Ixta Belfrage, the author of 2022’s award-winning Mezcla and an alumni of Yotam Ottolenghi’s test kitchen, tackles her own Brazilian-English heritage and Brazil’s rich blend of indigenous, Portuguese, and West African influences in her latest. “Fusão,” which translates to “fusion” in Portuguese, sees Belfrage experimenting with flavors and form, resulting in dishes like moqueca fish burgers, picanha with coffee and chile butter, and chocolate-papaya cake. The sun-soaked aesthetic and colorful photos drive home the transportive feel.

Arguably the most iconic appetizing shop in America, New York’s legendary Russ & Daughters is (finally) committing their legacy to paper, with a cookbook penned by the fourth-generation owners Niki Russ Federman and Josh Russ Tupper that captures a century of family history, Jewish tradition, and really good smoked fish. Beyond the standards the shop is known for (smoked salmon, sable, herring, and so on), recipes include comfort-classics like crispy potato latkes, matzo ball soup, and chocolate babka—a must-have for tourists and locals alike.

It’s no overstatement to say that Samin Nosrat changed the way Americans understand cooking with her 2017 smash hit Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat. In her highly anticipated follow-up, clocking in at over 400 pages, she shares the traditions and recipes (125 of them) she leans on to foster a sense of community around the table. It is—somewhat unusually—organized around the idea of cooking as a ritual. We’re already bookmarking recipes for ricotta custard pancakes and “sky-high” focaccia.

Polina Chesnakova—born in Ukraine to Russian and Armenian parents from Georgia—pens a timely ode to the foods of the Soviet diaspora, focused on regional recipes from Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. Recipes for Ukrainian-style dumplings, Georgian tkemali (sour plum sauce), and Uzbekistan-style plov are braided with essays, family histories, and profiles of the cooks who helped shape Chesnakova. A bonus: There are separate chapters on both dessert and pastries and breads, making this ideal for the sweet-toothed.

Cambodian cuisine is woefully underrepresented in cookbook format, but Nite Yun, the the daughter of Cambodian refugees and chef-owner of Lunette Cambodia in Oakland, California, is out to change all that with her deeply personal tome. The 100-plus recipes capture techniques normally passed through families orally, mixed with memoir-style storytelling, snippets of Cambodian history, and culinary tips for those new to the cuisine to master dishes like kuy teav Phnom Penh (fragrant pork and noodle soup) and amok (coconut-steamed fish in a banana leaf).

Eight years after his groundbreaking On Vegetables, Rustic Canyon and Birdie G’s chef-owner Jeremy Fox is back, tackling the thematic opposite with his signature blend of professional expertise and can-do attitude. Chapters are organized by animal (with the exception of cured meats and sausages in the “Deli” chapter), and the Los Angeles chef’s 115 recipes have an emphasis on zero-waste, sustainable approaches with extensive how-tos. Expect beautiful photographs and stunning design throughout.

Portland, Oregon, chef Joshua McFadden is back with a follow-up to his wildly popular Six Seasons: A New Way With Vegetables with this new pasta-focused spin on his time-tested formula. Each chapter focuses on seasonally appropriate pasta variations (asparagus with almonds and lemons in the spring; baked ziti with broccoli rabe in the winter), plus a section on year-round favorites, all made with store-bought dried pasta. Helpful techniques abound, including the chef’s signature build-the-sauce-in-the-skillet method.

In this 400-page sequel to her James Beard Award-winning The Korean Vegan, social media star Joanne Lee Molinaro is giving us more of what she does best: veganizing Korean dishes and Koreanizing everything else. Written in her welcoming personal voice (with her own photographs to boot), the 100-plus new dishes here pay homage to the people and places that have inspired Molinaro, from the fried rice waffles that nod to her grandmother to the pesto tteokbokki that combines her husband’s Italian heritage with her own.

Undoubtedly the most irreverent title on this list, Foodheim author Eric Wareheim takes his beloved blend of humor, curiosity, and a slightly gonzo spirit to that most hallowed of American traditions: the steakhouse. With documentary-style profiles and arresting photos, Wareheim leads readers on a cross-country road trip to chronicle the places, people, and the steaks that loom so large in our cultural imagination. Tangents dedicated to martinis, Parker House rolls, and creamed spinach are most welcome detours.

Celebrated food historian and scholar Michael Twitty (The Cooking Gene) goes deep on one of America’s most complex cuisines, with an astonishing 250-plus recipes that showcase the diversity of the region, interspersed with essays, historical lessons, and personal reflections. Fortunately, he’s a heck of a storyteller, making this gorgeously designed tome as much a pleasure to read as it is to behold. Recipes like she-crab soup and hummingbird cake reflect the influence of the slave trade, migration, and multiculturalism across the region.

Pastry chef Helen Goh, another Ottolenghi alum and the co-author of his books Sweet and Ottolenghi Comfort, branches out solo with her baking-centric debut, focused primarily on sweets, with some savory recipes, too. Blending her own Australian and Malaysian background, confidence with Middle Eastern and Mediterranean flavors, and a dash of pop psychology, she explores not just how to bake, but also how baking connects us as people. Come for the chocolate tahini cake with sesame brittle; stay for the puttanesca galette.

Three-time James Beard Award-winning Oglala Lakota chef Sean Sherman (The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen) is back with a new book tapping the rich vein of Native American foodways. Organized by region across Turtle Island (an Indigenous term for North America), the book features more than 100 recipes that promote plant-forward, nose-to-tail eating in tune with the seasons and our natural world: think wild rice-crusted walleye cakes, sweet potato soup with dried venison and chile oil, and sweet corn pudding with woodland berries.