So many books are published every year, it is hard to single out those that make the biggest impact. From an award-winning Chef’s take on awards and food journalism to cooking out of a van and Korean slow food for a better life, 2024 has been a roller coaster of cooking emotions.
Here are our eight best reads for 2024:
Every once in a while, as Editor, a book comes across your desk that you are both apprehensive and excited to read. Ben Shrewy’s ‘Uses for Obsession’ is that book.
From a vitriolic and sarcastic view of Chef Hats, restaurant guides and food journalists to nostalgic memories of diving for paua with his Dad in the Naki (I too hail from this great part of Aotearoa), Attica mastermind Ben takes you on a roller coaster ride of a Chef’s life, dealing with awards and getting out of tricky situations.
Chef, Natalie Rodriguez is also a self-proclaimed poet, wife, dog Mum and full-time traveller from the USA. Growing up in her Puerto Rican grandmother’s kitchen, she has a natural affinity for cooking and now takes this on the road with her wife Abigail.
Three years and counting of cooking out of a van has resulted in her cookbook ‘Tiny Kitchen Feast’ – a collection of recipes from a travelling Chef, which are all plant-based and delicious.
Love to host but short on time? So many of us enjoy having friends over for dinner but too often social occasions turn into full-on affairs that leave us stressed before the first guest arrives.
Enter London-based stylist and author, Frankie Unsworth, whose latest cookbook ‘Last Minute Dinner Party’ dishes up more than 120 recipes to feed family and friends at a moment’s notice.
‘Pocha’ – short for pojangmacha which literally translates to ‘covered wagon’ – is a tented or tarpaulin-covered stall, van or market vendor serving cheap and unfussy Korean comfort food, snacks and drinks.
In her latest cookbook – the first ever on Korean 'pocha' culture – London-based food writer Su Scott returns home to the streets where she grew up and the food that shaped her.
Jung Eun Chae caused a sensation when she opened her tiny Brunswick apartment to six diners a night, four times a week with a waiting list that exploded to more than 8000 people. Her medicinal style of traditional South Korean cooking has garnered her many awards, including her restaurant Chae coming in with 15 hats in the AGFG 2024 Chef Hat Awards.
Her new cookbook, ‘Chae – Korean Slow Food for a Better Life’ is so much more than a cookbook – it’s an essential guide to slow Korean food and fermentation, which follows the seasons of a calendar year: Summer, Autumn, Winter and Spring.
What began as a sideline hustle during COVID lockdowns has snowballed into a hit retail store in Melbourne’s Cremorne for Tarts Anon’s Gareth Whitton and partner, Catherine Way.
Tarts Anon does one thing exceptionally well – tarts – and in the couple’s first self-titled cookbook they reveal the secrets to baking a stunning tart, every time.
While it took her a while to realise it, loving food has been a constant in Erin Alderson’s life. She would help her Grandfather in the garden, her Great-aunt made sure she knew how good butter could be and Erin owes her adoration of spices to her Mum.
Now a writer, recipe developer and photographer, Erin offers vegetarian recipes that harness the bounty of Californian produce and celebrate the state’s diverse cuisine. Her third cookbook, ‘The Yearlong Pantry’, is a vegetarian guide to grains, legumes, nuts and seeds that teaches readers to transform their home pantry, learn to buy, store and cook and savour basic staples.
For Ellie Bouhadana, cooking is not about perfect technique or pristine presentation – it’s about the intimacy and pleasure of feeding friends and family and the little moments along the way.
Ellie’s debut cookbook, ‘Ellie’s Table’ is rich with storytelling, a celebration of her family and travels – inspired by her Moroccan and Eastern European Jewish heritage and her love of Mediterranean and North African cuisine.
