Rooted in the Kitchen

Are you hungry yet? Check out these delicious books about food, kitchens, and all things culinary. This list includes foodie favorites, tasty novels, heritage foodways, chef memoirs, and much more. Plant a seed, read!

Updated May 27, 2026
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To kill a cook
Akers, W. M.
Paper Book
Nobody in Manhattan eats better than Bernice Black. It's 1972, and she is the city's busiest restaurant critic, juggling her fiance and his two young sons with demands of fine dining. Bernice talks fast, walks faster, has a razor-sharp wit and no patience for anything-or anyone-that gets in her way....
Breadcrumbs : coming of age in post-Soviet Poland
Babis, Katarzyna
Paper Book
An NPR Best Book of the Year This moving graphic memoir is a coming-of-age story set in Poland as the country transitions from communism to capitalism. Perfect for fans of Persepolis! In the late 1980s, Poland faces debilitating food shortages, worker...
Be my guest
Basil, Priya
Paper Book
A meditation on the meaning and limits of hospitality today, from the shortlisted author of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize.
The particular sadness of lemon cake : a novel
Bender, Aimee.
Paper Book
The wondrous Aimee Bender conjures the lush and moving story of a girl whose magical gift is really a devastating curse. On the eve of her ninth birthday, unassuming Rose Edelstein, a girl at the periphery of schoolyard games and her distracted parents' attention, bites into her...
The joy of snacking : a graphic memoir about food, love & family
Campbell, Hilary Fitzgerald
Paper Book
New Yorker cartoonist and author of Murder Book Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell returns with a riotous and radically candid comic memoir about snacks, connection, and developing a taste for freedom. From standup comedian, New Yorker cartoonist, and...
Hungry hearts : 13 tales of food & love
Chapman, Elsie
Paper Book
"A briliant multicultual collection that reminds readers that stories about food are rarely just about the food alone." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review) A stunning collection of short stories about the intersection of family, culture, and food in the lives in teens,...
Fatty fatty boom boom : a memoir of food, fat, and family
Chaudry, Rabia
Paper Book
"A delicious and mouthwatering book about food and family, the complicated love for both, and how that shapes us into who we are . . . I absolutely loved it!" --Valerie Bertinelli Rabia Chaudry--known from the podcast Serial and her be...
Death comes in through the kitchen
Dovalpage, Teresa
Paper Book
Havana, Cuba, 2003: Matt, a San Diego journalist, arrives in Havana to marry his girlfriend, Yarmila, a 24-year-old Cuban woman whom he first met through her food blog. But Yarmi isn't there to meet him at the airport, and when he hitches a ride to her apartment, he finds her lying dead in the...
Best served hot
Elliot, Amanda
Paper Book
By day, Julie Zimmerman works as an executive assistant. After hours, she s JulieZeeEatsNYC online, a social media restaurant reviewer with over fifty thousand followers. As much as she loves her self-employed side gig, what Julie really wants is to be a critic at a major newspaper, like the New...
Be ready when the luck happens : a memoir
Garten, Ina
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * In her long-awaited memoir, Ina Garten--aka the Barefoot Contessa, author of thirteen bestselling cookbooks, beloved Food Network personality, Instagram sensation, and cultural icon--shares her personal story with readers hungry for a seat at her table....
Setting a place for us : recipes and stories of displacement, resilience, and community from eight countries impacted by war
Hassan, Hawa
Paper Book
An enthralling, intimate collection of essays and over 75 recipes exploring the history of eight countries to understand the impact of geopolitical conflict and its outcomes on cuisine and food system, from Somali refugee and James Beard Award-winning author of In Bibi's Kitchen. ...
Strong roots : a memoir of food, family, and Ukraine
Hercules, Olia
Paper Book
JAMES BEARD AWARD NOMINEE * When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, award-winning Ukrainian chef and food writer Olia Hercules decided it was finally time to tell her story. Strong Roots is the story of a century in Ukraine told through four...
Pakistan: Recipes and Stories from Home Kitchens, Restaurants, and Roadside Stands
Jillani, Maryam.
Paper Book
BEST COOKBOOK OF THE YEAR: The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Bon Appétit, Epicurious, NPR, Serious Eats, The Strategist  The first major cookbook on Pakistani food, featuring breathtaking photography and over 100 delicious, achievable recipes.<...
The Kamogawa food detectives
Kashiwai, Hisashi
Paper Book
The Kamogawa Food Detectives is the first book in the bestselling, mouth-watering Japanese series, for fans of Before the Coffee Gets Cold. What's the one dish you'd do anything to taste just one more time? Down a quiet backstreet in Kyoto...
The temporary bride : a memoir of love and food in Iran
Klinec, Jennifer.
Paper Book
A relationship was a mathematical formula: the correct variables of age, beauty, morality and finances were entered and the output was a successful, peaceful marriage. It couldn't be, therefore, that their Iranian son could feel desire for someone six years his senior, someone who didn't come to...
Eat, drink and drop dead
LoTempio, T. C.
Paper Book
A former chef gets mixed up in murder when she moves back to her Southern home town in the first Tiffany Austin food blogger mystery - a culinary cozy that will make your brain work and your stomach rumble!"I was hooked from start to finish!" Laura Childs, New York Times bestselling author of the...
My life in recipes : food, family, and memories
Nathan, Joan
Paper Book
A NYT BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR * A SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE BEST BOOK ABOUT FOOD OF THE YEAR * A SAVEUR BEST COOKBOOK OF THE YEAR A new cookbook from the best-selling and award-winning author that uses recipes to look back at her life and family history--and at her personal journey...
The coincidence of coconut cake
Reichert, Amy E.
Paper Book
A charming romantic comedy about a talented chef and the anonymous food critic who nearly destroys her restaurant--only to fall for her in real life--in this delightful enemies-to-lovers love story set in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In downtown Milwaukee, Lou works tirelessly to build...
How to share an egg : a true story of hunger, love, and plenty
Reichert, Bonny
Paper Book
An "absolutely transformative" (People) culinary memoir about the relationship between food and family-sustenance and survival-from a chef, award-winning journalist, and daughter of a Holocaust survivor. "Beautifully written, heartbreaking and hopeful."-Ruth Reichl, New...
Save me the plums : my Gourmet memoir
Reichl, Ruth
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * "A delicious insider account of the gritty, glamorous world of food culture."--Vanity Fair In this "poignant and hilarious" (The New York Times Book Review) memoir, trailblazing food writer and beloved restaurant critic Ruth...
Hunger like a thirst : a memoir of obsession, anonymity and eating the world
Rodell, Besha
Paper Book
Hunger Like a Thirst is a bold and deeply personal memoir from Besha Rodell; chief restaurant critic for The Age, New York Times contributor, and one of the most respected voices in food writing today. When Rodell moved from Australia to the...
Mother sauce : Italian American family recipes and the story of the women who created them
Scala Quinn, Lucinda
Paper Book
From home cook and author Lucinda Scala Quinn, a cookbook containing 100 iconic and beloved Italian-American recipes from the last century. Named a Best Cookbook of 2025 by Real Simple and The Strategist  In America today,...
Radha and Jai's recipe for romance
Sharma, Nisha
Paper Book
Radha was on the verge of winning the world's biggest kathak dancing competition when a family betrayal shattered her dreams, and her confidence. Now, she's made a deal with her mum- study dance for a year at the Princeton Academy of Arts and Sciences and then leave that world forever. But if she's...
More, please : on food, fat, bingeing, longing, and the lust for "enough"
Specter, Emma
Paper Book
ONE OF TIME 100'S MUST-READ BOOKS OF 2024 * A DEBUTIFUL BEST BOOK OF 2024 * FEATURED IN NYLON * W MAGAZINE * GLAMOUR * BOOK RIOT * HEYALMA * BUSTLE * ELECTRIC LITERATURE * ROMPER * AND MORE! "Tender, funny, angry, and sharp as hell. This is an essential book for anyone with a body, anyone...
Taste : my life through food
Tucci, Stanley
Paper Book
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Named a Notable Book of the Year by NPR and The Washington Post From award-winning actor and food obsessive Stanley Tucci comes an intimate and charming memoir of life in and out of the kitchen.
Praisesong for the kitchen ghosts : stories and recipes from five generations of Black country cooks
Wilkinson, Crystal
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER . A lyrical culinary journey that explores the hidden legacy of Black Appalachians, throughpowerful storytelling alongside nearly forty comforting recipes, from the former poetlaureate of Kentucky."With Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts,...
Care and feeding : a memoir
Woolever, Laurie
Paper Book
Laurie Woolever - co-author of bestsellers Appetites and Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography - traces her path from a small-town childhood to working at food publications and revered restaurants in New York and around the world with two of the most powerful men in the business:...
Land of milk and honey
Zhang, C Pam
Paper Book
" The award-winning author of How Much of These Hills Is Gold returns with a rapturous and revelatory novel about a young chef whose discovery of pleasure alters her life and, indirectly, the world A smog has spread. Food crops are rapidly...

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