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In 2025, cookbooks revelled in the joy of gathering. Of celebrating heritage, togetherness — and vegetables. Some dug deep into single subjects, breaking ground in first-of-their-kind collections and making something new out of something old. Others reminded us not to forget where we came from and who we’ve lost. Here are 10 of the year’s best.
All That Crumbs Allow
This sweet, illustrated volume by friends
and
opens with a dedication: “To all the people who have made something from nothing.” It’s a beautiful sentiment and prepares the reader for the possibilities that follow. Marek and Wynne have collaborated for over two decades — from Montreal restaurants to the photoshoots for two of Wynne’s previous books.
features 50 breadcrumb recipes, including some drawing on their shared Czech heritage, such as smažený sýr (fried cheese), not one but two pasta doughs made with crumbs, desserts such as the evocatively named “Witches’ Froth” (a Hungarian apple mousse), and a pancake mix ideal for giving to anyone who appreciates the magic of spinning old bread into gold.
Boustany
— “my garden” in Arabic — is
‘s first solo work. The Palestinian-British chef, food writer and restaurateur thinks of the book as “a document in recipes,” and it took on new significance as it launched during the second year of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. The plant-based collection draws inspiration from memories of summers spent in his grandparents’ garden in Hebron, which helped shape Tamimi’s culinary style. Boustany came together during the pandemic, as Tamimi found parallels between Palestine and his home in Umbria, Italy, where he brought the sometimes humble dishes of his upbringing back to life. Recipes such as a lemony spinach soup with za’atar breadcrumbs and sunny turmeric cauliflower and chickpeas with lemon yogurt bring comfort and warmth.
Chop Chop
‘s journey has taken her from geology to gastronomy, and from Warri, Nigeria, to Mississauga, Ont. Known as the “
” to fans of the blog she launched in 2009, Sokoh maps culinary connections across cultures. Her cookbook debut,
, is a guide to the fundamentals of Nigerian cuisine. The book’s title captures its spirit of community and sharing. A “chop chop” is what Nigerians would call a gastronome, and “come chop” is an offer to pull up a chair at the table. The culinary anthropologist, food historian and food studies professor believes in building a solid foundation to set yourself up for success. In Chop Chop, she empowers cooks to do just that.
Dobre Dobre
From her first trip to a Polish bakery in the late 2000s, Laurel Kratochvila was hooked. But it wasn’t just the deliciousness that captivated the American-born,
. As Kratochvila tore into a loaf of chałka, she immediately connected the dots between the braided egg bread and the challah her great-grandparents once baked in a village outside of Warsaw.
, her “love letter” to Polish baking, draws on 17 years of research. Kratochvila complements her own creations with those from some of her favourite bakers in Poland and the Jewish and Polish diasporas. The 120 recipes, a combination of the classic and the new, illustrate why Poland’s baking scene is so exciting.
Indian Food Is Easy
was among the early wave of
and food bloggers. In the late 2000s, she started documenting her food adventures, setting up her laptop in restaurants near and far. Today, the Toronto-based TV personality and food media producer makes regular appearances on shows such as The Good Stuff with
. In
, Selvaraju takes it back to basics, channelling lessons from 16 years of sharing recipes, as well as tips she’s picked up from her caterer mother, Meena. The result is fun and approachable, with 100 recipes ranging from regional Indian dishes to “mash-ups” that embody Selvaraju’s passion for global cuisines.
Kin
Love and loss are at the heart of
. Chef
‘s debut cookbook is a testament to the beauty that can come from navigating grief. When Mitchell launched a supper club almost a decade ago with her Jamaican-born parents in London, England, it helped her feel closer to her late brother. Years later, while working on the collection of Caribbean recipes, Mitchell lost her mother and gave birth to her first child a few weeks later. For Mitchell, the Ghanaian sankofa bird on the book’s cover — feet facing forward, head looking back, grasping an egg in its beak — captures the spirit of the book. Moving into the future without forgetting the past.
108 Asian Cookies
broke ground with
, a first-of-its-kind cookie cookbook inspired by flavours and techniques from Asia. The Montreal-born, Renton, Wash.-based author and founder of
features classics from the continent and its diasporas as well as her own creations, each with a distinct flavour profile. Lieu adds malty Milo and umami-rich miso to chocolate chip cookies and gives peanut butter cookies a surprise twist with instant ramen. Why 108, you may ask? It’s an homage to Lieu’s late father, who loved the number eight. (In Cantonese, the word is a homonym for “fortune.”) With influences from countries including China, Vietnam and the Philippines, Lieu’s third cookbook puts a fresh spin on a familiar form.
Salad for Days
2025 may well go down as “The Year of Salads.” In her fourth cookbook,
, Australian vegetable enthusiast
features 80 different dressings — and salads to pair with them. The recipes are almost evenly split between warmer days and cooler ones, proving that salads aren’t weather-dependent. In Zaslavsky’s book, they’re not meal-dependent either. These salads are suitable for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Adding to their appeal, they often involve more assembly than cooking, and they can be mixed and matched for colourful spreads. Here’s betting you’ll win friends with salad after all.
Special mentions to two other wonderful salad books: Hetty Lui McKinnon’s
and Greta Podleski’s
.
Tahini Baby
‘s second cookbook,
, is filled with exciting food, full stop. It happens to be vegetarian — as Grinshpan puts it, with a lowercase “v.” Taking inspiration from Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cuisines, the book has a generous spread of condiments and dips, substantial vegetable dishes, fresh breads, grains, pasta and legumes. The author and Top Chef Canada host has a way with vegetables. Tahini Baby’s more than 100 recipes offer a big flavour payoff, often with minimal effort. Grinshpan encourages time-savers, such as making preserved lemons “the need-it-now way.” After all, why should you have to wait to make flavour bombs such as preserved lemon toum (Lebanese garlic sauce)?
Turtle Island
considers his second cookbook,
, a path to a better future. The Oglala Lakota chef has dedicated his career to raising awareness of Indigenous foods. In the book, he takes the same approach to ingredients as he does at his Minneapolis restaurant,
. Culturally important foods are the focus, and Eurocentric products, such as beef, cane sugar and wheat, are off the menu. In each of the 13 chapters, Sherman focuses on a different North American region, from the Canadian Arctic to southern Mexico. Along the way, he highlights the work of other Indigenous chefs doing important work, including
of the Enoch Cree Nation near Edmonton and
from the Six Nations territory in Southern Ontario.
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