried chicken with spicey honey butter (by far my favourite fried chicken recipe!)
Istanbul and Beyond - for the fingerprint flatbread, the pumpkin and meatball stew, ezme, lentil soup, beetroot with walnut and yoghurt etc.
And anything by Alison Roman especially Dining In - for the Bucatini with Anchovies and Tomato, the Impostor al Pastor, the Paprika and Fennel Rubbed Chicken, the Spring Seafood Stew (which I made even during our kitchen reno when all I had was a hot plate, it's that good and easy), her quick kimchi, the mushroom carbonara etc.
And yes to Samarkand - lots of delicious recipes in there!
Sqirl is great too - delicious horchata, intriguing pickled carrots and the kale "tabbouleh" of sorts is so delicious it was enough to convince some friends of mine to buy a copy themselves
Right now my favorite is "Nothing Fancy" by Alison Roman, but I'm getting a delivery of "Pomegranates and Artichokes" by Saghar Setareh in a few days and am so excited.
Well, obviously our own cookbook is not too bad but my favourite is The French Laundry.
Its so difficult to select one favourite cookbook but... Pasta Grannies! In a world where we are constantly flogged the shortcut or the 'hack' in home cooking, the PG project and these books by Vicky Bennison capture the tradition of Italian cooking as well as the stories of the people she documents.
I have nearly 40 cookbooks (which is nothing really!) and frequently resist the impulse to add to this number. I had a cookbook cull several years ago ahead of a house move, which I hugely regret...
I'd recommend Persiana by Sabrina Ghayour. I'm a huge fan of 'low and slow' cooking and there are tons of recipes like that in this book (and her other cookbooks for that matter). My favourite recipes from Persiana are the lamb and apricot stew, Persian saffron chicken, fennel and barberry stew and finally new potatoes with tahini butter.