I really enjoy keeping track of new cookbook releases. If you do, too, here’s a short list of some of the 2024 published titles I enjoy and of some upcoming cookbooks that I plan on checking out.
Back in 2020, an Amsterdam publisher released a Dutch-language cookbook called Een boek over brood by Issa Niemeijer-Brown. This year HL Books offers an English-translation of this work entitled A Book About Bread.
The author and his brother run a bakery in Amsterdam offering croissants, pastries and bread. Niemeijer-Brown’s book does a solid job covering breadmaking basics with a number of helpful baking hints. In his chapter on Making Your Own Bread, he writes: “[n]ever put sourdough directly in the fridge after a refreshment. The natural yeasts and bacteria present will not have a proper chance to recuperate and start growing again in quantity. The yeast in particular will not be able to regain its proper activity.”
In spring I bought The Turkey Book by Jesse Griffiths (St. John’s Press). The Turkey Book’s subtitle speaks to what you’re getting: A Chef’s Journal of Hunting and Cooking America’s Bird. I find Griffiths’s prose fun to read and I like his recipes. I made Dan’s Maple-Cured Turkey Leg. In a nutshell: brine a turkey quarter with warm spices, salt, sugar and maple syrup; brown; and then braise the leg for 4 hours in hard cider. I look forward to making his recipe for Wild Turkey Kiev. Griffiths’s 1.5-inch-thick book doesn’t skimp on recipes and, to my mind, represents reasonable value even at $50. Find it at www.wildbooks.com. For $10 more you can get a signed copy, if that’s your thing.
Perhaps my favorite 2024 cookbook so far is Brendan Liew and Caryn Ng’s A Day in Tokyo (Smith Street Books). Liew, who trained as a chef, also wrote Tokyo Up Late (2022), which is a really solid book. Because I own a lot of Japanese cookbooks, I wasn’t sure if A Day in Tokyo covered enough new ground to warrant a purchase. I feel it does and believe it is Liew and Ng’s strongest cookbook to date. Souffle Pancakes (Funwari Hottokeki) are enjoying their moment in the sun, and A Day in Tokyo contains a great recipe. In fact, the book’s entire Early chapter, which covers tradition Japanese and modern breakfast offerings, warrants a look.
Looking forward into 2024, I just ordered Andreas Papadakis’s Tipo 00 from Kitchen Arts and Letters in New York City. Melissa Weller’s Very Good Bread comes out in November. Her A Good Bake (2020) is a modern classic and one of the best cookbooks I own, baking or otherwise. Another 2024 Japanese cookbook from Liew and Ng? Yes! Konbini arrives in October. Also out in October is Taboon by Hisham Assaad. I really, really like his 2021 cookbook entitled Bayrut. (Look for a Rizzoli re-print of Bayrut in 2025.) I’m also looking forward to these two Phaidon titles: Café Cecilia by Max Rocha and Mangall ll by Ferhat Dirik and Sertac Dirik. Michael Mina’s My Egypt is on my watch list, too.
