We've named our top cookbook picks of the season, but what new titles are food bloggers most looking forward to? We asked, and here's what they said.
Elise Bauer
Simply Recipes
I'm most looking forward to Eating Viet Nam by Graham Holliday. Graham was an early food blogging pioneer with his Noodle Pie blog. His writing is so vivid you can practically hear the traffic whizzing by as you dive into Graham's adventures exploring the good, the bad, and the truly sublime of Vietnamese street food. He's almost a cultural anthropologist, capturing for us a moment in time in this rapidly developing country, where the street food scene is still vibrant, but slowly losing the battle against state-preferred establishments with clean floors and soulless food.
Kelsey Boyte
Happyolks
Hands down, the book I'm looking forward to most this spring is The Sprouted Kitchen: Bowl + Spoon by Sara Forte. To know her is to love her, and there is perhaps nothing more universally comforting or practical than a bowl of goodness to nourish both tummy and soul. I can't wait to get my hands on it.
Cynthia
Two Red Bowls
There are so many I'm excited for, but if I had to choose one, I think it would be Food52 Genius Recipes—I imagine it will be as beautifully written and impeccably curated as Kristen's column, and James Ransom's photography is always stunning.
Clotilde Dusoulier
Chocolate and Zucchini
The book I want to highlight is Fika, an illustrated recipe book on the Swedish art of the coffee break.
Paul Lowe Einlyng
Sweet Paul
We're cookbook fanatics here at Sweet Paul! In the short term we're really looking forward to Simply Ancient Grains by Maria Speck and The Sweetapolita Bakebook by Rosie Alyea, and who isn't looking forward to the Big Gay Ice Cream book?! In the long term, we're closely following David Leite on social media as he is writing his memoir, tentatively titled Notes on A Banana. Can't wait to read that when it comes out!
Amina Elahi
Paper/Plates
The food book I'm most excited for this year is Cara Nicoletti's Voracious, out this August. Her blog, Yummy Books, is a treasure trove of literature-inspired recipes—which is a treat given my own focus on the same. Cara is a thoughtful and humorous writer, and I can't wait to see how those qualities shine in her stories and recipes.
Sarah Kieffer
The Vanilla Bean Blog
I am looking forward to two cookbooks: Seven Spoons: My Favorite Recipes by Tara O'Brady and The Sprouted Kitchen Bowl + Spoon by Sara Forte.
Stephanie Le
I am a Food Blog
The book I'm most looking forward to for Spring 2015 would be Milk Bar Life. I'm a huge fan of the Momofuku empire. (I cooked through the entire Momofuku cookbook!) [Author Christina] Tosi comes up with crazy combinations that sound utterly addictive. Tosi's previous book was filled with sweets, which isn't really plausibly for everyday, but Milk Bar Life is promising to feature recipes for "weaknights." Also, it sounds like there are a ton of snack recipes, and I'm all about the snacking!
David Lebovitz
davidlebovitz.com
The cookbook that I'm most looking forward to is Good Bread Is Back: A Contemporary History of French Bread, the Way It Is Made, and the People Who Make It by Steven Laurence Kaplan. Kaplan is an expert on French bread. His book is not just about how bread is made, but on the history and the importance of bread to the French. They have a unique relationship to bread and it has resisted (and succumbed) to modernization. No one is more qualified than Professor Kaplan to comment on breadmaking in France, and I'm looking forward to this book as it's a subject that is near and dear to me.
David Leite
Leite's Culinaria
It will have to be Ruhlman's How to Braise: Foolproof Techniques and Recipes for the Home Cook by Michael Ruhlman. I don't think we have enough technique books that teach people how to cook so they can be freer at the stove. Ruhlman always delivers with a concise, no-nonsense approach to the building blocks of cooking.
Lucy Madison and Tram Nguyen
Pen and Palate
We can't wait to get our hands on J. Kenji López-Alt's The Food Lab. We love his scientific approach to cooking and his sense of humor. Fascinating, useful stuff and always a good read.
Tara O'Brady
Seven Spoons
I'm excited about so many folks with books coming out, including April Bloomfield, Sarah Britton, and Adam Hynam-Smith. I especially can't wait to cook from Sara Forte's Sprouted Kitchen: Bowl + Spoon—her no-fuss approach to flavorful, healthy cooking is inspiring, and her recipes always deliver.
Michael Procopio
Food for the Thoughtless
One that I am definitely looking forward to is Maureen Abood's Rosewater and Orange Blossoms: Fresh and Classic Recipes from My Lebanese Kitchen (Running Press). I think she's a fine writer, Lebanese food is at once both familiar and exotic, and Levantine cuisine is one particular gap I'd like to fill in my culinary repertoire. (Preferably using pistachios and pomegranates as spackle.)
On the prose/memoir end of the spectrum, I'm very much looking forward to David Leite's Notes on A Banana: A Memoir of Food, Love, and Manic Depression (Dey Street Books) because I would love to get inside that man's head.
Cheryl Sternman Rule
Five-Second Rule
This spring's cookbook line-up looks incredibly promising. While I'm certainly eager for the release of my own second cookbook (Yogurt Culture, coming from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt on 4/14/15), I also can't wait for Maureen Abood's debut Lebanese cookbook, Rose Water & Orange Blossoms: Fresh & Classic Recipes from My Lebanese Kitchen. Maureen infuses her food and storytelling with warm, vivid color, and I'm eager to get lost in her beautiful words and recipes.
The Serious Eats Team
Serious Eats
We're so excited about this year's cookbooks! We're pumped to read April Bloomfield's new vegetable book, and really looking forward to Alex Stupak's book on tacos—he's proven himself to have a deft hand with tacos and tortillas at his Empellon restaurants in NYC, and so we think he'll have a lot of cool ideas to share. Joanne Chang of Flour Bakery in Boston has a great new low-sugar baking book coming out, too, and we love the idea of Kristin Donnelly's potluck cookbook. These days, few people cook full-on dinners when entertaining, instead relying on guests to each contribute a part of the meal. There's a lot of potential for creative potluck dishes beyond the classic casseroles and salads. (Disclosure, Donnelly is a friend of ours.) And of course, we'd be remiss not to mention our own Kenji López-Alt's epic The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science, which is coming out this September.
Michelle Tam
Nom Nom Paleo
The cookbook I am looking forward to the most is J. Kenji López-Alt's The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science.
Shelly West
Vegetarian Ventures
The cookbook I am most excited about this spring is My New Roots by Sarah Britton. It's the first cookbook I've preordered in ages and I know it's gonna be rad! I don't know anyone who can make healthy eating looking so cool.
Molly Wizenberg
Orangette
I can't remember a time when I've been as excited for a cookbook as I am for Rachel Roddy's Five Quarters: Recipes from a Roman Kitchen (Saltyard Books (UK) / Grand Central (US)). Roddy, a British transplant to Rome, is an exceptional writer and home cook, and my stomach rumbles every time she shares a glimpse of her cooking on her blog, Rachel Eats.
On the memoir side of things, I can't wait to read Jessica Fechtor's Stir: A True Story of Food, Family, and Recovery from a Ruptured Brain Aneurysm. Fechtor writes about the best and worst of life with a rare clarity and depth, and I've been waiting for this book since the moment I first heard about it.
Molly Yeh
My Name is Yeh
The Big Gay Ice Cream Book (and not just because a ridiculous mug of mine is in it). Food52's Genius Recipes because every recipe in the genius column on their site is actually genius in the most wondrous ways. I'm also looking forward to some blogger friends' books like Inspiralized (because I can't remember the last time I ate a vegetable), and Tara O'Brady's book because it's going to be beautiful.
Cara Nicoletti
Yummy Books
It's near impossible for me to pick just one, so here are three I'm really looking forward to: Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: The Four Elements of Good Cooking By Samin Nosrat and illustrated by Wendy McNaughton. Honey & Co: Food from the Middle East By Sarit Packer and Itamar Srulovich. The Beetlebung Farm Cookbook: A Year of Cooking on Martha's Vineyard By Chris Fischer.
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Correction: An earlier version of this article spelled Elise Bauer's name incorrectly. It is Elise, not Elisa.
