Introducing the Cookbooks of Spring 2022
Howdy cookbook fans!
And welcome to your SPRING COOKBOOK PREVIEW! These are the releases coming out between February 1 and May 1, and boy does spring 2022 have some treasures in store for you. It’s spring, so of course we’ve got barbecue books. This year the selection comes from the likes of Nashville’s Pat Martin, Oakland’s Matt Horn, and LA’s Kevin Bludso. There’s the absolutely massive new wok book from J. Kenji López-Alt, Eric Kim’s Korean-American, Gullah Geechee Home Cooking by Emily Meggett, and The Official Wakanda Cookbook. And single subject book fans will have their choice of books on onigiri, poké, Mexican chiles, pizza, noodles, cooking with flowers, and more.
Pour one out for Turkey and the Wolf by Mason Hereford with JJ Goode and Melissa Clark’s Dinner in One, which should be on this list but are currently at the bottom of the ocean. They’ll be released this summer and fall, respectively. And with that said, do note all release dates below are subject to change thanks to supply chain tomfoolery.
Here we go: spring! cookbooks! (Click through to the website to read, this one’s too long to be contained in one email. Sorry.)
Today’s issue of Stained Page News is brought to you by Good Enough: A Cookbook by Leanne Brown, author of the New York Times bestseller Good and Cheap. Her latest book is a deeply personal cookbook about embracing the joy of imperfection to find peace and happiness in and out of the kitchen. Alongside essays that delve into the emotional barriers to cooking and feelings that can surround food—anxiety, self-doubt, guilt—are 100 flexible, soul-satisfying recipes that provide an exercise in culinary self-compassion. Because good enough is great. Use promo code STAINEDPAGE for 20% off of Good Enough by Leanne Brown when you purchase on workman.com.
The Stained Page News Spring 2022 Cookbook Preview
February Releases
Above: Sweden-based chef Kristian Smith already released his book Roots: Jamaican Food & Culture in Swedish (as may have noticed from the cover above) and now it’s coming out in English! Lucky us. Recipes range from vegetable-centric dishes, cocktails, desserts, and, yes, jerk rubs. Gingko Press: February 6.
UK singer and podcaster Jessie Ware has a memoir coming called Omelette: Food, Love, Chaos, and Other Conversations. (It’s about more than omelets.) Hodder & Stoughton: February 8.
Bad Girl Bakery: The Cookbook by Jeni Iannetta, about Scotland’s Bad Girl Bakery. Kitchen Press: February 10.
A cookbook for The Crown fans: Recipes for Royals by Dahlia Clearwater. Skyhorse: February 15.
Food IQ: 100 Questions, Answers, and Recipes to Raise Your Cooking Smarts by Daniel Holzman and Matt Rodbard answers questions like “what exactly is nixtamalization?” “why does pasta taste better in restaurants?” and “what’s the best way to cook a whole fish?” See my interview with Rodbard here for more. Harper Wave: February 22.
Time to get your risotto on with Contemporary Milanese Cooking by chef Cesare Battisti of Rataná and writer Gabriele Zanatta. 13 chapters each take a fresh look at a different staple ingredient or dish of the cuisine of Milan. Guido Tomassi Editore: February 23.
March Releases
Preservation, but make it Italian: Preserving the Italian Way by Pietro Demaio. Plum: March 1.
‘Sup Canada! Food, Culture, Place: Stories, Traditions, and Recipes of Newfoundland by Lori McCarthy and Marsha Tulk is here to help you use up all the moose, rabbit, duck, fish, and other regional ingredients hanging out in your freezer. Boulder Publications: March 1.
Shellfish by SPN contributor Cynthia Nims will get you cooking shrimp, crab, mussels, lobster, and more. Read Cynthia’s piece on generosity in recipe writing here! Sasquatch: March 1.
Make leftovers on purpose with Save-It-Forward Suppers by Cyndi Kane, 15 weekly menus that reuse elements of each dinner the next day. William Morrow: March 1.
RV Cooking Made Easy by Heather Schlueter. Hashtag vanlife. Union Square & Co.: March 1.
Cooking with flowers! Floral Provisions by Cassie Winslow. Chronicle: March 1.
Make those loaves pretty with The Art of Sourdough Scoring by Brittany Wood. Page Street: March 8.
And it’s a giant tome on the art of wok cookery from J. Kenji López-Alt: The Woke: Recipes and Techniques. (Am I the only one who sees a big smiley face in that cover?) Six hundred and seventy two pages and over 200 recipes, all about woks. Norton: March 8.
I love this bright, cheerful cover on Syndey writer Penny Chawla’s 50 Easy Indian Curries. Smith Street: March 8.
Fix Me a Plate by the Fort Worth chef behind CookDrankEat Scotty Scott offers 60 “indulgent” soul food recipes, from red beans and rice to chicken and dumplings to catfish and grits. Page Street: March 15.
Learn Western Tennessee-style whole hog and all other manner of smoking and grilling from Nashville pitmaster Pat Martin in Life of Fire. Martin takes readers literally through the life of a fire, from how to get it started to what to cook on bright lively fire, smoldering coals, and white hot ashes. Clarkson Potter: March 15.
85 recipes for cocktails from Sammy Hagar (yes that Sammy Hagar) with drinks writer James O. Fraioli in Sammy Hagar’s Cocktail Hits. Skyhorse: March 15.
Brunching at home these days? Grab Cathy Barrow’s Bagels, Schmears, and a Nice Piece of Fish to jumpstart your bagel technique. Chronicle: March 15.
Former Top Chefster Adrienne Cheatham’s first book Sunday Best: Cooking Up the Weekend Spirit Every Day combines her fine dining background with recipes from her family and childhood, including “pork roast crusted with pecans, charred okra roasted with tomatoes and warm spices, skirt steak topped with chimichurri of sharp mustard greens, and Brussels sprouts tossed with a nutty brown butter.” Clarkson Potter: March 15.
Contrary to what the title might have you believe, Italian Breakfast is not just about breakfast in Italy! Rather, this elBullifoundation production uses the Italian concept of the colazione as a starting point to explore the first meal of the day around the world. Phaidon: March 16.
Ronda Carman’s The Art of Pantry Cooking will help you finesse this skill we’ve all come to depend upon. Step one: stock your pantry well. Step two: deploy in Carman’s recipes. Rizzoli: March 22.
Peter Reinhart explores regional pizzas from around the US in Pizza Quest: My Never-Ending Search for Perfect Pizza. Andrews McMeel: March 22.
Parisian baking, hold the gluten: Gluten-Free Baking: Recipes from the Famed Chambelland Bakers of Paris by Nathanial Doboin and Thomas Teffri-Chambelland. 40 recipes for French bread, all made from alternative flours. Abrams: March 22.
Yesssssss: Nana’s Creole Italian Table by Elizabeth M. Williams, the founder of the Southern Food and Beverage Museum, explores the Sicilian influence on the foods of New Orleans. LSU Press: March 23.
Been looking forward to this one for awhile: NYT writer Eric Kim’s Korean American: Food That Tastes Like Home shares food inspired by his Korean immigrant parents, childhood in Atlanta, and adulthood in New York. The resulting dishes are a little bit of everything: recipes include Gochujang-Buttered Radish Toast, Caramelized-Kimchi Baked Potatoes, Gochugaru Shrimp and Grits, Salt-and-Pepper Pork Chops with Vinegared Scallions, Cheeseburger Kimbap and Crispy Lemon-Pepper Bulgogi with Quick-Pickled Shallots. Yum. Clarkson Potter: March 29.
For salads that both taste good and are good for you, here’s Jess Damuck’s Salad Freak: Recipes to Feed a Healthy Obsession. Abrams: March 29.
Fried artichokes, anyone? Cooking Alla Giudia by Benedetta Jasmine Guetta explores to cuisine of the Italian Jews, from the famous Jewish dishes of Rome to Sicily’s caponata to the orecchiette of Apulia. Alongside the recipes, plenty of history (did you know Jews introduced Italians to eggplant?), city guides, and more. Artisan: March 29.
Kevin Bludso is a Californian who learned how to smoke barbecue from his grandmother in Corsicana, Texas, and grew up to open a barbecue restaurant that’s a little bit of both places: Bludso’s BBQ Cookbook tells his story, alongside recipes including “BBQ Lamb Leg, Spicy Curried Oxtails, Buffalo Rib Tips, Blackened Catfish, Grilled Mojo Shrimp… Creole Cabbage, Pinto Beans, Down Home Mac & Cheese… Mom’s Banana Pudding, Buttermilk Pie, and Kevin’s famous Hennessy on the Rocks.” Gosh I love banana pudding. Ten Speed: March 29.
Teighan Gerard fans, you have Half Baked Harvest Every Day coming your way March 29. Clarkson Potter.
April Releases
Explore the wild ingredients of Ontario’s Carolinian Forest with Langdon Hall, about the restaurant/hotel of the same name, by chef Jason Bangerter and writer Chris Johns. Penguin Canada: April 5.
My Ackee Tree: A Chef's Memoir of Finding Home in the Kitchen is a memoir-with-recipes from Toronto chef Suzanne Barr, looking back at her experience maturing as a chef and becoming an advocate for marginalized populations in the restaurant world. Penguin Canada: April 5.
Love the pink pages/general design of Tokyo Up Late: Iconic Recipes from the City That Never Sleeps by Brendan Liew. Yakitori ahoy! Smith Street: April 5.
Low alcohol cocktails from New York bartender Natasha David in Drink Lightly. Clarkson Potter: April 5.
Before Thomas Keller took over the space, Sally Schmitt opened The French Laundry in Yountville, California—and that’s just one of the six kitchens she remembers in her new cookbook Six California Kitchens: A Collection of Recipes, Stories, and Cooking Lessons from a Pioneer of California Cuisine. Chronicle: April 5.
Hand-pulled noodles, soups, stews, and, of course, MOMOS! in Tasting Tibet: Family Recipes from the Himalayas by married couple Julie Kleeman and Yeshi Jampa. Interlink: April 5.
Eat like Shaq with Shaq’s Family Style, a collection of 80 recipes for “low-stress comfort food.” Recipes include “Loaded Potato Waffles to One Pan Baked Southern Mac & Cheese, Sheet Pan BBQ Chicken Thighs with Sweet Potato Bake, and Spicy Jambalaya with Andouille Meatballs.” (Shaq apparently also loves banana pudding.) Ten Speed: April 5.
Wakanda forever: Nyanyika Banda, a restaurant industry vet with a specialty in African diaspora foodways, brings us Marvel’s Black Panther: The Official Wakanda Cookbook. 70 recipes take inspiration from across the African continent and include lamb kebabs, okra fritters, harissa eggs with shaved cucumber, sweet and spicy oxtail with cassava dumplings, and much more. Insight Editions: April 5.
Holly Erickson and Natalie Mortimer, the bloggers behind The Modern Proper, share their laid-back yet flavor-packed meals in The Modern Proper. There’s a whole chapter on meatballs! Simon Element: April 5.
Despite what the title implies, I am like 98% sure that Shroom: Mind-Bendingly Good Recipes for Cultivated and Wild Mushrooms by Becky Selengut exclusively covers non-psychotropic mushrooms. (I do believe they are mind-bendingly delicious, though.) Andrews McMeel: April 12.
West Coast Barbecue! Here’s Oakland’s Matt Horn with his book Horn Barbecue: Recipes and Techniques from a Master of the Art of BBQ, in which he shares his secrets for perfectly smoked ribs, burnt ends, smoked oxtail, smoked catfish, pit beans, cornbread, and more. Harvard Common Press: April 12.
Only in Saskatchewan by Naomi Hansen is a look at the diverse culinary influences of the Canadian province, including dishes from Ukrainian, Indigenous, Italian, Vietnamese, Indian, Persian, Dutch, Mexican, and many more traditions. Touchwood: April 12.
Colu Cooks: Easy Fancy Food does what it says on the tin: sophisticated, easy dinners from author Colu Henry. Recipes include soft-boiled eggs with pickled chiles, citrus-braised short ribs with herb salad, “fancy toast,” a section on cooking on vacation, and much more. Abrams: April 12.
You like noodles, I like noodles, Mike and Stephanie Le like noodles…enough they wrote a book called That Noodle Life. The married couple behind iamafoodblog.com share recipes for everything from bone marrow and beef brisket pho to French onion mac and cheese. If it’s noodles, it’s here. Workman: April 12.
Ali Slagle’s I Dream of Dinner (so You Don’t Have To) is a literally dream of a title, offering those with dinner decision fatigue an arsenal of “low-effort, high reward” meals. Recipes include fish-n-chips tacos, farro carbonara, pork sausage burgers, and sheet pan fish with bitter greens. Leave dinner to Slagle! Clarkson Potter: April 12.
Minnesota food blogger Amanda Rettke has 8.2 million followers on her Facebook baking page, but in Homestead Recipes she shares recipes for so much more than baked goods. This collection of Midwestern comfort food covers the classics with Rettke’s on spins, from tater tot hot dish to butterscotch bars. There’s even a whole chapter on what to do with summer’s deluge of zucchini. William Morrow: April 12.
All about Japanese rice balls in Ai Watanabe and Samuel Trifot’s Onigiri. Vis: April 12.
All about poké in The Island Poké Cookbook by James Gould-Porter. Ryland Peters & Small: April 12.
All about chiles in The Mexican Chile Pepper Cookbook by Dave DeWitt and José C. Marmolejo. University of New Mexico Press: April 15.
A marriage of French and American baking in Frank Adrian Barron’s Sweet Paris: Seasonal Recipes from an American Baker in France. Harper Design: April 19.
Arabiyya: Recipes from the Life of an Arab in Diaspora is an exploration of Bay Area chef Reem Assil’s cuisine, stemming from her Palestinian and Syrian background and incorporating her own personal flair for flavor. Ten Speed: April 19.
Portugal is the latest cuisine to enter Phaidon’s culinary bible series, with Portugal: The Cookbook by Leandro Carreira. Phaidon: April 20.
Gullah Geechee Home Cooking is a collection of recipes from the 87-year-old matriarch of Edisto Island, South Carolina, Emily Meggett. Not only does the book include Meggett’s recipes for dishes like deviled crab, fried oysters, and collard greens, it also traces the history of the island where she has lived her entire life. An invaluable record of a life, a cuisine, and a community. Abrams: April 26.
Ex-Bon Appetitster Andy Baraghani is out with his first cookbook, The Cook You Want to Be: Everyday Recipes to Impress. Nodding to his Iranian heritage and drawing on his restaurant cooking experience, recipes include the likes of caramelized sweet potatoes with browned butter harissa, roasted beets with mint and sesame, and pomegranate-glazed chicken legs with buttery almonds. Lorena Jones: April 26.
Vegan cooking gets the minimalist Nordic treatment in Icelandic chef Solla Eiriksdottier’s new book Vegan at Home. Phaidon: April 27.
Not a cookbook, but rather a book about cookbooks: Early Jewish Cookbooks by András Koerner is a collection of seven essays about the 19th and early 20th century cookbooks of the Hungarian Jews. Central European University Press: April 30.
Whew, that’s all folks! If you made it this far, thank you so much for reading. Enjoy your spring cookbooks, let me know what you think of all of them, and have a great weekend.
Thanks for the round up! An exciting spring ahead of us! Looking forward to taking in all these interesting viewpoints!
Good God this is a magnum opus, Paula. So valuable to see what publishers are buying (or what they bought last year.) I just started my paid subscription so I'm seeing my first of these round-ups. Do publishers actually send you all these books? I kind of doubt it. And if so what do you do with them all?
P.S. Typo on Lorena Jones but you probably know that.