Cookbooks To Gather Around This Fall

We look for cookbooks that bring people together. Here’s our list of cookbooks we’re excited to gather around this fall. 

Bryant Terry’s Black Food

As the Chef-in-Residence at the Museum of the African Diaspora, James Beard award-winning chef Bryant Terry specializes in bringing people together around Black food. Over the years, the chef and cookbook author has hosted the likes of Toni Tipton-Martin and Pierre Thiam, organized a Food Justice Workshop and Turn-Up Party for kids and their families, and put on Diaspora Dinners, each featuring a menu that “spans generations and continents to reflect on the resistance and the resilience of the African diaspora.” This fall, Bryant brings that celebration to the page in a beautiful book he curated and edited, Black Food. Bringing together the wisdom of more than 100 cultural luminaries, the book weaves recipes, essays, and artwork into a glorious tribute to Black culture and food. The dishes within range from well-loved favorites to fresh takes, spanning everything from BJ Dennis’s Okra and Shrimp Purloo to Jenné Claiborne’s Sweet Potato Pie. We can’t wait to cook our way through this book, while swaying to the tunes on the accompanying playlist, curated by Bryant himself. 

Find the book here.

Faith Kramer’s 52 Shabbats

Few meals bring people together like Shabbat: the traditional Friday night meal that Jewish families and friends share with loved ones as they usher in the sabbath. Faith Kramer, an Oakland-based writer specializing in the foodways of the Jewish diaspora, loves Shabbat. And, years ago, she asked her readers about their own Friday night traditions: what kinds of food did they eat on Shabbat? What customs did their families observe? That conversation grew into 52 Shabbats, an enticing guide to this beloved gathering. The book, which hits shelves this fall, serves up more than 50 delicious Shabbat-ready recipes, alongside illuminating essays on Jewish diaspora cooking and explanations of the rituals surrounding the meal. We love Faith’s recipes for such classic go-to’s as challah and gefilte fish, and her new takes on old favorites, from pomegranate molasses brisket to cardamom cheesecakes. 

Find the book here. 

Hawa Hassan and Julia Turshen’s In Bibi’s Kitchen

What strikes you first about In Bibi’s Kitchen is the cover photo: three pairs of hands, hard at work together around a table. The image is apt—the book is, after all, an open invitation to join author Hawa Hassan, as she spends time in the kitchens of grandmothers (bibis) in the eight African countries that touch the Indian Ocean, from Eritrea all the way down to South Africa. Along the way, Hawa, a Somali native and the founder and CEO of Basbaas Sauce, and her coauthor, bestselling author Julia Turshen, learn these bibis’ recipes and stories, which they share in this generous book. We can’t wait to learn how to create the perfect Berbere spice mix, and to gather our people around the quintessential Eritrean dish: kicha (Eritrean flatbread). 

Find the book here.

Kate Leahy’s Wine Style

Every so often, chef and cookbook author Kate Leahy and her childhood friends will gather for what they call “Porch Time”: a casual gathering over a “potluck mishmash” of foods, paired with an affordable bottle of wine. Inspired by these gatherings, and her experiences working the line in restaurants in Napa, Boston, and San Francisco, Kate wrote Wine Style, an approachable guide to wines and delicious foods to pair with them. Organized by wine style—ranging from the lightest, most effervescent whites to the deepest, darkest ports and passitos—and packed with reader-friendly recipes like eggplant lahmajoon and fennel-infused biscotti, this book will help you create some “porch time” of your own. We couldn’t put down Kate’s previous book, on Champagne, and we especially look forward to reading about the foods she loves to pair with sparklers. 

Find the book here.

Maria Zizka’s Boards, Platters, Plates

When it comes to picnics and potlucks and parties, there’s nothing better than food that’s shareable, transportable, and beautiful. Enter the board: a blank canvas rife with possibility. Find inspiration in Maria Zizka’s friendly, approachable cookbook, Boards, Platters, and Plates. In it, Maria—who has co-authored cookbooks with a who’s-who of chefs, from Yotam Ottolenghi to Elisabeth Prueitt—shares her expertise on creating boards, platters, and plates of all sorts, drawing on a wide variety of culinary influences. Page through, and you’ll find boards that nod to countries from the UK (scones with clotted cream and homemade preserves) to Korea (a Korean barbecue-inspired board, featuring bulgogi-style beef and gochujang sauce). Have we started putting together our board mood board? Maybe. 

Find the book here.

For more delicious ideas of recipes to share, check out Black Food, 52 Shabbats, In Bibi’s Kitchen, Wine Style, and Boards, Platters, Plates.