One of the best parts of writing A Serious Bunburyist comes yearend when I choose my five favorite cookbooks of the year. I generally gravitate to single subject, professional chef, and restaurant books; this year is no different. In alphabetical order, I share my picks for the five best cookbooks of 2024.
Café Cecilia Cookbook by Max Rocha (Phaidon)
The Four Horsemen: Food + Wine for Good Times by Nick Curtola with Gabe Ulla + James Murphy, Notes on Wine by Justin Chearno (Abrams)
Konbini: Cult Recipes, Stories and Adventures from Japan’s Iconic Convenience Stores by Brendan Liew and Caryn Ng (Smith Street Books)
The Turkey Book: A Chef’s Journal of Hunting and Cooking America’s Bird by Jesse Griffiths (St. John Press)
Very Good Bread: The Science of Dough and the Art of Making Bread at Home by Melissa Weller (Knopf)
Here’s why I selected these titles.
Café Cecilia Cookbook Rocha shares recipes to make simple food (think Richard Olney’s Simple French Food (here) and Fergus Henderson’s fare (here), for whom Rocha worked for at St. John in London). Café Cecilia’s elegant book design feels both modern and handsomely retro. I baked Rocha’s Guinness Bread using a locally made stout from Original Pattern in Oakland, CA, and the result tasted delicious. The book has a strong pasta section, probably because Rocha worked at The River Café. I plan to make his recipe for Odette’s Pork Pasta over the holidays. Again: a beautiful, handsome cookbook with great photographs by Matthieu Lavanchy.
The Four Horsemen This cookbook drew my interest when I learned that Nick Curtola, the chef at The Four Horsemen restaurant in New York City, worked for Russell Moore and Allison Hopelain at Camino in Oakland, CA. Sadly, Camino closed its doors in 2018, but, fortunately, Russ and Allison first penned an outstanding cookbook in 2015 entitled This is Camino (here). With Curtola’s Camino ties, I wondered what his recipes might offer. I see Camino’s ethos of simplicity in Curtola’s offerings: Grilled Flatbread; Sugar Snap Peas with Calabrian Chile, Mint, and Ricotta Salata; Little Gems with Green Goddess, Radishes, and Fried Croutons. But clearly Curtola’s food for The Four Horsemen is his own. With the restaurant’s wine credentials—it won a James Beard Award for the best wine program in the United State—most of the cookbook’s dishes pair well with wine. If you like cookbooks that tell a story, then enjoy this tale of how a bunch of profoundly naïve folks thought they could open a restaurant in NYC without any real experience to speak of. Well...they did and it’s an unexpected Cinderella story. We are now the happy recipients of its talented chef’s recipes in The Four Horsemen.
Konbini This unique book gets my nod for the most enjoyable cookbook of 2024. One of the surprising highlights of my trip to Japan in 2018 was the pleasure and excitement experienced each time I turned into a Japanese 7-Eleven konbini. The story of how a US-born convenience store traveled overseas to Japan and blossomed comes to life in Brendan Liew and Caryn Ng’s Konbini. I enjoyed reading the history of Japan’s 7-Eleven, Family Mart and Lawson convenience stores. I learned about these konbini’s seasonal offerings and regional variations. Liew and Ng offer a generous helping of elevated recipes that help you to recreate classic konbini food offerings in the comfort of your own kitchen. Some dishes, like onigiri, barely need a recipe, but the book provides useful process photographs that show how to form these delicious Japanese rice balls. I look forward to trying out some of Konbini’s chicken recipes: fried chicken, karaage and roast chicken. Kudos to the book’s designer, Evi-O.Studio, and photographer, Gorta Yuuki. Both contribute mightily to Konbini’s overall success.
The Turkey Book I wrote about this single subject cookbook earlier this year (here). In summary: The Turkey Book is a generous, interesting and well-written book on the art of hunting and cooking turkey. Expect strong recipes from a James Beard winning cookbook author and talented chef.
Very Good Bread Melissa Weller, together with Carolynn Carreño, penned one of my favorite baking books, A Good Bake (2020). This year Weller follows up her modern classic with Very Good Bread. I wish I had this book when I began baking! Clear, concise recipes give the baker all the information necessary to produce outstanding results. I’m particularly looking forward to making Weller’s recipe for M’smen, a laminated flatbread from Morocco. Very Good Bread contains an extensive section on making bagels. Weller is a real pro—she served as the head baker at Thomas Keller’s Per Se restaurant in NYC—and her latest book should more than satisfy both the beginning and experienced baker.
If I do not get around to writing another post by year’s end, wishing you Season’s Greetings and a Healthy, Sane 2025.
