The Best Cookbooks For Christmas 2022

Cookbooks are incredible things. Not only are they capable of teaching you about new cultures and cuisines but having the right cookbook nestled on your coffee table has the added benefit of immediately making you appear more sophisticated and intelligent to everyone who visits your gaff. A good cookbook makes for an excellent gift. Which, if you’ve landed on this page after frantically Googling “best cookbooks for Christmas” or "best cookbooks 2022" is exactly what you’re looking for.

Just to set the record straight: this isn’t a list of Christmas cookbooks. It’s simply a list of the best cookbooks from 2022 that you should think about buying that person in your life who – let’s face it – already owns way too many cookbooks but could always still do with having some more. If you give any of these lovely tomes to someone as a gift this year (be it for Christmas or any other religious holiday or non-religious occasion), I can guarantee they’ll be pleased as punch.

If there’s nothing here that takes your fancy; however, you can always check out some of our other list of the best cookbooks around. We’ve rounded up the best vegetarian cookbooks, the best barbecue cookbooks, the best Italian cookbooks, and even the best baking cookbooks for you to enjoy. Basically, it'd be really excellent if you bought a cookbook today. Why not make it one of these?

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Ixta Belfrage is a seminal talent. Everything she touches seems to turn to gold and her latest cookbook, Mezcla, is another feather in her already heavily-feathered cap. The recipes are easy to follow and packed with flavour. Breakout dishes like the prawn lasagne with habanero oil have already taken over Instagram and taste just as good as they look. You won’t regret buying this book for anyone you care about.

Just hearing the words “oxtail nuggets with pepper sauce mayo” should be enough to get your mouth watering and have you ordering this cookbook with a few clicks of your trackpad. Melissa Thompson’s Motherland: A Jamaican Cookbook is a cookbook that’s filled with recipes for dishes like curry goat, ginger beer prawns, Guinness punch pie, and a host of other hits. But it’s also so much more than that. Motherland doesn’t just provide you with delicious recipes. It also charts the history of the people, influences and ingredients that make Jamaican food so vibrant and important.

Parsi: From Persia to Bombay is Farokh Talati’s cookbook debut and, reading it, you get the feeling that you’re being held in an extremely safe and capable pair of hands. Blending Persian and Indian cookery in his selection of both classic and non-classic Parsi dishes, Farokh has created a cookbook inspired by his travels through India that provides an interesting (and delicious) insight into Parsi cuisine. The Persian scorched rice is a must-cook.

The phrase “instant classic” is bandied about a little too readily for my liking. That being said, Jeremy Lee’s Cooking is undoubtedly an instant classic. Rifling with beautiful illustrations and humble recipes capable of instilling you with an incredible sense of confidence in your own cooking, this is easily one of the best cookbooks to come out in the last couple of years. If you’re a fan of well-written cookbooks, this is the one for you.

Doubling as a cookbook and a guide on how to live your life, Ruby Tandoh’s Cook As You Are is a breath of fresh air. It does away with any of the unrealistic expectations set by more aspirational cookbooks and instead provides readers with 100 delicious, affordable and achievable recipes. It is, perhaps, the most refreshingly practical cookbook of all time. Ruby’s writing always remains friendly and concise – no matter whether she’s offering a simply one-tray meal or a no-chop recipe. A perfect gift for someone who’s struggling with burnout and wants their love affair with cooking to be renewed.

An ideal purchase for anyone who has a sweet tooth, What’s for Dessert is the latest cookbook from pastry and pud whizz Claire Saffitz. Containing 100 recipes that run the gamut from salty cashew brownies and molten lava cakes to banoffee pudding, this cookbook has got some of the most gorgeous photography I’ve seen in a good while. The lack of a question mark in the title isn’t a typo: What’s for Dessert really has all the answers.

A shameless bit of self-promotion here but our newest cookbook, Fresh Mob, really would make an excellent present for just about everyone on the entire planet. It’s also excellent bang for your buck considering that it’s got 100 healthy-ish recipes taking up residency in its glossy pages. Buy this if you want easy access to loads of recipes to make every day delicious.

New York Times staff writer Eric Kim is one of my favourite food writers. All of his recipes are tinged with a sense of personality and sincerity that makes them totally unique. Plus, they always work. Which is more than I can say for some recipes out there. Korean American is a wonderful ode to the experience of being a Korean American and a beautiful showcase of what makes the food of that diaspora tick. Want to get your hands on a recipe for cheeseburger kimbap? You know what to do.

With chapter titles like “Curry Everything” and “Eat Fruit With Salt And Chilli”, it’s impossible not to be charmed by Cynthia Shanmugalingam’s Rambutan. An exhaustive exploration of Sri Lankan cuisine, it’s a cookbook that’ll leave you itching to book a one-way flight to Sri Lanka. Until then, you’ll be able to bide your time with Cynthia’s potato white sodhi curry or roast pumpkin curry.

This is one of the best baking cookbooks to come out in 2022. Anna Higham’s The Last Bite is a lovely collection of recipes that includes puddings, pastries, and everything in between. The Last Bite sets out to give desserts the level of seriousness and attention to detail they deserve, paying puds the same reverence that’s given to savoury dishes. An excellent cookbook to have in your arsenal if you’re in need of a show-stopping dessert.

A warm and personal ode to Caribbean cooking, West Winds is one of the most complete cookbooks to come out in 2022. Riaz Phillips combines evocative essays with delicious recipes that blend classic Jamaican ingredients with some new school trends. The result is a unique cookbook that really gives back to readers. Riaz’s oxtail recipe is one of the best you’ll ever sample.

Kwami Onwuachi wrote one of the best food books I’ve read in the last couple of years, so it’s no surprise that the chef and author’s new cookbook was another smash hit. My America is both an ambitious and wide-reaching cookbook that celebrates the food of the African diaspora in America. You’ll be able to learn about the various cuisines and cultures that make up American cuisine as well as find out how to make the perfect Nigerian jollof. An excellent addition to your kitchen library.

When it comes to legends of the London dining scene, there aren’t many as well-liked and respected as Asma Khan. As the founder of Darjeeling Express, she’s been responsible for filling myriad bellies with her brilliant Indian cooking and her latest cookbook, Ammu, is set to take that a step further by bringing those recipes into your home. The aim of the cookbook is to highlight the power of food to restore, and to comfort, through simple home-cooked recipes. Every dish eats like a little hug in your mouth. And who doesn’t want one of those?

Having worked his way from the kitchen at Chez Panisse to one of America’s largest food media empires, Andy Baraghani went it alone with his new cookbook. It’s called The Cook You Want To Be, but an alternative title could just have easily been: The Cookbook You Wished You Wrote. There are no set rules to the recipes with the only real through lines being in Andy’s own culinary experience, his family heritage, and good vibes. This is a cookbook you’ll use a hell of a lot.

Ayla is a joyous exploration of Nepali cuisine from chef Santosh Shah. Suitable for beginners and experienced cooks alike, this book is home to than 60 delicious recipes and plenty of stories from Santosh’s professional career. Having previously worked at the likes of Dishoom, Benares, and Cinnamon Kitchen, it’s no surprise he’s got some tales to tell. Every recipe is thrumming with flavour and a great way to introduce yourself to ingredient combinations you might have never experienced before.

Sam and Sam Clark’s last cookbook, Moro, made our cut of the best restaurant cookbooks for a number of reasons. Their latest, Moro Easy, has made the cut of the best cookbooks for Christmas 2022 for even more reasons. For one, it’s devilishly simple. The recipes in this cookbook aren’t designed for chefs but, rather, for people like me and you who need to learn the basics before tackling the more complex stuff. Thankfully, this isn’t a cookbook that talks down to you, either. It simply breaks down intricate techniques and skills in an easy-to-understand fashion. A bloody great purchase for anyone that’s heading off to uni or just moved into a new place and needs somewhere to start.