The Best Cookbooks of 2026 (So Far)

The year 2026 has already produced a crop of outstanding cookbook titles, from special anniversary reissues to dinner inspiration and brand-new baking. Here are the best cookbooks of 2026 so far. This will be updated often, but here are the best out now, plus the most anticipated fall titles ahead. (Last update: September 2026).

With so many cookbooks published — or soon to be published — this year, it can be hard to sift through the best ones. Cookbooks are an investment, and can also make great gifts for cooks and food lovers, so I always think it’s important that each one earn its price and its space in your or a loved one’s kitchen. I’ve judged national cookbook award competitions, and also have a personal collection of several hundred cookbooks, so I let my love, judgment, and personal testing work together to create a trustworthy and inspiring list.

How These Cookbooks Were Chosen

Not every cookbook is worth cooking from, as I know both personally and professionally as a home cook, trained pastry chef, and judge for the IACP Cookbook Awards who has profiled cookbook store owners and owns several hundred cookbooks. The books here met the same standard I apply when judging: recipes that are clear, trustworthy, inspiring, and offer a trusted point of view that makes you a better, happier cook.

Each one of these cookbook picks has been personally vetted for quality, writing, recipes, and overall excellence. I hope you find something you love for yourself or another special cook in your life.

And be sure to read our guide to the All-Time Best Cookbooks for Home Cooks, a definitive list of classics, updated essentials, and baking and dessert. 

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The Best Cookbooks of 2026: General Cooking

AMMAZZA! by Hillary Sterling

Hillary Sterling is one of the best chefs in New York City, cooking excellent Italian food like wood-fired pizzas, roasts, and house-made pastas at her gorgeous Midtown restaurant Ci Siamo (which I always recommend, especially if you’re near Penn Station). In Ammazza! (Italian slang for “wow!”), Sterling brings over 100 beautiful, seasonal recipes to home kitchens in a lovely cookbook woven with personal stories about her life and cooking.

We Fancy: Simple Recipes to Make the Everyday Special by Jerrelle Guy

Acclaimed food writer and James Beard Award finalist Jerrelle Guy takes everyday staples and transforms them into elevated, memorable meals in this new cookbook. I love Jerrelle’s writing, which feels like chatting with a fun friend who knows her way around the kitchen. With her guidance, take ingredients like crackers or beans and transform typical weeknight dinners into memorable and fresh, like black bean burgers smashed with tortilla chips, artichokes in the butter wine sauce, and Olive Oil Brownie Pudding covered with chopped nuts.

Spain My Way: Eat, Drink, and Cook Like a Spaniard by José Andrés

The thing I love most about this book, besides the classic Spanish recipes, is how approachable it is for home cooks, despite being written by one of the most accomplished restaurant chefs in the world. In this book, chef José Andrés shares his favorite Spanish home cooking recipes that range from simple classics (stewed garbanzos and greens, tortilla de patatas, tomato-rubbed bread, soups) to favorite dinners like paella, stews, and roasts. Plenty of desserts, too, of course. Bonus: Chef Andrés shares many of his best techniques to make us better cooks.

Jacques Pépin Complete Techniques: 50th Anniversary Edition

Many professional chefs will cite this Jacques Pépin tome as one of the very best cookbooks you can buy to teach the fundamentals of how to cook. That’s why it’s also included in my list of 20 All-Time Best Cookbooks. The special anniversary edition includes more than 600 cooking techniques and methods along with 160 recipes from one of the most accomplished and iconic chefs of all time. But it’s the careful explanations and step-by-step photos that set this cookbook apart. Learn how to bone a chicken, whisk a perfect hollandaise, and bake a baguette just like the pros. Chef Tom Colicchio credits Pépin’s original La Technique as changing the course of his life.

The Taste of Country Cooking: 50th Anniversary Edition by Edna Lewis

This beloved, essential cookbook goes beyond regular cookbooks; it’s in the American canon. I have always loved it, and now there’s a new, beautiful anniversary edition, complete with a new foreword by the equally estimable Toni Tipton-Martin (make her skillet cornbread recipe). Edna Lewis weaves memories and stories of her life in a rural post-Emancipation Virginia town throughout her homestyle recipes (baked Virginia ham, crisp biscuits, skillet asparagus, hominy), organized by season and by menu. It’s a memoir, cookbook, and love letter to simple and seasonal Southern cooking.

According to the National Women’s History Museum, Edna Lewis was one of the “first African American women from the south to write a cookbook that did not hide the author’s true name, gender or race. Combining her love of food preparation and her deep knowledge of African American history, Lewis’ legacy taught countless others the importance of traditional southern cuisine.”

The Lost Kitchen Volume 3: Seize the Supper by Erin French

In the tiny town of Freedom, Maine, Erin French and her staff create beautifully seasonal, locally-sourced meals at the restaurant The Lost Kitchen. Though reservations are nearly impossible to obtain, cooks can make her recipes at home. French has a way with words — she also has a memoir — and shares homey but elevated recipes led by the seasons. Even if you don’t cook anything from this book (and you should), turning through the pages will transport you to Maine.

Food Is a Feeling by Carla Lalli

There’s something very special going on in the pages of this 2026 must-have cookbook, which is actually so much more. Carla Lalli is one of my favorite cooks and food writers, with a witty and personal touch. Here, she shares 65 recipes and 30 essays, each deeply meaningful and personal, borne from a difficult year in which her 24-year marriage ended. This cookbook is everything Lalli needed to nourish herself in that year — chickpea and rice stew; beans and greens; her mom’s Saturday night Alfredo. If there was ever a cookbook to say “eat your feelings” in a good way, this is it.

Cuisines of Odesa: A Ukrainian Cookbook by Maria Kalenska

Beautiful inside and out. Here, Maria Kalenska — a third-generation Odessa (she spells it Odesa) native and travel writer — shares a compendium of Eastern European comfort cooking from this important coastal city, plus plenty on its food culture and traditions. Recipes cover every meal from breakfast to dessert: pancakes, homemade curd cheese, borscht and other soups, dumplings, vegetables, you name it. And look at that gorgeous cover.

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The Best Baking and Dessert Cookbooks of 2026

Let’s turn to the sweeter side. These are the best dessert and baking cookbooks of the year, from essential basics to special sweets.

Morning Baker: Recipes and Rituals for Breakfast and Beyond by Roxana Jullapat

Roxana Jullapat’s follow-up to the acclaimed Mother Grains delivers over 100 whole-grain recipes built around breakfast bakes, so you can start your day off right: muffins, scones, breads, and pastries (including croissants) that are homey, but with a slightly elevated twist. Roxana always combines deep expertise with genuine warmth into precise recipes you’d expect from the chef and owner behind Los Angeles’s acclaimed Friends & Family café and bakery.

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Not Yet Released: The Most Anticipated Fall 2026 Cookbooks

Fall is the big cookbook release season. And we’re in luck: This fall’s cookbook titles include anticipated releases from Ina Garten, Kwame Onwuachi, The Lost Kitchen’s Erin French, and a new dinner bible.

All Hours by Kwame Onwuachi

I’ve been fortunate to have eaten chef Kwame Onwuachi’s food at his acclaimed D.C. restaurant, Dogon. His cooking is stunningly good, drawing flavors from the African diaspora, Caribbean, American South, the local N.Y.C. bodega, and anywhere else that inspires him. (His other restaurant is the much-lauded Tatiana in Manhattan; good luck getting a reservation.) This cookbook promises to be every bit as fun, creative, and delicious as his restaurant cooking, but designed for home cooks. Recipes range from a perfect bodega bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich to a classic Louisiana seafood boil. This book is all about having a good time.

Ottolenghi: Simple Too by Yotam Ottolenghi (October 9)

The first Ottolenghi Simple cookbook made my list of all-time greatest cookbooks, so you know this second will be an exceptional follow-up book. Simple Too features 135 new recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert. Every dish can be made in under 30 minutes, cooked in one pot, or prepped ahead.

Daily Dessert: Treats on Repeat by Caroline Schiff (October 16)

First, this gets my vote for cookbook cover of the year. Second, buy this book! Caroline Schiff is one of the best pastry chefs working today, and has an amazing way of blending nostalgic classics, professional technique, and signature fun. These recipes will delight; there’s a giant sticky bun, warm cobbler, individual tiramisù, and yes, the signature baked Alaska she made famous as pastry chef at Brooklyn’s Gage & Tollner chophouse.

Cookie Queen: 100 Irresistible, Doable, Giftable Recipes by Susan Spungen (November 6)

Susan Spungen was food editor at Martha Stewart Living for twelve years. Since then, she has become — as the title suggests — the queen of cookies. Just in time for holiday baking season, Susan shares a big collection of doable, sweet cookies that go beyond the basics, with tiger-striped sablés, Earl Grey shortbreads with burnt honey glaze, toasted corn cookies, and other creative cookie takes on the holiday season’s favorite staple.

The Big Book of Dinner: Recipes and Rules (and How to Break Them) by Melissa Clark (November 16)

It’s the New York Times‘s Melissa Clark to the rescue! Here, the James Beard Award-winning food writer has amassed 175 dinner recipes and variations thereof, which should keep us cooking happily for some time. Clark has a great way of making recipes doable at every level, but they are never dumbed down or strict, with plenty of room for riffing.

What cookbooks do you love or recommend as “must haves” for 2026? Share in the comments below.

Why You Can Trust This Cookbook List: This best cookbooks of 2026 list was personally curated by Lisa Ruland, a Culinary Institute of America graduate (baking & pastry valedictorian), Level 2 WSET-Certified Wine Professional (With Honors), and professional pastry chef and food writer/recipe developer who worked at top NYC bakeries, and written for national food publications, including Bon Appétit, Saveur, Taste, Eater, Food52, and more. Lisa is a winner of the prestigious IACP Award for Unpeeled Journal, and is a former judge of the IACP cookbooks competition. I am committed to providing accurate, trustworthy culinary guidance based on years of hands-on experience in professional and home kitchens. Learn more about Lisa’s background and expertise.