The 25 Most Exciting New Cookbooks for Fall 2016

What you'll be reading (and cooking) this fall.
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Summer food practically cooks itself. Impeccable produce meets a bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper, and boom, you're done.

But fall is a chance to get back in the kitchen. Turn on your oven without risking the ire of your whole family. Try new techniques, new ingredients, new recipes. New cookbooks.

Welcome to cookbook season, 2016.

This fall has some treats in store for you. Some big names we haven't heard from in a while are back with fresh new takes on home cooking, from Alton Brown's EveryDayCook to Anthony Bourdain's Appetites. And a few perennial favorites have new titles, including Ina Garten's Cooking for Jeffrey, Dorie Greenspan's Dorie's Cookies, and Mark Bittman's How to Bake Everything.

Chefs are turning their attention to home cooks this year, with Taste & Technique from Portland's Naomi Pomeroy and books on entertaining from L.A. chef Nancy Silverton and New York City's Andrew Tarlow. There are also restaurant books coming from L.A.'s Sqirl (hello, homemade raspberry–vanilla bean jam), Chicago's Fat Rice, and New York's Del Posto. And on the international front, there are books on Chinese, Cuban, German, Persian, and Eastern European Jewish food.

Needless to say, you're not going to be bored (or hungry) this fall. Here are the books we can't wait to get our hands on:

Home Cooking

Small Victories

By Julia Turshen

Julia Turshen is, perhaps, best known for her collaborations on cookbooks with the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow, Mario Batali, and Dana Cowin. But this first solo effort might change all that.

The title of this book comes from the idea that learning to cook is a series of small victories: tiny lessons that, in sum, form a culinary education. These include concepts like putting a damp towel under a cutting board to keep it from moving while you chop, or freezing pesto in ice cube trays for easier use. Who couldn't use to learn a new trick or two?

Chronicle: September 6

Alton Brown: EveryDayCook

By Alton Brown

America's favorite food nerd, Alton Brown, is back with his first cookbook since 2012. EveryDayCook is a collection of "personal" recipes, divided by time of day—think morning (Overnight Coconut Oats), noon (Smoky the Meatloaf), and evening (Bad Day Bitter Martini). All this with the focus on food science and humor that Brown's known for.

Of particular note here is Brown's focus on photography: the whole thing was shot on his iPhone. Welcome back, Alton, we've missed you.

Ballantine: September 27

Appetites

By Anthony Bourdain and Laurie Woolever

Anthony Bourdain also hasn't released a cookbook in a while: this is his first cookbook since 2004. Of course, the travel show host has been busy with his CNN series, Parts Unknown, but that doesn't mean people aren't already hungry for this late-October release.

It's a joyously idiosyncratic cookbook; a mix of things he cooks for his kid, recipes from restaurants he used to cook in, and food from his adventures around the world. It'll be a treat for Bourdain fans, to be sure, or anyone who wants to become what Bourdain calls "a psychotic, anally retentive, bad-tempered Ina Garten" for their next dinner party.

Ecco: October 25

Cooking for Jeffrey

By Ina Garten

Speaking of Ina Garten, she's got a new book this year as well. Garten has been married to her husband Jeffrey for 48 years, and during almost five decades of marriage, she's picked up on a few foods he likes.

Cooking for Jeffrey is full of these beloved recipes, like an updated version of brisket with onions and leeks, skillet-roasted lemon chicken, and apple pie bars.

Clarkson Potter: October 25

Mozza at Home

By Nancy Silverton and Carolynn Carreño

Mozza at Home is perhaps a misnomer. If you're expecting easily executable versions of the famous Los Angeles restaurant's recipes, this isn't quite that. A more apt title would be Nancy Silverton at Home: this is a book about the famous chef rediscovering her love for home cooking.

Silverton provides 19 menus for home entertaining, but recommends mixing them up to create menus of your own. Think grilled lamb chops accompanied by Mediterranean (and Mediterranean-inspired) side, or Silverton's famous choose-your-own-adventure hamburger spread.

Knopf: October 25

Chef Books

Taste & Technique

By Naomi Pomeroy

So you've mastered the basics: roast chicken, salad with homemade vinaigrette, maybe you can make an omelet. What next? Portland chef Naomi Pomeroy's new book aims to teach home cooks to "elevate" their cooking by incorporating professional techniques that are highlighted in 140 recipes for dishes that range from porcini-braised chicken thighs to butter-poached halibut to spring pea risotto.

Ten Speed: September 13

Poole's

By Ashley Christensen and Kaitlyn Goalen

What does a "modern diner" look like? When chef Ashley Christensen took over the historic Poole's Diner in Raleigh, North Carolina, she decided it meant comfort food—really, really good comfort food, made with local ingredients and drawing on the traditional American diner experience.

That looks like cornmeal-fried okra and tomato pie and oyster stew and creamy macaroni au gratin and short rib pot pie. There are also a lot of recipes for Southern-influenced vegetables, along with one for sweet potato hummingbird cake that I am dying to try out.

Ten Speed: September 20

Dinner at the Long Table

By Andrew Tarlow and Anna Dunn

I have to admit, I was a little disappointed that the first cookbook out of NYC restaurateur Andrew Tarlow's empire wasn't focused on Diner, or Marlow & Sons. But Dinner at the Long Table makes up for it: this collection of dinner party menus, from the super casual to the more elaborate, completely charmed me.

Some of the dishes here are complicated—there are instructions for making a proper bouillabaisse, for example—but others are just time-sensitive. From time to time, everyone who loves to cook will want spend a chilly day making ragù, right? Long Table captures that spirit.

Ten Speed: September 27

Everything I Want to Eat

By Jessica Koslow

Chef Jessica Koslow's Sqirl is responsible for an absurd number of restaurant trends these days. Her health-conscious, tasty, colorful cooking has fans (and imitators) coast to coast, and she's being called the future of California cooking.

And here, in her first cookbook, the Los Angeles chef shares recipes for all her hits: the sorrel pesto rice bowl, the burnt toast with ricotta and jam, and many more. The book is designed to help readers modify dishes for all kinds of diets: vegan, gluten-free, carnivore—everyone wil happy.

Abrams: October 4

The Adventures of Fat Rice

By Abraham Conlon, Adrienne Lo, and Hugh Amano

Chicago restaurant Fat Rice draws its recipes from Macau, a port city that blends the flavors of the Portuguese who once settled there with the foods of the various Asian traders who moved through the area. The result is a punchy, bold cuisine of bacalao and grilled seafood, noodles of all shapes and size, and the titular fat rice (arroz gordo).

And did I mention Fat Rice is a comic book? Yup: throughout the cookbook are step-by-step, comic book–style instructions for making crispy rice or stir-frying fat noodles, as well as comic book covers depicting Fat Rice dishes like Crazy Squid and Pato de Cabidela (duck cooked in blood).

Ten Speed: October 25

The Del Posto Cookbook

By Mark Ladner

The famous New York City Italian restaurant, part of the Batali/Bastianich restaurant empire, is one of the premiere Italian restaurants in the country, and here chef Mark Ladner spills his recipes for its menu.

Although not everyone will be up to the complexity of all the dishes, certainly parts of them will be within reach: a sauce here, a pasta dough there, a cake to top it off. This book may be the farthest reach on this list for home cooks, but gosh, is it pretty: the photos are inspired by 16th-century still-lifes.

Grand Central Life & Style: November 1

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Around the World

The Gefilte Manifesto

By Jeffrey Yoskowitz and Liz Alpern

Jeffrey Yoskowitz and Liz Alpern are friends with a mission: to preserve the foods of the Ashkenazi Jews for a new generation. They started with gefilte fish and now have an entire cookbook of what they call "new recipes for old world Jewish foods."

The book looks at Eastern European classics, old school bakeries, delis, and more for inspiration, and the result is recipes for dishes like challah, homemade pastrami, and all types of old-fashioned pickles. There are also modern updates on classic flavors (see: sour dill martinis). So whether you're looking to preserve your own Jewish traditions or are simply a fan of borscht, this is the book for you.

Flatiron: September 13

Taste of Persia

By Naomi Duguid

Though "Persia" spans many countries—Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, and Kurdistan—the cuisines of the region share much in common. Here, famed traveling cookbook author Naomi Duguid traces the throughlines of this region.

The book's 125 recipes cover the pilafs and breads and grilled meats of Persian cuisine, from feasts to simple meals. All this alongside history and cultural background, and photography by Duguid herself as well as food photography pros Gentl & Hyers.

Artisan: September 20

Cuba!

By Dan Goldberg, Andrea Kuhn, and Jody Eddy

Now that you can travel to Cuba again—commercial flights recently launched this week—it seems like people can't get enough of the Caribbean island country. That is certainly true for travelers Dan Goldberg and Andrea Kuhn, who teamed with food writer Jody Eddy to write this cookbook, which explores Cuba's food, from fried chicken to mojito cake, in 75 recipes.

Ten Speed: September 20

Land of Fish and Rice

By Fuchsia Dunlop

Fuchsia Dunlop is the celebrated UK author of several books on Chinese food, and this time she turns her attention to the foods of Shanghai and the Jiangnan region.

The lower Yangtze is a fertile growing region, full of the titular fish and rice as well as fresh produce, all combined in a signature delicate, complex cuisine. Standouts include the famed dongpo pork, lionshead meatballs, and plenty of vegetable-heavy stir-fried dishes.

Norton: October 18

Around the U.S.

Acorn & Cattails

By Rob Connoley

What's in your backyard? And can you eat it? Chef Rob Connoley has made a career out of answering questions like this at his New Mexico restaurant, the Curious Kumquat. His cookbook is full of advice for foraging (make sure you know what you're picking...or buy it from someone who does) and recipes for using the fruit of your harvest.

The foraging sections of the book have a bit of a bias towards New Mexico (most foraging books have some sort of regional angle, due to the nature of the subject) but the recipes should be easily accessible for people across the U.S.

Skyhorse: September 20

The Tacos of Texas

By Mando Rayo and Jarod Neece

Texas is taco country, and Mando Rayo and Jarod Neece explore it thoroughly in The Tacos of Texas, which chronicles the regional variations throughout the state, as well as the taco culture that permeates the region.

There are recipes for everything from breakfast tacos to barbacoa—plus all the fillings and salsas a taco-lover could ask for.

UT Press: September 20

My Two Souths

By Asha Gomez and Martha Hall Foose

In her first cookbook, chef Asha Gomez of Atlanta's Cardamom Hill writes about the two great cuisines of her life: the foods of her native Kerala in southern India, and the foods of the American South.

The result is a brilliant mash-up. The two regions share much in common, including certain crops, and Gomez plays with this concept to create dishes like Southern-style pork vindaloo, fried chicken with cardamom-rice waffles, and chile pepper peach pie.

Running Press: October 11

Baking

Better Baking

By Genevieve Ko

Alternative oils, sugars, and grains are popping up in even the most mainstream baking these days, and Better Baking takes this concept to heart. Genevieve Ko takes ingredients like olive oil, maple syrup, and almond flour to create nutritious baked treats. Highlights include grated zucchini chocolate sheet cake, whole grain apple cider donuts, and a pomegranate syrup baklava.

Rux Martin/HMH: September 20

How to Bake Everything

By Mark Bittman

It's one thing to claim you wrote a cookbook on how to cook everything; it's something else entirely to double down on baking. But How to Bake Everything does just that, following the model of the original book, and covers not just sweets but breads and international treats as well. In other words, everything. Get excited, Bittman fans.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt: October 4

Dorie's Cookies

By Dorie Greenspan

Will Dorie's Cookies be the best cookie cookbook since Betty Crocker? Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised.

The chocolate cookie that graces the cover of this book is so famous it doesn't even need a name. Except it has a name, and it's World Peace Cookies, because they are so good they could bring about world peace. So imagine those cookies, and then 299 additional cookies, all in one book? Yeah, I'm excited.

Rux Martin/HMH: October 25

Single Subject

Amaro

By Brad Thomas Parsons

America's gone nuts for Fernet Branca, but that's just the beginning of the world of amaros.

Author Brad Thomas Parsons takes you through the world of Italian bittersweet liqueurs, with flavor profiles, histories, cultural anecdotes, and cocktail recipes.

Ten Speed: October 11

Power Vegetables!

By Peter Meehan and the Editors of Lucky Peach

Meehan's last cookbook for Lucky Peach was the super awesome 101 Easy Asian Recipes, so I've got high hopes for Power Vegetables!. Promising to bring "BIG-LEAGUE FLAVOR to your WEEKNIGHT COOKING," Vegetables! will ideally rescue you from the what's-for-dinner doldrums and at the very least be an entertaining read.

Clarkson Potter: October 18

Regarding Cocktails

By Sasha Petraske and Georgette Moger-Petraske

The late Sasha Petraske started seminal New York City cocktail bar Milk & Honey, and here, in his only book, shares 85 recipes and cocktail philosophy.

Petraske's wife, spirits writer Georgette Moger-Petraske, co-authors. Sure to be an enlightening glimpse into one of the people responsible for America's craft cocktail movement.

Phaidon: October 31

Also Coming This Fall

  • Martha Stewart's Vegetables by the Editors of Martha Stewart Living. Clarkson Potter: September 6.
  • China: The Cookbook by Kei Lum Chan and Diora Fong Chan. Phaidon: September 19.
  • The Rye Baker by Stanley Ginsberg. Norton: September 27.
  • Stir, Sizzle, Bake by Charlotte Druckman. Clarkson Potter: September 27.
  • Buxton Hall Barbecue's Book of Smoke by Elliott Moss. Voyageur Press: October 1.
  • Deep Run Roots by Vivian Howard. Little, Brown: October 4.
  • Eat in My Kitchen by Meike Peters. Prestel: October 4.
  • Molly on the Range by Molly Yeh. Rodale: October 4.
  • Cúrate by Katie Button. Flatiron: October 11.
  • Acadiana Table by George Graham. Harvard: October 15.
  • Classic German Baking by Luisa Weiss. Ten Speed: October 18.
  • The Red Rooster Cookbook by Marcus Samuelsson. Rux Martin/HMH: October 18.
  • The Enchilada Queen Cookbook by Sylvia Casares and Oscar Casares. St. Martin's Griffin: November 1