Ranking the best cookbooks of all time

June 5, 2025 by
 |  16 Comments  |  Leave Comment
A few weeks ago, the staff at Food and Wine published a ranking of the 35 best cookbooks of all time. Such a list is bound to be divisive, because great cookbooks convey the personality of the author as much as they contain solid recipes that stand the test of time, and there is no way that everyone will love… read more

The enduring magic of cookbooks

May 7, 2025 by
 |  7 Comments  |  Leave Comment
While the print publishing industry continues to contract, one area bucks the trend, and has for years. In fact, it shows no sign of slowing down. That area, of course, is cookbooks. So what it is about this genre that allows it to be a publishing juggernaut? Sophia Podini, writing for Her Campus, gives us her theory for why cookbooks… read more

Fortnum & Mason winners 2025

May 2, 2025 by
 |  Leave Comment
On May 1, food and drink celebrities gathered at The Royal Exchange in London to fete winners of the Fortnum & Mason Food and Drink Awards. These prestigious annual awards celebrate the achievements of the UK’s current and emerging food writers, publishers, photographers, broadcasters, and personalities. The ceremony was presented by Andi Oliver, alongside celebrated chef and Awards judging panel chair, Angela Hartnett OBE. The… read more

What publishers look for in a cookbook proposal

April 22, 2025 by
 |  Leave Comment
If you have ever thought about writing a cookbook (or if friends have encouraged you to do so), you probably have a lot of questions about what it takes to get published in today's social-media drenched world. Eater's Aimee Levitt recently had a conversation about this with Jenn Sit, the Executive Editor at Clarkson Potter, one of the heavyweights in… read more

Fortnum & Mason Food Awards shortlist announced 2025

April 10, 2025 by
 |  Leave Comment
Fortnum & Mason has long been a resource for English cookery, providing quality ingredients to generations of cooks since its founding in 1707. The company’s annual food and drink awards celebrate the best publications and broadcasts in the UK and Republic of Ireland. The shortlist for the 2025 award dropped earlier this week. Those shortlisted books include The English Table:… read more

Best of the Best 2024

January 30, 2025 by
 |  6 Comments  |  Leave Comment
We have assembled 353 lists from around the world to create our 16th annual Best of the Best. The top book of 2024 is Ottolenghi Comfort. This probably is not a big surprise to members who have been following our Best of the Best for years - almost every year Ottolenghi has had a new cookbook published, it has been… read more

Best Selling Books of 2024

January 30, 2025 by
 |  Leave Comment
Last month our friends at cookbook stores around the world gave us their picks for their favorite books of 2024 which we then included in our Best of the Best of 2024. Now we asked them for their top sellers of 2024 (published in any year). It would be interesting to compare these charts to non-specialist store/online retailer book sales but it is… read more

Physical media in a digital age

January 15, 2025 by
 |  14 Comments  |  Leave Comment
We have reported before about how cookbooks continue to do well while much of the publishing market struggles with sluggish and even falling sales. The usual arguments for the success of this genre are that people prefer the tactile feel of books, it is easier to cook or bake from a printed page than from a screen, and that cookbooks… read more

Best books by the experts 2024

December 20, 2024 by
 |  2 Comments  |  Leave Comment
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… read more

The Food Lab celebrates a huge milestone

December 10, 2024 by
 |  Leave Comment
I missed this news when Kenji López-Alt announced it a couple of weeks ago but it is worth mentioning - his first solo cookbook, The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science, recently ticked past 1 million copies sold. In addition to selling a lot of copies, The Food Lab has earned a James Beard Award, was a NYT bestseller,… read more

Dorie Greenspan’s cookbook recommendations for 2024

December 5, 2024 by
 |  2 Comments  |  Leave Comment
collage of six cookbooks: The Cake Bible 35th Anniversary Edition by Rose Levy Beranbaum, Africali by Kiano Moju, Kalaya's Southern Thai Kitchen by Nok Suntaranon, Pass the Plate by Carolina Gelen, Julia Child's Kitchen by Paula Johnson, and Sweet Tooth by Sarah Fennel
The inimitable Dorie Greenspan just published her favorite cookbooks of 2024 and I'm passing along the recommendations to our Members. I feel like no one will believe me when I state (for the nth year in a row) that the releases this year are even better than before, but Dorie agrees, saying "This year’s crop is more exciting than ever.… read more

Jenny’s Best Books of 2024

December 2, 2024 by
 |  4 Comments  |  Leave Comment
My list of best books will be more concise than those before. At Eat Your Books we feature books from around the world, so my typical list is always far longer than others. With time being at a shortage this year, I wanted to share some of the books that I personally thought were particularly outstanding this year. There are… read more

A new way to test cookbooks

November 12, 2024 by
 |  Leave Comment
Cookbook clubs (along with our EYBD Previews) offer an opportunity to "test drive" cookbooks. Making recipes that you find online or in a library copy of the cookbook, along with hearing how others fared with specific recipes, allows you to get to know the book without committing to a purchase right away. There's another way to vet a cookbook, and… read more

Gift Guide for Bakers – 2024 and Giveaway

November 8, 2024 by
 |  156 Comments  |  Leave Comment
The holiday season is fast approaching. I wanted to share a gift guide for the bakers in your life of some of the best baking books published this year as well as a few products. In addition, we have a nice giveaway featuring the following items: a Marcato Made in Italy Holiday Cookie Gift Set, an Emile Henry cookie jar,… read more

Revising a ‘bible’ – heresy or heavenly?

October 23, 2024 by
 |  4 Comments  |  Leave Comment
Rose Levy Beranbaum's The Cake Bible, 35th Anniversary Edition arrived on my doorstep a few days ago. My well worn original edition frequently gets pulled off the shelf for reference, so I was excited to see the updated version. I was a little nervous, however, because often the sequel to a hit is disappointing, and I worried that an attempt… read more

Holiday Gift Guide – Favorite Books of 2023 & Giveaway

December 4, 2023 by
 |  230 Comments  |  Leave Comment
The holiday season is in full swing and if you are like me you may be looking for just the right gift for the cook/baker in your life. I want to share a few of my favorite subscription services, cooking kits and favorite books from 2023. Please also see my Holiday Baking post which shares some of my favorite items.… read more

To become a better cook, start scribbling

May 31, 2023 by
 |  23 Comments  |  Leave Comment
We've discussed the practice of writing notes in your cookbooks before, and most EYB Members agreed that it was a good practice. There were some naysayers, however, who argued that messing up a gorgeous book with notes (or splotches and splashes) was a bad idea. Today in The Washington Post, Becky Krystal set out to change the latter group's mind.… read more

2023 Art of Eating Prize winner announced

May 16, 2023 by
 |  2 Comments  |  Leave Comment
The Art of Eating Prize is awarded annually to the author of the year’s best book about food (or food and drink together). Where other food book awards involve nominations in diverse categories, The Art of Eating Prize focuses on a single best book. The founders of the prize, by rewarding the highest quality work, hope to encourage the excellence… read more

Fortnum & Mason winners

May 12, 2023 by
 |  Leave Comment
On May 11, food and drink celebrities gathered at The Royal Exchange in London to fete winners of the Fortnum & Mason Food and Drink Awards. These prestigious annual awards celebrate the achievements of the UK’s current and emerging food writers, publishers, photographers, broadcasters, and personalities. The ceremony was presented by Andi Oliver, alongside celebrated chef and Awards judging panel… read more

All things cookbook care, management and organizational roundup

May 8, 2023 by
 |  15 Comments  |  Leave Comment
Recently, a member asked for help in finding any posts or tips on cookbook organization. We feel that this was a great topic to do a "roundup" type post that shares links to all articles, forum posts and the like so that our members may use these as a resource. We have gathered posts on organization, care of cookbooks, management… read more

Vintage cookbooks can fetch big prices

March 8, 2023 by
 |  6 Comments  |  Leave Comment
Do you have a pristine first edition Joy of Cooking or Mastering the Art of French Cooking in your collection? Or perhaps some older or more rare volumes? If so, you could be sitting on a gold mine, according to a recent article about vintage cookbooks. Says Nicole Sawyer, the co-founder of Chattic.com, an online community and marketplace for collectibles,… read more

The enduring appeal of cookbooks

February 3, 2023 by
 |  10 Comments  |  Leave Comment
This will come as no surprise to our Members, but the popularity of cookbooks shows no signs of slowing down. It's one bright spot in the struggling print publishing industry, with consistent sales of several million volumes annually (about 20 million cookbooks are sold in the US each year). Why do cookbooks buck the trend to digital? Because they are… read more

What would be in your cookbook “go bag”?

December 10, 2022 by
 |  29 Comments  |  Leave Comment
Last week, a friend and I were talking when the subject of "go bags" came up. Go bags contain those carefully chosen items that one would need in an emergency during an evacuation/disaster such as medications, ID cards, insurance cards, and an extra change of clothing. While, of course, there would be far more important things to worry about than… read more

Jenny’s Best Books of 2022 and Cookbook Gift Guide with Giveaway

December 3, 2022 by
 |  385 Comments  |  Leave Comment
This was yet another fantastic year for cookbooks and I will try to keep my list fairly reasonable in length but I assure you this year has outshone those before and may outshine years in the future. Once you take a look at this list, be sure to enter our worldwide giveaway for a set of cookbooks provided to us… read more

IACP Cookbook Awards 2022 winners

November 18, 2022 by
 |  Leave Comment
On Friday November 18, 2022, the International Association of Culinary Professionals announced the winners of the prestigious IACP awards from the Middleby Showroom in Dallas and New York. The announcement was made via video and can be viewed online on Vimeo. It was a good 'day' for Member favorite baking books: Cheryl Day's Treasury of Southern Baking topped the American… read more
« Older posts
Seen anything interesting? Let us know & we'll share it!

Categories

Archives