Odesa native Maria Kalenska, who opened Ukraine’s first cooking school before relocating to Germany after the Russian invasion, revisits the foods of her homeland in this richly detailed book. Recipes range from sweet (baked curd cheesecake, chocolate eclairs) to savory (multiple borshch variations, potato and cabbage dumplings with wild garlic), and essays from European chefs share how Odesa’s foodways appear in their own kitchens. In a turbulent time for Ukraine, it’s refreshing to see Odessan cuisine—with its unique blend of Ukrainian, Jewish, Turkish, and Armenian flavors—celebrated in its own right.

The latest in the ongoing A Day In series by Melbourne-based indie publisher Smith Street Books, A Day in Penang is exactly what it sounds like: a culinary tour of Penang’s capital city, George Town, from breakfast to dessert. Authors Aim Aris and Ahmad Salim organized the book into sections, “Early,” “Mid,” and “Late,” with recipes that run the gamut from homestyle dishes (chicken in sweet-spicy tomato sauce) to street food favorites (steamed rice noodle rolls) to professional restaurant plates (fragrant golden king crab). This charming, quirky little number also features vibrant graphic design and documentary-style photographs. Other editions cover Hong Kong and Tokyo, and the next in the series, A Day in Seoul, will be released in May. 

Anissa Helou, one of the most prolific and revered cookbook authors of our time (her 2018 tome Feast was chosen by The New Yorker as one of the ten best cookbooks of the 21st century), turns her eagle eye to the foods of a land she knows intimately: Lebanon. A whopping 165 recipes across 16 chapters, this is Helou’s most personal work yet, with recipes spanning from baked fish with a Tripolitan tahini-cilantro sauce to rosewater-infused shortbread, plus dozens of regional variations. There’s even a chapter dedicated entirely to things “Cooked In Extra Virgin Olive Oil.” Get this for the completionist in your life. 

Andre Fowles, a Kingston native, three-time Chopped champion, and private chef to the stars (Bruce Springsteen, a client, wrote the foreword), writes lyrically about the foods of his home. Jamaican food has a fascinating blend of Indigenous, African, Indian, Chinese, and European influences, and Fowles’ recipes tap into that vibrant, multicultural energy with creative twists on classics, like sweet jerk crispy cauliflower, breakfast burritos wrapped in roti, and a fish and chips-inspired escovitch sandwich. Paired with lush photographs from around the island, this cookbook is for anyone seeking a dose of tropical flavor without leaving home.

One of just a handful of contemporary Indigenous cookbooks, Crystal Wahpepah ( founder of Wahpepah’s Kitchen in Oakland) urges readers to reconnect with Native ingredients and the land they come from as an antidote to convenience culture and the rise of corporate agriculture. In her wide-ranging book, organized into chapters like “The Three Sisters,” “Foraged Foods,” and “Wild Rice & Ancient Grains,” Wahpepah explores the environmental, spiritual, and physical benefits of dishes like sweet blue cornbread with huckleberry compote, bison ribs with blueberry barbecue sauce, and smoked turkey soup with wild rice dumplings. It’s a beautiful narrative celebrating an oft-overlooked cuisine. 

Mariam Daud, better known to her millions of online followers as @mxriyum, uses her debut cookbook to tell the story of Palestine, where, as she puts it, “food and advocacy are able to share a home.” Her recipes, most of which center around the joy of feeding loved ones, seamlessly blend traditional Palestinian flavors (e.g. her mother’s cheese fatayer, or stuffed pastries) with more Western fare (e.g. burrata salad with steak and labneh chimichurri or tahini-browned butter banana bread). There’s a plethora of baked goods—both in bread and savory pastry form—and sweet desserts to round out an abundant table.  

The follow-up to Sheldon Simeon’s 2021 debut text, Cook Real Hawai‘i, Ohana Style finds the Top Chef alum focusing on what it means to cook for your ohana, or family (blood-related or chosen). Partially written in the aftermath of the devastating Lahaina wildfires in 2023, the recipes reflect a true desire for community, with lots of crowd-pleasing and large-format favorites, like tteokbokki all’amatriciana, miso-peanut hibachi chicken, and furikake animal crackers. As a bonus, many include plant-based substitutions and clever hacks for complicated techniques (like crisping frozen fish sticks in a wok instead of a deep fryer). 

Madaq means “flavor” in Moroccan Arabic, and author Nargisse Benkabbou, the daughter of Moroccan immigrants, is particularly adept at translating the flavors of her family’s home country into recipes that feel approachable for Western kitchens. Think artichoke and pea tagine pasta, chermoula salmon with quick-pickled cucumbers, and make-ahead kefta and kale couscous bowls, among other weeknight-friendly fare. This is a warm and thoughtful introduction for any Moroccan cuisine-curious home cooks. 

In Roxana Jullapat’s first cookbook, Mother Grains, the L.A.-based bread-and-pastry whiz introduced home cooks to the joy of baking with whole grains. In her follow up, she’s developed 100 more breakfast-themed, whole grain-centric sweet and savory recipes, including buckwheat joy muffins; pumpkin spelt bread; and Swiss chard, feta, and egg pide, or traditional Turkish flatbread. Jullapat is a patient teacher with the more technical aspects of pastry (see whole-wheat croissant dough), making this a must for any serious or aspiring baker. 

There are only a handful of English-language Laotian cookbooks out from major publishers, and that makes Saeng Douangdara’s undertaking—six years in the making—all the more significant. The fact that it’s written in the voice of a sassy-sweet, endlessly encouraging queer immigrant kid from Wisconsin? Even better. Douangdara has a gift for making a misunderstood cuisine feel approachable with chapters like “Children of Sticky Rice” and “The Funky Kid,” and recipes for thum khao poon (cold vermicelli noodle salad) and khanom nap (coconut-stuffed sticky rice dumplings). There’s a new delight on every page.

Originally published in 1976, Edna Lewis’ now-iconic cookbook was among the first to recognize and celebrate regional Southern cooking as its own distinct, worthwhile cuisine. The Table of Contents is evocative, reflecting the pleasures of Lewis’ upbringing in a Virginia farming community founded by her grandfather after emancipation: “A Late Spring Lunch After Wild-Mushroom Picking,” followed by “The Night for a Boiled Virginia Ham Dinner” and “A Snowy Winter Breakfast.” Although Lewis died in 2006, her half-century-old masterwork still feels as vital today as it did when it was first printed.

With immigration issues front and center, this book from Top Chef and Iron Chef: Mexico star Claudette Zepeda couldn’t be more timely. A self-described “border kid” who grew up between San Diego and Tijuana, Zepeda has dedicated her career to learning about the unique fusion of cultures along our shared perimeter. Her deeply personal, geographically-organized book covers territory from California to the Sonoran Desert to cowboy country, with recipes like arroz poblano, tacos with vermicelli and green chorizo, and jericalla (burnt cinnamon custard) along the way.