Rooted in the Kitchen

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

Updated June 8, 2026
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Be my guest : reflections on food, community, and the meaning of hospitality
Basil, Priya
Paper Book
A thought-provoking meditation on food, family, identity, immigration, and, most of all, hospitality--at the table and beyond--that's part food memoir, part appeal for more authentic decency in our daily worlds, and in the world at large. Be My Guest is an utterly unique,...
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
"My entire life I have been less fat and more fat, but never not fat." At once a love letter to fresh roti, chaat, chicken pulao, ghee, pakoras, shorba, parathay and an often hilarious dissection of life in a Muslim immigrant family, Fatty Fatty Boom Boom is also a searingly honest portrait of a...
Catering to nobody
Davidson, Diane Mott.
Paper Book
The first novel from the Queen of the Culinary Mystery! While catering a wake, Goldy is horrified when her former father-in-law is nearly killed by a cup of poison-laced coffee. Investigating officer Tom Schulz, though smitten with Goldy and her food, is forced to shut down her business--forcing...
Our lady of perpetual hunger : a memoir
Donovan, Lisa
Paper Book
Named a Favorite Book for Southerners in 2020 by Garden & Gun  "Donovan is such a vivid writer--smart, raunchy, vulnerable and funny-- that if her vaunted caramel cakes and sugar pies are half as good as her prose, well, I'd be open to even...
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....
Braided heritage : recipes and stories on the origin of American cuisine
Harris, Jessica B.
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER . Discover the sweeping story of how Indigenous, European, and African traditions intertwined to form an entirely new cuisine, with over 90 recipes for the modern home cook-from the James Beard Cookbook Hall of Famer and star of the Netflix docuseries High on the Hog.<...
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. ...
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 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 : from food stamps to fine dining, a restaurant critic finds her place at the table
Rodell, Besha
Paper Book
A witty and lively memoir from food writer and New York Times contributor Besha Rodell, (formerly) one of the world's last anonymous restaurant critics When Besha Rodell moved from Australia to the United States with her mother at fourteen, she was a foreigner in a new...
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 & Jai's recipe for romance
Sharma, Nisha,
Paper Book
To All the Boys I Loved Before meets World of Dance in this delectable love story that combines food, dance, and a hint of drama to cook up the perfect romance. Radha is on the verge of becoming one of the greatest kathak dancers in the world . . . until a family...
More, please : on food, fat, bingeing, longing, and the lust for "enough"
Specter, Emma
Paper Book
AS 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 with a heart." --Helen Rosner, James Beard Award-winning...
Taste : my life through food
Tucci, Stanley
Paper Book
From award-winning actor and food obsessive Stanley Tucci comes an intimate and charming memoir of life in and out of the kitchen. Stanley Tucci grew up in an Italian American family that spent every night around the kitchen table. He shared the magic of those meals...
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
An Instant New York Times Bestseller! A candid, funny, and occasionally devastating culinary memoir of a woman making her way through the food world, navigating addiction, a cultural reckoning, and an unexpected tragedy In this moving, hilarious, and insightful...
Land of milk and honey
Zhang, C Pam
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK  Finalist for the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award Longlisted for the Joyce Carol Oates Award Longlisted for the Carol Shields Prize Longlisted for the Aspen Words Literary...

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