Best cookbooks of 2025 by the experts

December 19, 2025 by
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Who knows cookbooks better than the owners of specialist cookbook stores? They stock and sell thousands of cookbooks and because their stores are focused on food and drink books, they are true experts. They read the books, cook from them and then share their knowledge with their customers. When shopping for cookbook gifts this holiday season, please think about supporting one of these stores – don’t forget most of them also do online orders and many offer gift certificates.

We asked for favorite food and drink books of 2025 lists from the cookbook stores that feature in our directory. Some of the books listed were published in 2024 in their country of origin but in 2025 in the bookstore’s country. All these lists will be included in our Best of the Best list, which is being unveiled in early January.

USA

Omnivore Books (San Francisco) – owner Celia Sack 

Kitchen Arts & Letters (New York) – owner Matt Sartwell

BEM | books & more (Brooklyn NY) – owners Gabrielle & Danielle Davenport

Book Larder (Seattle) – owner Vivian Irving and staff

Talbott & Arding (Hudson NY) – owners Mona Talbott & Kate Arding

Read It & Eat Bookshop (Buffalo NY) – owner Kim Behzadi

Vivienne Culinary Books (Portland OR) – owner Robin Wheelright

Powell’s (Portland OR) – staff picks

Now Serving (Los Angeles) – owner Ken Concepcion

Kitchen Lingo Books (Long Beach CA) – owner Matt Miller

Bold Fork Books (Washington DC) – owner Clementine Thomas

Binding Agents (Philadelphia) – owner Catie Gainor

The Book Kitchen (Mineral Point, WI) – owner Nicole Bujewski

Anchovy Book Co. (St. Louis, MO) – owners Stephanie & Sara

Kitchen Garden Books (Santa Rosa Beach, FL) – owner Lynn Nelson

CANADA

The Cookbook Co. Cooks (Calgary) – owner Gail Norton

Appetite for Books (Montreal) – owner Jonathan Cheung

Good Egg (Toronto) – owner Mika Bareket

UNITED KINGDOM

cookbookbake (Brighton) – owner Julie Haylett

The Kitchen Table (Shaftesbury) – owner Sarah Rudder

EUROPE

De Kookboekhandel (Amsterdam) – owner Daan van Kooten

Cook + Book (Netherlands) – owner Riejanne Schimmel

Goldhahn und Sampson (Berlin) – co-owner Andreas Klöckner

Cookbooks.hu (Budapest) – owner Antonio Fekete

  • List not yet supplied

AUSTRALIA

Scrumptious Reads (Brisbane) – owner Julie Tjiandra

Books for Cooks (Melbourne) – owner Tim White

NEW ZEALAND

Cook the Books (Auckland) – owner Felicity Driscoll

  • List not yet supplied
Category: Book News

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4 Comments

  • plechner  on  December 20, 2025

    I could resist doing this for USA bookstores. Here are the books ranked by how many store lists they appear on (ties are alphabetical within each group). [1]

    ## On 5 lists

    – **Turtle Island** by Sean Sherman [1]

    ## On 4 lists

    – **Boustany** by Sami Tamimi [1]
    – **Good Things** by Samin Nosrat [1]
    – **Linger** by Hetty Lui McKinnon [1]
    – **Salt Sugar MSG** by Calvin Eng [1]
    – **Six Seasons of Pasta** by Joshua McFadden [1]

    ## On 3 lists

    – **By Heart** by Hailee Catalano [1]
    – **Chesnok** by Polina Chesnakova [1]
    – **Fat + Flour** by Nicole Rucker [1]
    – **My Cambodia** by Nite Yun [1]
    – **Something from Nothing** by Alison Roman [1]
    – **The Art of Gluten-Free Bread** by Aran Goyoaga [1]
    – **The Heart Shaped Tin** by Bee Wilson [1]

    ## On 2 lists

    – **Boustany** appears with multiple stores already counted above; all remaining books below are on exactly 2 lists: [1]
    – **Braided Heritage** by Jessica B. Harris [1]
    – **Caribe** by Keshia Sakarah [1]
    – **Dobre Dobre** by Laurel Kratochvila [1]
    – **Ghana To The World** by Eric Adjepong [1]
    – **The Anthony Bourdain Reader** by Anthony Bourdain [1]
    – **What Is Queer Food? / What is Queer Food?** by John Birdsall (two slightly different stylings of the title) [1]
    – **Lugma** by Noor Murad [1]

    ## On 1 list

    All of the following show up on only one store’s list: [1]

    – **108 Asian Cookies** by Kat Lieu
    – **American Soul** by Anela Malik and Renae Wilson
    – **Anchovy Book Co.** list items: **Silk Roads**; **Japanese Comfort Food**; etc.
    – **Around the Table** by Diana Henry
    – **Athens** by Diana Kochilas
    – **Baking & the Meaning of Life** by Helen Goh
    – **Best American Food & Travel Writing 2025** edited by Bryant Terry
    – **Birrias** by Jessie Valenciana
    – **Bitter & Sweet** by Omid Roustaei
    – **Chocolat** by Aleksandra Crapanzano
    – **Chop Chop** by Ozoz Sokoh
    – **Dorie’s Anytime Cakes** by Dorie Greenspan
    – **Eat the Weeds** by Deane Jordan
    – **Feast on Your Life** by Tamar Adler
    – **Fowl Play: A History of the Chicken from Dinosaur to Dinner Plate** by Sally Coulthard
    – **Food Person: A Novel** by Adam Roberts
    – **Green Mountains** by Caroline Eden
    – **Gursha** by Beejhy Barhany
    – **Heartland Masala** by Jyoti and Auyon Mukharji
    – **Homemade Ramen** by Sho Spaeth
    – **House of Nanking** by Peter & Kathy Fang
    – **Hunger Like a Thirst** by Besha Rodell
    – **Japanese Comfort Food** by Saori Ichihara
    – **Julia: A Novel Inspired by the Extraordinary Life of Julia Child** by Heather B. Moore
    – **Kapusta** by Alissa Timoshkina
    – **Kin** by Marie Mitchell
    – **Kwéyòl / Creole** by Nina Compton
    – **The Irish Kitchen** by Cherie Denham, Kitty Corrigan, and Andrew Montgomery
    – **The King Cookbook** by Annie Shi, Clare de Boer, and Jess Shadbolt
    – **Lugma** (already counted above in “2 lists”)
    – **Mostly French** by Makenna Held
    – **My Bohemian Kitchen** by Evie Harbury
    – **On Meat** by Jeremy Fox
    – **Pastry Temple** by Christina Wood
    – **Pizza Rules** by Peggy Paul Casella
    – **Ready for Dessert (Revised)** by David Lebovitz
    – **Recipes from the American South** by Michael W. Twitty
    – **Repast: The Story of Food** by Jenny Linford
    – **Rome** by Katie Parla
    – **Salt Sugar MSG** (already counted above)
    – **Salsa Daddy** by Rick Martinez
    – **Scéal** by Charlotte Leonard-Kane and Shane Palmer
    – **Seasons of Green** by Katie Reicher
    – **Silk Roads** by Anna Ansari
    – **Soju Party** by Irene Yoo
    – **Tastes & Traditions: A Journey Through Menu History** by Nathalie Cooke
    – **The Anthony Bourdain Reader** (already counted above)
    – **The Book Kitchen** list items such as **Kapusta**, **Birrias**, etc.
    – **The Death and Life of August Sweeney** by Samuel Ashworth
    – **The London Plane Flower & Cookbook** by Katherine Anderson
    – **The Madrusan Cocktail Companion** by Michael & Zara Madrusan
    – **The Science of Flavor** by Dr. Stuart Farrimond
    – **Third Culture Cooking** by Zaynab Issa
    – **Umma** by Sarah Ahn
    – **We the Pizza** by Muhammad Abdul-Hadi
    – **Weekend Recipes** by Jess Elliott Denham
    – **What Is Queer Food?** (variant already counted)
    – **Wildcrafted Seeds & Grains** by Pascal Baudar
    – **Winter in the Highlands** by Flora Shedden
    – **Wine Pairing For The People** by Cha McCoy

    • Jenny  on  December 22, 2025

      When Jane finishes up the best books from all the lists she compiles – we will see which book was tops in the US and other countries.

  • annmartina  on  December 21, 2025

    I find it interesting how different the lists are from store to store.

  • aa592  on  December 24, 2025

    I’m beyond happy and honored that *SILK ROADS* is on TWO of these lists!!! Amazing. Thank you all for supporting this massive undertaking.

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