2018 was another excellent year for cookbooks! So many cookbooks I think would make excellent gifts — so what you’ll find here are 13 great books that I reviewed this year (plus one). To be fair, Jenny Osburn’s cookbook was also on last year’s list but it’s really good! (Each suggestion has a link back to the original review I wrote just in case you need more info.)
Here we go!
Easy weeknight meals:
Back Pocket Pasta — Colu Henry
“Her book takes the humblest of ingredient — dried pasta — and builds simple, yet effortlessly elegant meals out of it. Think: stylish comfort food.”
Entertaining:
On Boards — Lisa Dawn Bolton
“Serving boards, regardless of the material they’re made from, become a blank canvas in which to express yourself and you can be inspired by the multitude of fresh, whole food components that Bolton suggests.”
My husband’s fav:
Everyday Dorie — Dorie Greenspan
“It is a cookbook to explore and discover yourself in the recipes. The nice thing is that you don’t need a lot of culinary skill for this book because the recipes have been well-tested and are geared for any type of home cook (whether you’re a novice or a pro).”
Fun and Delicious:
Cravings: Hungry for More — Chrissy Teigen
“It’s clear as I’ve cooked through Cravings 2 that Teigen has a true passion for food. She’s presented delicious recipes that are worth not only making for the first time but again and again.”
Go for the Bebinca, stay for the rest of Nik’s wonderful recipes:
Season — Nik Sharma
“I keep thinking of flavours being balanced and having depth — in my mind the meals I’ve made from Season seem like magic.”
There’s no party like a kitchen party!:
The Kitchen Party Cookbook — Jenny Osburn
“Osburn, while offering some truly delicious recipes, never loses sight of the true nature of hospitality — making people feel welcome and creating an atmosphere where gatherings are enjoyable. What The Kitchen Party Cookbook really gives you is the trifecta — food, fellowship, and music.”
French cooking (and not just for kids!):
In The French Kitchen With Kids — Mardi Michels
“What’s interesting about Mardi’s book is that unlike other books that focus on cooking with kids hers offers interesting, enticing, and challenging recipes. Many kid’s cookbooks offer recipes that are (in my view) too simplistic and therefore provide no challenge. Her recipes are challenging yet not impossible and offer real satisfaction to a young cook for trying something that took effort. The whole family can be included in this endeavor.”
The best neighbourhood to live in:
Neighborhood — Hetty McKinnon
“I’m completely enamored with the way Hetty constructs a salad because what she does is make it into a true meal. She deftly shows how the different places that she’s lived in influence the types of ingredients she uses and how she uses those ingredients. The recipes, paired with Luisa Brimble’s crisp and lush pictures create such a mouthwatering combination!”
The perfect vintage:
The Vintage Baker — Jessie Sheehan
“Full of great vintage-inspired recipes and photos The Vintage Baker is one baking book that I’m glad to have added to my cookbook library. Whether you want to try baking up old school treats like fritters or doughnuts or something a bit more challenging like a pie or cake there’s something for everyone.”
Foodie Memoir:
Bella Figura — Kamin Mohammadi
“Part travelog, part cookbook, part how-to, this book is a really wonderful memoir full of ways on how to incorporate more Bella Figura into one’s own lifestyle.”
Best Vegan Cookbook:
Power Plates — Gena Hamshaw
“It’s one of those cookbooks that you can just pick up and find something to cook that will be nutritionally balanced and very, very delicious. While being vegan this book is certainly not limited only to those who enjoy a vegan diet because each recipe is so delicious that it transcends it’s culinary category.”
Best bowl (whether it’s at breakfast, lunch, or dinner):
The New Porridge — Leah Vanderveldt
“Going far beyond the realm of just your run-of-the-mill oat-y oatmeal she explores the ways in which different grains (from barley to quinoa) can be used to achieve a healthful, delicious meal (she goes far beyond breakfast too).”
Extraordinary vegetarian:
Simply Vibrant — Anya Kassoff
“…she seizes the opportunity to cook with the most beautiful of seasonal ingredients. I can relate to this desire to take humble ingredients and turn them into elegantly simple and delicious.”
The “Plus One”:
All About Cake by Christina Tosi is the exception in my list — no review yet but I’m working on it. While I’ve only tried a couple of recipes (the mug cakes to be specific) I’m completely taken with her cakes! They could be the cakes of my dreams, so if you have a baker in your life they will probably appreciate this book. I’ll continue to try recipes and post pictures and will post a review next year. I think this will become the playbook for all of our 2019 celebrations (I’ve already started to gather together my cake-making kit: cake rings, acetate, colourless vanilla extract, and corn powder made from ground up freeze-dried corn). If your curious to see what Tosi’s cakes are like, checkout this YouTube video.
As with everything on this site, there are no affiliated links — meaning I don’t make any money from linking to pages. I’m just being helpful. Hope you find something on the list! If you didn’t here’s a link to my 2017 guide — also full of excellent cookbooks!
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Penguin Random House Canada, Appetite by Random House, Raincoast Books, Ryland, Peters, & Small, Quadrille, Chronicle Books, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Clarkson Potter for providing me with free, review copies of these books (with the exception of Neighborhood, The Kitchen Party Cookbook, and Power Plates). I did not receive monetary compensation for my post, and all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.
Shipshape Eatworthy 
Great line up you’ve profiled here! Just saw the Kitchen party book in Chester and almost bought it Now I wish I had of 🙂
On Wed, Dec 5, 2018 at 7:52 PM Shipshape Eatworthy wrote:
> shipshapeeatworthy posted: “2018 was another excellent year for cookbooks! > So many cookbooks I think would make excellent gifts — so what you’ll find > here are 13 great books that I reviewed this year (plus one). To be fair, > Jenny Osburn’s cookbook was also on last year’s list but i” >
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Don’t fear Nancy! You can find it in several Halifax shops — I bought my copy at the Atlantic News 😉
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