by TM Petaccia

A good cookbook offers more than a collection of recipes (we have the internet for that). They share stories, cultures, and perspectives that make food more personal, more soulful, and more connected to the people and places that shape what appears on our plates. The best ones invite us into someone else’s kitchen and inspire us to discover new ingredients to explore as well as see familiar ingredients in new, exciting ways. These books will become thoughtful, lasting presents, and treasured resources to dog-ear, cook from, and return to for years and decades to come.

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Our South: Black Food Through My Lens
Ashleigh Shanti
Chef/owner of the Michelin Recommended Good Hot Fish in Asheville, Ashleigh Shanti first gained national attention as a Top Chef “final five” in Season 19/Houston. She is a Best Chef James Beard semifinalist, and this book earned her a 2025 James Beard Media Award in the U.S. Foodways category. Our South is a love letter to the cuisine of her most cherished Southern regions from Appalachia to the Lowcountry. Rural in origin, but with her own sense of creativity and flair, dishes like soup beans & hot water cornbread, fig & goat cheese chicken roulade, and rice custard brûlée will quickly become your own family favorites.

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Deep Run Roots
Vivian Howard
It’s hard to believe this book is nearly ten years old, but it remains a constant favorite. Coming in at 564 pages and weighing more than 4½ pounds, its heft is matched only by the volume and range of Southern-inspired dishes with a few international winks and more than a few surprises. Okra tempura with ranch ice cream is one of those “Oh, I get it now” dishes when you make and taste it for the first time — as is the Pepsi, peanut, & bourbon float. Each chapter highlights a particular Southern ingredient, with 24 ingredient chapters overall. In addition to the recipes, the book is filled with personal stories and anecdotes — all using the warm, welcoming style which made her PBS series, A Chef’s Life, must-watch television. Deep Run Roots is a great read as well as a great resource.

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Thoughtful Cooking: Recipes Rooted in the New South
William Dissen
The original chef/owner of Charlotte’s Haymaker Restaurant and current owner of the noted The Market Place in Asheville says that his cookbook is “inconvenient in all the right ways: it asks the home cook to be in the moment, take a breath, and connect.” Divided into seasonal harvest chapters, Thoughtful Cooking explores local ingredients using the eyes of a chef who has been deeply involved with farm-to-table cooking in Appalachia for decades, but always with a look to the now. From a ramp-infused martini to cornmeal-fried catfish with butterbean-peanut stew to banana bread French toast, Dissen bridges paying homage to his roots with an ever-evolving chef-driven sensibility that embraces sustainability, modern technique, and bold flavors.

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The World Central Kitchen Cookbook
José Andrés with Sam Chapple-Sokol
A world-renowned chef who became a world-renowned humanitarian, José Andrés is the walking embodiment of how food is a source of comfort and compassion. Another great read, the book not only discusses World Central Kitchen’s origins and relief efforts from Haiti to Ukraine to Indonesia, but delves into people, places, and hearts who define our world culinary community. The book isn’t organized by courses or ingredients, but by WCK philosophies such as Empathy, Resilience, and Joy. The chapter Urgency, for example, focuses on the backbone of many food relief efforts: the sandwich and its international cousins, tacos, arepas, lahmajouns, and others. There is also a good discussion on scaling, since the task could be feeding five or a thousand. At times poignant, at times funny, and quite mouthwatering throughout, this 2024 James Beard Media winner in the International category is as much for the soul as it is your tastebuds.

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Sift: The Elements of Great Baking
Nicola Lamb
For the budding baker and those who have seen their fair share of school and church bake sales, Sift combines science lessons with well-honed recipes and delivers both in a fun, relaxed manner. There are deep dives into topics such as the role of gluten, the stages of butter, the importance of carbon dioxide, and more need-to-know baking facts that take up the first third of the book. That’s followed by a series of covering the basics: meringues, puff pastry, tart pastry, brioche, etc. From there, you’ll find recipes for a range of cookies (Lamb is a big cookie fan), pies, cakes, tarts, viennoiserie, and more. Winner of the 2025 James Beard Media award for Baking & Desserts, the book is a complete pastry masterclass with a bit of positivity coaching thrown in.

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Potluck Desserts
Justin Burke
Unpretentious Palate alum Justin Burke takes a more casual approach to desserts than the aforementioned Sift, but delivers with equal skill and appeal. Geared for shared gatherings, Potluck Desserts is packed with crowdpleasing finishers like chocolate cherry soda cake and banana split trifle. A nice aspect of this book is the recipes require minimal equipment, often just a bowl and a spoon. The overall tone of the book is celebrating community, in Burke’s case, how queer potlucks played a significant role in shaping his chosen family. Personal stories frame these desserts not just as food but as a form of belonging and acceptance.

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The Flavor Bible
Karen Page & Andrew Dornenburg
Not a cookbook in the accepted sense. You won’t find recipes here, but you will find one of the most indispensable references a home or professional cook can own. This comprehensive guide shows how and which ingredients work together. Organized alphabetically, the book lists almost every ingredient you can think of — herbs, produce, meats, etc. — as well as various regional cuisines citing flavor profiles, seasonality, complementary pairings, and expert insights from leading chefs. Do cloves pair well with blackberries? This book will tell you. It’s a great book for those of us who want to tinker with a recipe, or possibly find a quick alternative for a pantry item we thought we had when starting the recipe, but don’t. It’s a must have.

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The Flavor Equation
Nik Sharma
Written by a molecular biologist-turned-food writer, The Flavor Equation is another book for those who like to know the science behind the recipe. Part textbook, a series of infographics and educative copy discuss topics such as mouthfeel, aromas by chemical structure, and common texture boosters, among others — followed by 100 recipes that put those facts to work making what seem like complex ideas quite accessible. Dishes like roasted broccolini & chickpea pancakes, coffee-spiced steak, and coconut milk cake demonstrate how thoughtful layering of acids, fats, texture, and temperature can transform everyday ingredients.

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Tenderheart
Hetty Lui McKinnon
The 2024 James Beard Media winner in the Vegetable-Focused Cooking category, this cookbook is all about veggies. Beautifully photographed by the author with easy-to-read, relatively short recipes, and one of the smartest indexes we’ve ever seen, the book offers more than 180 recipes from Asian greens to zucchini, including mushroom, leek, & walnut pâté; sweet potato panang curry; and fennel & black pepper ice cream. Not a vegan cookbook — many of the recipes do call for eggs or cheese (but no meats) — though a good deal of the dishes here are vegan-friendly. Side dish or main dish, this book is an invitation to cook more generously, colorfully, and confidently with what our farmers provide us.

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The Farm Table
Julius Roberts
From across the pond, The Farm Table is a self-chronicled journey of chef-turned-farmer Julius Roberts (sort of like the British version of Old North Farm’s and past UPPY Farmer of the Year finalist Jamie Swofford here in N.C.). In addition to the stories of raising pigs and sheep and dealing with the whims of weather to plant and harvest crops, Roberts offers up 100 rustic recipes that honor seasonality, heritage, and honest cooking. From asparagus & ricotta tart to lamb stew with pearl barley to elderflower panna cotta with roasted strawberries, the recipes are accessible, but by no means basic. With dishes organized by season, it’s a cookbook that celebrates the land and serves as a year-round reminder of how rewarding it can be to cook with what the season gives you.

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For the home bartender

Distilling the South
Kathleen Purvis
One of Charlotte’s OG food writers, Kathleen Purvis spent the better part of thirteen months traveling from Virginia to Florida, North Carolina to Louisiana, getting the stories and the refined spirits of the South, proving the region is a lot more than moonshine — although there are some good ‘shines listed too. More travelog than cocktail book, Distilling the South does contain a good number of Southern-inspired cocktails, from a smoked mint julep to a honeysuckle vodka lemonade. It’s a great read while rocking on the front porch when the weather agrees or in front of the fire when it doesn’t while sipping something.

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Beautiful Booze
Natalie Migliarini & James Stevenson
Originally from Waynesville, North Carolina, Natalie Migliarini has traveled the globe compiling a knowledge of all things cocktail while James Stevenson, originally from Gold Coast, Queensland has spent much of his adult life behind the stick. Together, they created home bartending guide full of creative cocktails are are almost as enjoyable to look at as to imbibe. Almost. Although a few of the cocktails involve a little pre-planning for syrups or infusions, most can be very quickly and easily made. Peppered with rich photography, Beautiful Booze makes for great cocktail browsing for those times between happy hours.

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