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#AD - Stock The Shelves with Gorgeous Cookbooks, A 2024 Gift Guide

Jenn de la Vega

I love working on cookbooks. From an idea, a dish is tested over and over again before it gets sent to me. I examine its ingredient list, headnotes, methods, and develop fixes if it didn’t work out. I pass them along to editors and copywriters who ask a ton of follow-up questions. Meanwhile, photographers, prop stylists, and food stylists take gorgeous photos. Designers take the final words and photos to lay them out on digital pages. Cookbooks are woven together by many people and pop out of a big printer as a book! It’s more complicated than that, but my part in it feels magical. All of my close reading, cooking, and measuring results in something you can hold in your hands—that is a cool gift.

This gift guide is comprised of a few lists: the books I worked on this year, books I enjoyed, books from my friends, and my others books (and one that isn’t out yet, if you’re interested).

All of the links I use below are affiliate links, meaning I get a little commission if you purchase from them. I provided both Amazon and Bookshop links for your convenience.

The Books I Worked on in 2024

Islas: A Celebration of Tropical Cooking--125 Recipes from the Indian, Atlantic, and Pacific Ocean Islands

Buy on Bookshop | Buy on Amazon

Von Diaz is a journalist, researcher, and great friend of mine. ISLAS is a look at the common cooking practices and unique resilience across disparate island nations. I developed and tested half of the recipes, focusing on Southeast Asia. I worked in tandem with my co-developer Brigid Washington, whose expertise surrounds the Caribbean. I particularly loved making gato pima, lechon kawali, chicken jook, lemon lasary, Kālua pork, and Chamorro bbq chicken.

ISLAS is one of Food & Wine’s best cookbooks of 2024.

Di An: The Salty, Sour, Sweet and Spicy Flavors of Vietnamese Cooking with TwayDaBae (A Cookbook)

Buy on Bookshop | Buy on Amazon

Tuệ Nguyễn is a Forbes 30 under 30 social media star, restauranteur, and now author. We worked together for 2 years to tell the story of her Vietnamese roots, culinary journey, and her hopes for the future. I tested every recipe in the book and they sing of Vietnamese culture. Start with the fish sauce chicken wings, Asian banana bread, pandan waffles, clay pot chicken, and squash soup.

Di An is one of the LA Times’ best cookbooks of 2024.

The Four Horsemen: Food and Wine for Good Times from the Brooklyn Restaurant

Buy on Bookshop | Buy on Amazon

The Four Horsemen is a beloved restaurant in Brooklyn known for sourcing the freshest ingredients and curating a James Beard Award-winning wine menu. It was founded by James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem fame, the late Justin Chearno, Randy Moon, and Christina Topsøe. I worked with chef Nick Curtola and co-writer Gabe Ulla to test all of the recipes in the book. It is massive at 336 pages and almost 3 pounds! You must try the ravioli with English peas, maple glazed doughnuts, kedgeree, white asparagus, beef short ribs, and the frangipane apple tart.

The Four Horsemen Cookbook is on Eater’s best gifts for wine lovers list and Chowhound’s Best Cookbook list.

Justine Cooks: A Cookbook: Recipes (Mostly Plants) for Finding Your Way in the Kitchen

Buy it on Bookshop | Buy it on Amazon

Justine Doiron is a plant-forward, flexi-pescatarian social media personality, and NYT Best-Selling author. I tested half of the recipes in her debut cookbook. I highly recommend making her pistachio dukkah, Parmesan-crusted butter beans, fava beans with lemon walnut cream, lentils, and smashed honey-nut beans with crisped mushrooms.

Justine Cooks is one of Food & Wine’s best cookbooks of 2024.

Books I Enjoyed in 2024

Tin to Table: Fancy, Snacky Recipes for Tin-thusiasts and A-fish-ionados

Buy it on Amazon | Buy it on Amazon

Anna Hezel was my editor at TASTE Cooking back when I started my freelance food writing journey. I also catered her wedding back in 2022. While Tin to Table came out last April, I found myself opening her book over and over again as I made my way through the tinned fish collection in my pantry. Healthwise, I made a concerted effort to eat more fish because oily fish like salmon and mackerel are excellent sources of vitamin D. My favorite recipes from the book are potato chips with mussels, smoked trout dip, sardine curry puffs, spicy tuna kimbap, vanilla butter with anchovies, as well as the bucatini with sardines and caramelized fennel.

Mayumu, Filipino-American Desserts Remixed

Buy it on Bookshop | Buy it on Amazon

Abi Balingit is a friend I made through Twitter (bless) during the pandemic. We bonded over our shared journey from the West Coast and growing up with Filipino-American families. We’ve shared many meals and commiserated about the long cookbook publishing process. Mayumu is inventive but nostalgic, a unique telling of modern Filipino foodways. Try her famous adobo chocolate chip cookies, kare kare cookies, lengua de gato, pan de sal, food for the gods banana bread, and milky avocado popsicles.

The Geometry of Pasta

Buy it on Amazon

It’s not a new one, but it’s a workhorse reference book. The Geometry of Pasta is design-y black and white guide with graphics of each pasta shape, each with a few accompanying recipes. I’m an acolyte of the pure egg yolk fresh pasta recipe! The texture has changed my life and I also discovered that it worked with sous vide egg yolks and lightly cured egg yolks. While the book references a lot of extruded, store-bought pasta, there are plenty of pasta shapes to be made without a machine like lasagna sheets, canederli dumplings, fazzoletti handkerchiefs, gnocchi, gnudi, and orecchiette.

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Click through the carousel to see a cumulative list of cookbooks, memoirs, novels, and graphic novels from people I’ve interviewed and friends I’ve made along the way. Hosted on Bookshop.

My Other Books

Showdown: Comfort Food Chili & BBQ

Buy it on Fourthwall (signed copies!) | Buy it on Amazon

My first cookbook is a collection of 100 recipes I created for cookoffs and competitions. Features bacon chili oil, chicken mole tortas, stuffed poblanos, tasso ham chili, arroz caldo, and grilled adobo chicken wings.