The Best Cookbooks of 2022, From Wok Manifestos to Dessert Bibles

When it comes to cookbooks, we all have different priorities. Some literarily inclined home cooks want a great story; others want to dive into a regional understanding of a certain type of cuisine; others yet want a cookbook that’s oversized, flashy, and packed with mouthwatering photos. Ultimately, though, we really just want to make some dope food. And for the food-obsessed, there are few gifts more exciting than a cool new cookbook, which is why this year you need to give your loved ones some of the beautiful volumes found below. (And buy a couple for yourself, too, because nothing’s worse than the FOMO that comes with watching your sibling unwrap that new Claire Saffitz dessert book and wishing you’d kept it for yourself.) 

When it comes to the best cookbooks of 2022, there’s truly something for everyone. This year has blessed us with a ton of instant classics, from J. Kenji López-Alt’s long-awaited, encyclopedic exploration of wok cooking in The Wok, to Mason Hereford’s modern treatise on the art of the sandwich, Turkey and the Wolf: Flavor Trippin’ in New Orleans, to Jess Damuck’s salad manifesto, Salad Freak, and Chicago-based baker Greg Wade’s groovy and encouraging Bread Head. Sure, you could spend 2023 ordering Sweetgreen for lunch three times a week and eating rotisserie chicken every night (which, actually, uh, sounds kind of awesome), or you could pick up these books and inject your life with some new flavors. Here’s to the 12 best cookbooks of 2022.

A colorful, fun book from former Bon Appétit editor Rick Martinez, Mi Cocina is like the ultimate Mexican cooking starter pack. If you master his tortillas, mole, salsa macha, and cochinita pibil, you’ll be in a great position to entertain me your friends and family for a killer meal.

Top Chef contestant and GOAT-level Italian restaurant owner Sarah Grueneberg’s produce-focused cookbook is so enticing that you’ll want to drop everything and run to the closest farmers market. In addition to her fabulous pasta recipes, you’ll get access to dishes like porcini Bolognese, roasted baby artichokes with feta and sweet cherries, homemade lemon ricotta, and Calabrian chile cornbread with whipped goat cheese butter.

Mason Hereford is the president of wacky sandwiches, and this is his Constitution. Find recipes for his famous fried bologna sandwich and fun, fusion-y sides like “okranomiyaki” and frozen hash browns topped with anchovy crème fraîche and caviar. I once made his collard green melt, which took three hours and remains one of the tastiest things I’ve ever cooked (that recipe is in here, too).

Great, you might be thinking. Another 700-page cookbook from Kenji. Well, if you thought that, you’d be wrong, because The Food Lab was almost 1,000 pages! Anyway, this will take you through everything you need to know (read: all the information that exists) about woks, from cookware and techniques to many recipes and—of course—the science behind it all. In addition to becoming a master of stir-frying and high-heat cooking, you’ll learn to cook dishes including Panfried “Garlic Knot” Pancakes, Kimchi and Spam Fried Rice, and Kenji’s mom’s Japanese-Style Mapo Tofu.

In this vibrant volume about Puerto Rican food, Illyanna Maisonet offers compelling explanations of indigenous ingredients and great meditations on the things we take for granted in cooking. For example, in a blurb called “Washing Rice and Why the 2:1 Ratio is Bullshit,” Maisonet writes, “the 2:1 Eurocentric ratio most of y’all have been taught is a fucking lie.” Love it. From the casual tostones or jibarito appreciator to the picadillo master, Diasporican has recipes any fan of Puerto Rican cuisine will love.

Though he’s only in his early 30s, Kwame Onwuachi has racked up a lifetime’s worth of accolades. This is his first cookbook, and it’s one of those rare and brilliant ones where you learn as much about the author as you do about their food. From Jerk barbecue sauce and jollof rice to seafood gumbo, braised oxtails, and chicken yassa, the recipes in My America give a cosmopolitan tour of the dishes and cultures that have made Onwauchi who he is today. It’s a tour you’ll want to get a ticket for.

I’m admittedly not a dessert person, but enough friends have made dishes from Saffitz’s books that even I know she’s the real deal. Baking isn’t exactly easy, but Saffitz, best known as one of the top-tier breakout stars and recipe developers from Bon Appétit’s YouTube channel, has recipes for every skill level here—from Creamy Rice Pudding with Candied Kumquats to Salty Brownie Ice Cream Sandwiches—so really any type of baker can find footing and only excel from there. Flipping through this book and perusing its gorgeous photography is a true tour de sweets, and the fact that there’s a black and white cookie recipe is just icing on the cake. 

I hate to say it, but I’m one of those people who became obsessed with Via Carota’s insalata verde recipe when it went live in The New York Times a few years ago. It’s just, like, the platonic ideal of a green salad. Anyway, now we have a whole book of recipes from the beloved NYC restaurant. This cookbook is so focused on seasonality that its broken down by autumn, winter, spring, and summer, with each subsection divided to highlight that season’s best produce, whether it’s fava beans, mushrooms, lamb, or asparagus. 

TBH, you had me at the eggplant on the cover. While most Chinese cookbooks naturally have a strong focus on meat and seafood dishes, these plant-based recipes from Hannah Che are immanently friendly for the plant-based eater. Cooking Chinese food is joyful, and this book is full of great options for vegans and meat eaters alike, from stir-fried Napa cabbage with vinegar sauce to pork-free mapo tofu.

Salads are life… at least for Jess Damuck. If you fiend for all things green (or not; look at that cover photo!), this salad bible will give you all the tips and tricks you need to master fresh, crunchy, healthful dishes, from salad architecture to cues on how to shop for and properly prepare veggies. If you’re questioning whether you need a whole book about salads, I implore you to think outside the head of iceberg and scroll to the bottom of this best-of roundup over at Martha Stewart (who wrote the intro)—then tell me you aren’t salivating. 

We already know Eric Kim from countless great recipes and articles in The New York Times, but this book sees him in his own arena, where he serves up beautiful prose about his own life, as well as new perspectives on kimchi, Spam, Korean stews, and a whole lot more. There’s so much I want to make out of this book. Gochujang chocolate lava cakes? Come on. (OK, maybe I am a dessert person.)

Earlier this year, I had to quickly source a loaf of bread for a dinner. I ordered a honey oat challah from Publican Quality Bread, where Greg Wade is head baker. The bread slapped so hard that it ended up being the star of my meal (which, frankly, wasn’t great for my ego). Wade’s new bread book is empathetic and warm—you can tell he wants you to really learn how to make great bread, not just recreate what’s in his bakery at home. His “New Baking Manifesto” page is a perfect reset vibe for new bakers and old heads alike.

The Rec Room staff independently selected all of the stuff featured in this story. Want more reviews, recommendations, and red-hot deals? Sign up for our newsletter.