The best cookbooks aren't just collections of delicious recipes. They teach, entertain and inspire by telling stories of the people and places behind the dishes, and how cultures spread and converge. These are ten (dog-eared and food-stained) books from the last 20 years that we find ourselves returning to over and over. 1. Meze: Small Plates to Savor and Share from the Mediterranean Table, by Diane Kochilas (2003) 2. Ottolenghi: The Cookbook, by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi (2008) 3. High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey from Africa to America, by Jessica B. Harris (2011) 4. Tender: A Cook and His Vegetable Patch, by Nigel Slater (2011) 5. Simple Thai Food, by Leela Punyaratabandhu (2014) 6. The Jemima Code: Two Centuries of African-American Cookbooks, by Toni Tipton Martin (2015) 7. Franklin Barbecue: A Meat-Smoking Manifesto, by Aaron Franklin and Jordan Mackay (2015) 8. The Nordic Baking Book, by Magnus Nilsson (2018) 9. The Food of Sichuan, by Fuchsia Dunlop (2019) 10. Vegetable Kingdom, by Bryant Terry (2020)
