What others are saying about the 2016 fall cookbooks

I think you’ll all agree that Jenny has been doing a fantastic job of doing in-depth reviews of many new cookbooks for EYB. However, no one person – no matter how energetic and enthusiastic – can cover every new release, especially in the fall when the books really start coming. To keep you in the loop on other new volumes, we’re highlighting a few top-notch sources that have published their own “best of fall cookbooks” lists (with a US focus) that offer a bit more detail than our concise monthly roundup.

Leite’s Culinaria does a monthly review of cookbooks that its editors find inspiring. In September the list included All Under Heaven by Carolyn Phillips; The Rye Baker by Stanley Ginsberg; Buck, Buck, Moose by Hank Shaw; and Land of Fish and Rice by Fuchsia Dunlop.

The last title also ended up on the fall picks from Epicurious, along with a couple of books that Jenny has reviewed, including Taste & Technique by Naomi Pomeroy and Dinner at the Long Table by Andrew Tarlow and Anna Dunn. Other Epicurious highlights include The Adventures of Fat Rice by Abraham Conlon, Adrienne Lo and Hugh Amano; and The Del Posto Cookbook by Mark Radner. The latter book “may be the farthest reach on this list for home cooks,” says Epicurious, “but gosh, is it pretty: the photos are inspired by 16th-century still-lifes.”

The New York Times selections echo the Epicurious listing, with a few key additions. Of these, Simple by Diana Henry and Everything I Want to Eat: Sqirl and the New California Cooking by Jessica Koslow stand out. The latter book is described as “the intersection of diner and Michelin” for its combination of low- and high-brow fare.

The website Eater takes a unique approach to its listings, divvying them up into separate lists by category. A couple of books per category get a thorough review, including My Two Souths by Asha Gomez. (Watch for a post by Jenny that explores this and other exciting October books not listed here.) The Eater category called “Deep Dives” is worth a look because it lists books “for the dedicated cook and food obsessive.”

Tasting Table’s picks contains plenty of overlap with the previous lists but adds several books, especially in the restaurant/chef and baking categories. Baking highlights include Breaking Breads: A New World of Israeli Baking by Uri Scheft, Classic German Baking by Luisa Weiss and my most anticipated book, Dorie’s Cookies by Dorie Greenspan. I find most cookie books to be lackluster so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this will be “the one.”

The latest offerings by well-known authors made almost everyone’s picks, including Naomi Duguid’s Taste of Persia, Ina Garten’s Cooking for Jeffrey, Anthony Bourdain’s Appetites, and a more personal tome from Alton Brown called EveryDayCook. Which books are on your wish list?