The Best Food Blog Spring Cookbook Edit

When I worked in book publishing, I often heard the spring release season referred to as a time for “dads and grads.” It’s traditionally the time when grilling cookbooks come out, as well as anything geared towards youths with freshly minted degrees who might be setting up their first kitchens — or mothers who love a cheese board and a slice of cake adorned with flowers.

This year, the spring batch of cookbook releases has a lot to offer beyond these cliche boxes. There are some inspiring entries into the single-subject category, like The Hot Dog Cookbook by Farideh Sadeghin and The Butter Book by Anna Stockwell. As Jaya Saxena wrote for TASTE a few months ago, we’re in the middle of a heyday for modern party cookbooks (here is where I make a shameless plug for my new cookbook Party Tricks, which hits stores next week). 

If there’s a common thread I’m seeing in this season’s cohort of cookbooks, it might be that they go beyond the traditional paradigm of aspirational lifestyle books into a realm of what I might consider “world-building.” There’s an immersive jump into the universe of Solid Wiggles’s technicolor jellies, a warm welcome into Natasha Pickowicz’s hot pot philosophy with Everyone Hot Pot, a deep-dive into Somalia and its food, and a coming-of-age narrative told through baked goods. These are cookbooks you might open less in search of a recipe, and more in search of an outlook — an invitation into someone else’s kitchen and brain.

Among the hundreds of new releases (check out Jenna Helwig’s Cookbookery Collective for a comprehensive list), this is our personal short list of the new and forthcoming books we’re excited about. —Anna