The 10 Best New Cookbooks Of 2025 (So Far)

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Every year sees a new crop of cookbooks published, and by the fall of 2025, collectors were utterly spoiled for choice. Hundreds of tomes explored every aspect of food imaginable — there really was something for every taste. As well as listing recipes covering everything from world cooking to classic American desserts, many of them also featured stories that were vivid, entertaining, and astonishing.

In "Mostly French," Makenna Held (who bought Julia Child's summer home in France) brought the flavors of the south of France to life, while former Somalian refugee Hawa Hassan's "Setting a Place for Us" was a startling, educational read. Lovers of Mexican food snapped up Rick Martínez's "Salsa Daddy" with its colorful, inventive take on the popular food, and for anyone worrying about their contribution to a potluck dinner, "What Can I Bring?" by Casey Elsass came to the rescue.

Putting together any curated list of the year's cookbooks is a challenge, after all, one person's must-have book is another person's "meh." But we've done the reading and there are several that we think are head and shoulders above the crowd. Whether you're looking for the perfect Thanksgiving or Christmas gift or you just want to treat yourself, here's our pick of the best new cookbooks of 2025 (so far). Prices may vary.

Any parent knows trying to persuade children to eat their greens can be a nightmare, but plenty of adults sidestep these goodies too. Jessica Smith aims to change all that with her debut book, "Start with a Vegetable," published in January. In it, Smith draws on her expertise as a professional meal planner to help home cooks get organized, so there are lots of handy checklists, storage advice, and, of course, meal plans.

While that's a good reason to snap up her book, the really great one is her recipes. There are 100 to choose from, and they are organized by vegetable, so as well as putting them firmly at the center of a dish, everything is quick and easy to find. If you prefer to wing it rather than cook a specific recipe every weeknight, Smith's mix-and-match charts are invaluable, while her clear, no-nonsense instructions make for stress-free preparation and cooking.

Despite its title, "Start with a Vegetable" doesn't leave out the vegans or fish and meat-eaters of the world, either, and — unlike some cookbooks — each recipe has a photo (all taken by Smith herself) so everyone has an idea what the finished result should look like. If you over-buy veggies or grow your own and regularly end up with a glut, but want to do more with them than make compost, this is the cookbook for you.

Purchase "Start with a Vegetable" on Amazon for $17.39.

Regular viewers of T.V. series "Symon's Dinners Cooking Out" were thrilled when the book of the same name emerged in March. Yes, it included some of the recipes featured in the show, as well as plenty of brand new dishes to try — all cooked to perfection on the grill. "Symon's Dinners Cooking Out" had its origins in the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, when the chef and his team filmed live cooking shows in his kitchen with a cellphone, and the resulting cookbook is more than worth the wait.

Pitched at owners of coal and gas grills, as well as a traditional oven, it covers everything from tasty sides to moreish desserts. Think you can't rustle up a chocolate chip cookie bar on your BBQ? Don't worry, Symons will walk you through every step, including setting up the grill itself. As for the food, the chef breaks everything down across multiple sections, including Plays Nice with Others, Feed a Crowd, and A Bit Fancy.

The photography is glorious and the recipes are simple and clear to follow. Each comes with a little anecdote, hint or tip, so readers are both entertained and informed as they work their way down the page. Symon's enthusiasm for outdoor cooking is thoroughly infectious. In the introduction, he admits it may be easier to boil water for pasta or bake a finicky cake indoors, but adds, "Where is the fun and adventure in that?!"

Purchase "Symon's Dinners Cooking Out" on Amazon for $18.

How long does it take to cook the average frozen pizza? About 20 minutes? According to chef and restaurant owner Ari Kolender, in his introduction to "How to Cook the Finest Things in the Sea," co-written by Noah Galuten, that's enough time to create his rather more interesting fish in paper recipe. The cookbook, published in April, is a love letter to marine food, but that's only to be expected from the man behind the Found Oyster and Queen St. restaurants in Los Angeles.

Kolender, however, isn't just talking to those who adore fish and shellfish as much as he does — he's also keen to appeal to intimidated home cooks with the two-word motto: "Do less." The opening section of "How to Cook the Finest Things in the Sea" includes a helpful primer on buying the best produce, preparing and storing them, before getting into the culinary nitty gritty. Over six sections, Kolender covers everything from working with chilled and raw fish, different cooking methods, including broiling and breading, and there's even a section devoted to fish that comes in a can.

The 100 recipes include fried cod sandwiches, scallop tostadas, smoked trout dip and the free-for-all that is Frogmore stew (also known as lowcountry boil). Gorgeous photography and easy-to-follow recipes also help demystify the process of cooking fish well. It has seduced lots of foodies, including Benny Blanco, who urged anyone reading it in a book store to buy it, "Skip all the way home, and cook this entire book!"

Purchase "How to Cook the Finest Things in the Sea" on Amazon for $27.80.

When life gave food writer and illustrator Letitia Clark lemons, she didn't make lemonade, she wrote a book about them. Published in May 2025 and swooned over by beloved foodie Stanley Tucci and kitchen goddess Nigella Lawson, "For the Love of Lemons" is Clark's fourth cookbook, and provides a comprehensive, mouthwatering look at this very versatile citrus fruit.

The book is made up of six sections, including a history of lemons, a look at the many different varieties, and Italy-inspired recipes that take in both savory and sweet dishes. There are a lot of standouts but it's impossible to ignore the creamy carbonara combining lemon and zucchini, (working under its European name of courgette) baked, breadcrumbed lemon leaf chicken, which Clark admits is one of her personal favorites, and a beautifully photographed lemon tiramisu is irresistible.

Readers of Sardinia-based Clark's earlier books will know her images are so sun-drenched you can practically feel the Italian heat pouring off the page, while her writing paints an equally colorful and evocative picture in between her easy-to-follow recipes. Tucci, himself no stranger to the delights of the country's cuisine, said "For the Love of Lemons" is a "joy to read and cook from." He's not wrong.

Purchase "For the Love of Lemons" on Amazon for $25.32.

Imagine the CEO of Coca Cola publishing a book that dove into the secrets of how the drink was made — it would be incredibly bad for business. Luckily for everyone who loves ice cream, (is there really anyone who doesn't?) Nicholas Morgenstern thinks differently. The founder of New York-based Morgenstern's Finest Ice Cream has created a cookbook of the same name, filled with the company's recipes taken from its production manuals.

If the heart-tugging introduction doesn't grab you and pull you in, the many, many recipes in "Morgenstern's Finest Ice Cream" certainly will. "Europeans developed ice cream and elevated it to an art. But Americans turned it into an everyday indulgence," he writes. Recipes are sensibly listed under flavors, so readers can work out all their chocolate, fruit, or nut cravings without confusing their taste buds.

Alongside the traditional ice creams are plenty of less run-of-the-mill flavors, including labneh sorbet, the intriguing Nick's It, and french fry. It's worth noting that Morgenstern doesn't make ice cream with eggs, and they probably use less sugar than the average recipe, but that's no bad thing. Flicking through the pages, the photographs blend arty, abstract splodges of finished ice cream with drawings and shots of the team at work. "Morgenstern's Finest Ice Cream" is more than just a cookbook, it's as dreamy as the sweet treats inside. His Grandpa would love it.

Purchase "Morgenstern's Finest Ice Cream" on Amazon for $16.61.

Some cookbooks are so stiff and cold, you can barely connect with the recipes, never mind who wrote them. Chef Christian Petroni's debut, "Parm to Table," could not be more different. Published in September 2025, it's an arm around your shoulder, friendly chat of a book that will also help you create some tremendous Italian-American food: Petroni's personality pours off the page in the very best way.

From his descriptions of his childhood in The Bronx and summers with family on the tiny Italian island of Ponza, to a dish of garlic bread that was a revolution for him in every way, his writing is vivid and inviting. The same goes for the recipes, some of which read like conversations over coffee — cursing included. Chicken Francese is a good example of the furrow "Parm to Table" treads, with its line about it being a break from "all the red sauce-based dishes," and you can almost hear his mom at work as he describes canned artichoke pie.

As you might expect from the man behind Fortina restaurant, Petroni brings not only his heritage to bear in his book, but also his expertise. That means readers can try their hands at classics such as eight-hour marinara sauce and fried meatballs, as well as his take on lemon spaghetti and baked clams. Throw into the mix food photos that make your mouth water, as well as shots from Petroni's world, and you've got a cookbook classic.

Purchase "Parm to Table" on Amazon for $26.98.

When reading about a list of great cookbooks, it's easy to forget that not every culture writes down their recipes. Instead, the generations cook together, and the act of doing passes on age-old techniques and recipes. Award-winning chef and restaurateur Nite Yun's extraordinary book "My Cambodia," which hit shelves in September, not only seeks to introduce Khmer (the pre-colonial name for Cambodia) cuisine to a wider audience, but also preserve knowledge she feels is in danger of being lost forever.

It's a big book that covers a lot of ground over five parts, taking in her childhood stomping ground of Stockton in the Bay Area and her Cambodia heritage, a country her parents left to escape the murderous Khmer Rouge regime. But there's no culture clash here: Yun's book begins with a showcase of the incredible flavors of Khmer cuisine, underpinned by lots of pickles (think way beyond cornichons) and infused oils, the ubiquitous kroeung, a blend of smashed lemongrass, galangal, garlic, shallots, and turmeric, among other ingredients, fermented fish paste prahok, and perfectly cooked rice.

From those building blocks she helps the reader construct lots of incredible recipes, from Kuy Teav Phnom Penh pork and noodle soup, and the enigmatically named "soup outside the pot" or somlaw kraung chnuk. "My Cambodia" also features dishes from Yun's former restaurant Nyum Bai, such as crispy pork egg rolls and stir-fried water spinach, and while the dessert section may be short but it's definitely sweet.

Purchase "My Cambodia" on Amazon for $33.60.

Some celebrity cookbooks are a bit of a let down, with recipes so fancy ordinary home cooks can't possibly recreate them. That's not the case with Melissa King's "Cook Like a King." The 2020 "Top Chef All Stars" winner took her time crafting her debut cookbook, published in September, and the end result is all the better for it. 

Blending her Californian tastes with her Asian heritage to create something really special, "Cook Like a King" explores both sides of her culinary personality, from the foods King ate and cooked as a child, to the dishes she prepared on "Top Chef." Recipes for Shanghainese black vinegar ribs (inspired by her grandmother) and Chinese sticky rice, sit alongside swordfish au poivre and her divine-looking Hong Kong tea tiramisu. She says in the introduction to that dish, "Like so much of the food I create, the secret is a lot of care and a little bit of me."

Aside from the mouthwatering recipes and beautiful photographs throughout, one of the reasons King's book stands out from the crowd is how she writes. Thanks to her experience of teaching people to cook during the COVID-19 pandemic her style is smart without being stuffy, while the ability to level up a recipe (and down if you feel you're outside your comfort zone) is particularly clever.

Purchase "Cook Like a King" on Amazon for $29.45.

On October 14, Eric Wareheim's book "Steak House" was published, freeing the "Foodheim" author from his social media pledge to read every page before it hit the shelves. As anyone who owns a copy knows, it's a thing of beauty and far more than just a literary and culinary road trip. "Steak House" gets under the skin of this uniquely American institution, getting up close (and sometimes a little dirty) with the people at its heart.

Wareheim puts in the miles for his journey, dividing the book and the United States into multiple parts, spotlighting the stories of independent steak houses that offer both style and substance. Each section is followed by recipes that make up the steak house experience – 45 in total — from breads and crudites right through to accompanying drinks. As for the meat? Images of perfectly cooked rib eye steak with roasted garlic, or an elegant slice of Beef Wellington will have readers' mouths watering even as they're reaching for their skillets.

The subtitle for "Steak House" tells you what to expect: "The People, the Places, the Recipes." Some meat-loving cookbook collectors might sniff and say the recipes ought to come first, but that would be missing the point of Wareheim's glorious — and hefty — tome. Even if you never get the chance to visit a fraction of the places featured, reading about these steak houses and the people who make them special, is as joyful as eating their food.

Purchase "Steak House" on Amazon for $59.

There are some foods that are so much more than just a collection of ingredients: They are intrinsic to a culture. In the hands of Michael W. Twitty, "Recipes from the American South" reveals how it can also be part of a nation's soul. Eric Adjepong hit the nail on the head when he described it as a "sweeping love letter to the region that shaped America's palate."

Twitty's book also delves deeper into the cosmopolitan mix of cultures and peoples that made up the South, taking readers on an important and valuable journey that helps them understand the roots of the dishes featured in the pages. Great storytelling aside, the food is where "Recipes from the American South" really shines. You can almost taste the juicy oven-baked spare ribs, likewise the duck and orange gumbo, and crisp, golden-brown calas.

Some of the 260 recipe descriptions are short and to the point, while others are a little longer, but the accompanying photographs say more than thousands of words (the beautiful Maryland stuffed crab is a perfect example). It might be best to buy two copies of Twitty's book: One to use, love, and get a little scuffed around the edges in the kitchen, and the other to display like a work of art on your coffee table.

Purchase "Recipes from the American South" on Amazon for $43.23.