The Best Cookbooks of Fall 2025

This fall, there’s a roster of new cookbooks catching our team’s attention. They’re telling us about pantry ingredients we absolutely need, transporting us to new places without ever having to step on a plane, and giving no shortage of outright delicious recipes. We have been composing meal-worthy salads from Linger, simmering ragù from Six Seasons of Pasta, and baking chunky-chewy cookies from Mokonuts. Read on for our standout titles of the season and don’t forget to add one or two to your cart.

Believe it or not, one of the best eats in Paris is a good ol’ American-style cookie. Mokonuts, a beloved cafe and bakery serving up a Lebanese- and Japanese-inflected menu, is always a must-stop when I find myself in the city of love. Chef-owners (and inspiring real-life couple) Omar Koreitem and Moko Hirayama dip into their respective heritages to dream up inventive dishes, but one of their most popular offerings is the cookies. Chubby and chewy, they host everything from traditional chocolate to tahini, miso, rye, and sesame seeds. While it is hard work to pin down a favorite, the Chocochunk Cookies are iconic and have a cult following of their own. When I saw that Koeitem and Hirayama were kind enough to include the recipe for these in the Mokonuts cookbook, I knew it would be the first thing I made. The recipe gives precise instructions like once baked, “tap each cookie in the middle”—a technique the two found from David Lebovitz’s blog. The tapping essentially slows down the cooking in the center of the cookie, offering a chewy, soft bite. Balanced and loaded with rich chocolate flavor, these instantly transported me back to their charming eatery in the 11th arrondissement. —Hana Asbrink, deputy food editor

There are few cookbooks I reference as often as Six Seasons: A New Way with Vegetables by chef Joshua McFadden. Filled with simple yet skillful approaches to everyday seasonal, vegetable-forward cooking, it’s no wonder it’s been considered one of the most influential cookbooks of the last decade. With his third book, Six Seasons of Pasta, McFadden brings welcome inspiration to an ingredient in just about everyone’s cupboard: dried pasta. Similar to his debut book, this one is structured by season, bringing to the fore his strongest skill as a recipe developer: his ability to transform vegetables. Though McFadden’s cooking will always be rooted in seasonality, the real value in the book is his ability to turn a sauce into a method. Ragù is no longer reserved for red meat; it’s a general technique of slow-cooking the condiment. (Think Chicken Ragù Bianco and Charred Vegetable Ragù.) Pesto can go beyond basil and pine nuts; it can also be made with tangy sun-dried tomatoes and almonds. From classic to innovative takes, this book gives you the fundamentals to intuitively build pasta at home. —June Kim, head of digital video

I fell in love with chef Arnold Myint’s cooking in 2023 when he contributed three bright, flavor-packed salad recipes to Epicurious. Hoping for more inspiration via vibrant Thai food, I was thrilled to cook through his debut cookbook Family Thai. The book is filled with dishes that celebrate Myint’s Thai-Burmese heritage, fused with the southern culinary traditions of Nashville, where he’s based. Many of them, like Mom’s Eggplant Curry, are attributed to his mother, a prolific cook herself. His mother, with his father, opened International Market & Restaurant, which operated for 40 years, and then officially reopened in 2022 under the watch of Myint and his sister. Just like the restaurant, this cookbook tenderly celebrates Myint’s family legacy. The book starts with the basics, featuring a section on essential Thai pantry ingredients, then eases you into how to make building block components like Sticky Rice and Fresh Rice Noodles, and eventually transitions into recipes that give you much to dream about. There are zingy salads (think spicy grilled shrimp lettuce wraps), saucy stir-fries like Bacon Pad Krapao, and aromatic-packed curries. A standout was the bold and briny Green Curry Mussels—it comes together in just a few minutes but tastes like you’ve been building flavor over the stove for hours. Next up for me? The Corn and Tapioca Pudding is calling. —Kate Kassin, editorial operations manager

When I heard the vegetable whisperer Hetty Lui McKinnon was coming out with another vegetarian cookbook, this time focused on salads (and sweets), I got my hands on it as fast as I could. Sifting through the pages of Linger, I quickly learned that this was not just a cookbook, but a wondrous collection of McKinnon’s heartfelt essays and composed menus, as well as playlists curated by none other than her daughter Scout. The inspiration for this book came from a past career, when McKinnon prepared salads and delivered them by pedal (biking, that is) in Sydney, Australia, a project under the name of Arthur Street Kitchen. The simple exchange of salad was a way for McKinnon to develop a kinship with her community. “Salads unleashed me. In a bowl (or box) of salad, I found a new beginning, renewed purpose, a sense of belonging, connection with others and self-acceptance. Salads gave me the confidence to roam and explore, but unexpectedly, it also brought me back home,” she shares. The recipes that follow encourage that intimate connection, as well as draw inspiration from McKinnon’s Chinese-Australian background. I cooked her Mapo Tofu Salad, where tender cabbage meets pillowy-centered tofu (with a shatteringly crisp exterior), all coated in a tingly, almost fruity dubanjiang and Sichuan peppercorn dressing. Next, I plan to make her whole roasted cauliflower, buried under a monstrous mountain of dill. McKinnon’s opinions are tenacious and specific, offering nuggets of wisdom like, “salads don’t always have leaves; “think of fruit as a vegetable;” and “anything can be a salad.” I, for one, couldn’t agree more. —Nina Moskowitz, associate editor, cooking

As a parent of school-aged children, my first thought when I picked up Alice Waters’ A School Lunch Revolution was, “Oh good! New ideas to try out on my kids for the school year.” But within two pages, I realized this was not a book of fun first grader-approved time-saving meal prep hacks. It was a cri de coeur. Nominally, this is a book of recipes, but Waters (the chef and founder of Chez Panisse, the Berkeley restaurant often credited with bringing farm-to-table cuisine into the mainstream) seems to have created a blueprint for the ways in which we should feed our kids organic foods, both at home and at school. She writes about her Edible Schoolyard Project that began in Berkeley (and has since extended to public schools around the country), which provides students with education in gardening, cooking, and other hands-on experiences while supplying food directly to their school to prepare. Every recipe in the book was designed specifically to fall within the guidelines for the USDA’s school lunch reimbursement program (when Waters wrote this, the 2023-2024 reimbursable rate was $4.25 per person for lunch and $2.28 per person for breakfast). Further, most of the recipes seem simple enough that in the right cafeteria setting, they could be scaled up to feed a school’s lunch rush. But while they’re simple, they also take time. The Chicken Congee only has five ingredients, but it cooks for two hours. It’s a similar story with her hearty chili (a big hit with my six-year-old who—mysteriously—has gotten into soups and stews over the summer). Waters’s world of whole foods is one we can create if we take the time. —Noah Kaufman, senior commerce editor

The latest cookbook from culinary historian and anthropologist Michael W. Twitty, Recipes from the American South, is an ambitious, sweeping survey of America’s most diverse and complex regional foodways. Twitty’s thoroughly researched compendium takes us deep into Southern food’s roots in Native American, African, and European cuisines. He shows how a range of cultures, from Salvadoran to Kurdish Muslim to Filipino, have made their mark on Southern foodways over hundreds of years. The classics we know and love today are all here: Pickled Watermelon Rinds, Seared Red Snapper, Cathead Biscuits. But the real appeal of this book is in going beyond the familiar. If you’re anything less than a scholar of Southern food, there will be myriad histories, flavors, and dishes to discover in these pages. Think Sorghum-Brined Chicken in Cabbage Leaves, Peanut and Oyster Soup, and North Carolina Peach Sonker With Dip (that’s a more moist cobbler with a milky topping, by the way.) I made the Macaroni Pie, which called for twelve different ground spices, resulting in a complex dish blending West African with Medieval European flavors, quite different from versions I’ve made in the past. Each and every recipe is a lesson, as much about cooking technique as it is about culinary history. —Maria Paz Mendez Hodes, director of creative development

I’m the type of person who uses a recipe as a guide. Once I’ve made something a couple of times, I know where I can add substitutions and deviate from the outline. Breaking the Rules by Top Chef alum Joe Sasto embraces this philosophy to the max. In his book, he’s consistently looking for ways to “break the rules,” to employ an added technique to a recipe, or swap in an ingredient to “chef it up.” There’s sound advice scattered throughout: Use a combo of black garlic and garlic confit in your Caesar salad dressing for a fermented umami zing, or finish your pasta with homemade corn stock to add some sweetness. I made Rosemary and Blackberry Focaccia With Whipped Mortadella, a multi-step recipe that is by all means worth the effort. I would have never thought to put mortadella in a blender, but the result is a spreadable, savory delight. A highlight for me, however, was the Pasta Alla Mezcal. A take on the very popular vodka variety, Sasto swaps in a different spirit, which adds a deeply smoky flavor. I’ll be using mezcal to make this dish from here on out. —Urmila Ramakrishnan, associate director of social media

My longtime source of baking inspiration (and mental hand-holding when I attempt a new, ambitious confection) is renowned baker Dorie Greenspan. Hers are the cookbooks I flip through to understand how a tricky technique really works, or to glean creativity for the many cookie swaps that fill my calendar each holiday season. Greenspan’s recipes always, always work; and her flavor combinations feel both comfortingly familiar and enticingly innovative all at once. When I began to page through her newest book, Dorie’s Anytime Cakes, I immediately flagged the recipe she labeled “inviting to the extreme” (for other interested parties, it’s the Pears, Nuts and Rye, Oh My “coffeecake-ish” cake.) All of the recipes in this book are for “anytime cakes,” Greenspan’s name for the kind of simple bakes you eat right out of the pan, slice off chunk by chunk for an afternoon treat, or just have on the counter, waiting for the person who needs a bite of something sweet. The aforementioned pear coffeecake features an earthy combo of rye, spelt, and hazelnut flours that bake up dense and nutty—not gummy or grainy. Its warm and juicy pears, with a floral, honeyed taste of their own, stand up to the cake’s crumb while simultaneously melting into it just at their soft edges. Splashes of Armagnac, vanilla and almond extracts, plus a sprinkling of freshly ground nutmeg, round out the mild tartness from the pears. Drizzles of honey, a dusting of powdered sugar, and a sweetened cream-and-yogurt topping are the literal icing on the cake. —Kelsey Jane Youngman, senior service editor

As a self-proclaimed mayo skeptic, only former Bon Appétit staffers Jessie YuChen and Elyse Inamine could rope me into cooking through their love letter to the best version out there: Kewpie mayonnaise. For the Love of Kewpie touches on how the creamy condiment made its way into all of our hearts, while offering up inventive iterations on so many of the classic dishes we know and love. Think spaghetti and Kewpie meatballs, Fluffy Japanese Pancakes, and tangy Caesar Salad. I was instantly drawn to YuChen and Inamine’s take on Honey-Walnut Shrimp. It has everything you’d want in a bite: crispy fried shrimp doused in a velvety Kewpie sauce sweetened with condensed milk. The shrimp sit on a bed of blanched broccoli, with homemade candied nuts and a scattering of sesame seeds. —Inés Anguiano, associate test kitchen manager

You’ve seen her on TV, you’ve bought her makeup; now, Kim Chi wants to feed you. In her debut cookbook, Kim Chi Eats the World, the drag superstar and artist shows off her cooking chops, proving that food, much like drag, “is a bold, unapologetic, and dazzling form of self-expression.” The book is a culinary passport filled with 75 of Kim Chi’s personal recipes inspired by her travels around the world. Forget complicated techniques; this is about clever, efficient fun. I’m talking about weeknight hacks like her genius Rice Cooker Paella (a hands-off trick I’ve sung from the rooftops on numerous occasions), and fascinating discoveries like a Swiss Roasted Flour Soup, a five-ingredient dish made with toasted flour, butter, beef broth, red wine, and Gruyère. Early on, Kim Chi keeps it real, stating, “These are not authentic recipes! They are my take on dishes I love.” Who wants to be trapped by “authenticity” when you can explore the delicious mess of cultural exchange? Subtly (for a drag-influenced cookbook, at least), this book celebrates food without borders and the intersection of immigrant cuisine in non-US locales, like Chinese-Peruvian Lomo Saltado, and Italian-Japanese Pasta Napolitan. Even South Korean corndogs, largely influenced by US hot dog culture, make an appearance. Featuring bright, highly saturated photography by Andrea D’Agosto, Tyna Hoang’s food styling, and Ruth Kim’s prop styling, plus plenty of high camp portraits of Kim Chi herself, this cookbook reimagines global cuisine through the prism of drag—it’s stylish, showstopping, and so fun to consume. —Joseph Hernandez, associate director of drinks & lifestyle

Anaïs Ca Dao van Manen’s Vietnam is a detailed tome of cultural and culinary knowledge that showcases the vast range of Vietnamese cuisine, shining a light on lesser-known regional dishes. Chef and consultant Ca Dao van Manen provides historical context for the cookbook’s many recipes, and even meal combinations for different occasions, so readers understand how certain dishes may fit together. Recipes often feature specialty ingredients—golden ants, or periwinkle sea snails—captured in lush, soft-patina photography; the presentation of these rarely seen ingredients as visual treats in and of themselves feels considered. Ca Dao van Manen also prudently provides substitutions, ensuring home cooks can capture the intended flavors with more commonly found ingredients while remaining faithful to each dish’s origin. From my own cooking, the Stir-Fried Corn With Spring Onion Oil made a great savory side to a friend’s halibut ceviche, and the Cendol Sweet Soup With Red Beans, while somewhat challenging (tapioca starch can be finicky), offered a refreshing, textural payoff. Inspired by my visits to Ha’s Snack Bar—one of Bon Appétit’s Best New Restaurants that serves snails in tamarind butter—I made Ca Dao van Manen’s tamarind roasted cockles, and plopped in a knob of butter at the end for a velvety finish. —Ingu Chen, art director

In the PBS docuseries Hope in the Water, executive produced by Andrew Zimmern, the celebrity chef offers an educational sermon on the state of thoughtfully-sourced seafood. The Blue Food Cookbook, co-written by Zimmern and educator-chef Barton Seaver, echoes the series’s lessons with words and recipes, marketing itself as a “sustainable seafood bible.” And with nearly 400 pages of tips, guides, stories, and recipes, it lives up to the name. “Blue food” is a term that describes foods like fish, seafood, and seweed that we harvest from oceans, rivers, and lakes. The book dives into sourcing and storing blue food with food supply and aquatic ecosystems in mind. It includes a guide to families of fish, shellfish, and seaweed, and explores pantry pairings from seafood spices to wine pairings. There’s a section on seafood-specific equipment and cooking techniques, before reaching the thick section of recipes from the two top chefs. “Butter-basting scallops is about as sexy as seafood cooking gets,” Zimmern writes in the headnote for Butter-Basted Scallops With Apple Cider Brown Butter. Intrigued by the cozy autumnal flavors, I made the dish: The scallops were pan-seared with an herbaceous, mustardy cider sauce spooned over top. Minimalist yet sophisticated, the recipe treated the seafood with the kind of thoughtfulness and reverie that could only come from Seaver and Zimmern’s continued commitment to the blue foods conversation. —Arietta Hallock, editorial intern

The recipes in Bon Appétit alumna Alison Roman’s latest cookbook, Something From Nothing, are luxuriously simple and incredibly chic. They call upon high-quality pantry staples to turn out truly flavorful meals with little fanfare. Each and every dish would fit equally into a weeknight dinner rotation or party-hosting menu. Roman quite successfully makes the case—both tacitly through her recipes and very literally in her resonant foreword—that good produce, a few tins of anchovies, and a can of beans can turn out some of the most nourishing pastas, meaty mains, soups, and more. She writes: “What the recipes here lack in bells and whistles, they make up for in soul and unimpeachable deliciousness.” I made Crispy Fish With Dill & Fried Capers, which embodies the book’s driving principles. It was incredibly bright, forgiving, and uncomplicated, calling for white fish coated in panko (laced with finely chopped dill), pan-fried until golden, and draped over a bed of garlicky yogurt—a cooling counterpoint to the fried fish. The finishing (and absolutely non-negotiable) garnish saw capers and thin garlic slices browned in oil, then showered over top. Come soup season, I’m eyeing Roman’s Golden Mushroom Soup With Orzo & A Pat of Butter. —Li Goldstein, associate newsletter editor

MasterChef Australia winner Nat Thaipun wrote her debut cookbook Thai with the intention to preserve the kinds of Thai family recipes you won’t typically find on takeout menus. She couples these heartfelt dishes with practical tips, like how to repurpose leftover meat bones into a chicken stock for tom yum soup or how to get extra smoky noodles (don’t stir and let them take on char). Rifling through the pages, I discovered gems I’d never heard of before, like Nam Sod, a zingy, gingery pork salad that gets tucked into lettuce leaves. There were also creative twists on dishes I was already familiar with, like juicy Watermelon Larb sprinkled with ground toasted rice and fresh mint. After an exhausting day in the office testing juicers, I made Pad Kee Mao (Drunken Noodles) from the book, and the recipe was exactly what I needed: saucy, chewy, and most importantly, easy to follow. In under 20 minutes, I was transported to Thailand, enjoying fiery flavors without having to leave my kitchen table. —Olivia Tarantino, senior commerce editor

More fall books we’re excited to cook from:

• The Art of Gluten-Free Bread by Aran Goyoaga: Three-time James Beard Award-finalist Aran Goyoaga has brought us a book dedicated to gluten-free bakes—think baguettes, bagels, and flaky croissants. Goyoaga shares a clear path for success with a range of recipes that make use of alternate flours and smart techniques.
• Pastry Temple by Christina Wood: Owner and head pastry chef of Seattle’s Temple Pastries Christina Wood is demystifying the intimidating world of pastry by sharing the fundamentals for brioche, puff pastry, and croissants, plus 30+ truly exceptional sweet and savory recipes.
• Lebanese Baking by Maureen Abood: In chef Maureen Abood’s cookbook, she shares a collection of Lebanese bakes, from traditional versions to new innovations like Baklawa Cheesecake and Muhammara Manakeesh.
• Three Cheers by Kaitlyn Stewart: In bartending champion Kaitlyn Stewart’s debut book, Stewart shares three versions of 55 impressive cocktails (including a classic, riff, and zero-proof version) for every occasion.
• Dobre Dobre by Laurel Kratochvila: James Beard Award-finalist Laurel Kratochvila guides you through Polish baking tradition, old and new, Jewish and diasporic, with recipes like Horseradish, Beet, and Summer Greens Bialys and Rose and Almond Jewel Rugelach.
• Homemade Ramen by Sho Spaeth: In recipe developer Sho Spaeth’s debut cookbook, Spaeth gives readers a guide to making phenomenal ramen at home. This includes step-by-step photographs for making soup bases, chewy noodles, and plenty of toppings.
• Milk Street Shorts by Christopher Kimball: From the James Beard Award-winning team at Milk Street, Christopher Kimball shares casual, improvisational, and short recipes to add to your kitchen repertoire with dishes like Five-Ingredient Pork and Kimchi Stew and Clementine Blender Cake.
• Measure With Your Heart by Hannah Taylor: Social media creator Hannah Taylor, behind the infamous account LilyLouTay, has created a cookbook focusing on from-scratch Southern cooking, featuring recipes like Finger Lickin’ Fried Chicken and Aunt Teisha’s Cowboy Caviar.
• The King Cookbook by Annie Shi, Clare de Boer, and Jess Shadbolt: Clare de Boer, Jess Shadbolt, and Annie Shi, owners of NYC’s beloved King restaurant, are publishing 120 of their elegant, seasonal recipes. From fried ribbons of chickpea batter to flourless chocolate cake, fans of King and those new to the authors are sure to enjoy cooking.
• A Kitchen in Italy by Mimi Thorisson: Writer Mimi Thorisson published her first cookbook, A Kitchen in France, which shared recipes from the French countryside. Now, she’s found a home in Italy and has created a second cookbook, featuring Italian dishes that celebrate the seasons.
• Around the World in 80 Meatballs by Bunny Banyai: In writer Bunny Banyai’s debut cookbook, Banyai celebrates meatballs from across the globe. With diverse recipes (like Bulgarian Chirpanski) coupled with rich history and traditions, this book is both comprehensive and joyful.