9 New Cookbooks To Draw Kitchen Inspo From This Fall

Photo illustration by Sun Ngo.

Something about cooking differently when the temperature starts to drop really does feel like being present for the season. These are some of the fall cookbooks coming out now that I’m looking forward to helping me get in that autumnal mood.

A Very Prairie Christmas Cookbook by Karlynn Johnston

It’s never too early to start picking up holiday baking inspo, and The Kitchen Magpie’s Karlynn Johnson has you set for most anything you’d like to try for this year’s cookie swap! An established Prairie cookbook author, Johnston’s festive recipes range from the standard sugar cookie and gingerbread confections to traditional Ukrainian dessert treats. Make the most of a variety of unique, retro-inspired church bake sale standouts. October 31, $38.

Invitation to A Banquet by Fuschia Dunlop

Fuschia Dunlop’s expertise in the regional cuisines of China has been 30 years in the making: as the first Western student at the Sichuan Higher Institute of Cuisine, as a restaurant critic, a food scholar, and an award-winning cookbook author.

Her most recent book is a 30-dish lesson in the span of her knowledge, taking each classic recipe and explaining how its history ties into the larger story of what we understand Chinese cuisine to be today. November 7, $43.

Veg-table by Nik Sharma

I first became a fan of Sharma’s cooking with The Flavour Equation, his 2020 cookbook that blends his background in molecular biology with science-backed recipes that worked every time. The cream-laced dal makhani, for example, has been a gold standard weeknight lentil in my kitchen ever since.

Sharma's newly released Veg-table uses the same science-backed ethos to explain how different types of plants react to cooking methods, and how to make those interactions work towards more delicious, more colourful and more satisfying plant-based dishes. Enjoy step-by-step photos, and a whole chapter dedicated just to beans—which makes it a cookbook love letter after this legume lover's heart. October 24, $53.

The Korean Cookbook by Junghyun Park and Jungyoon Choi

The culmination of years of research and development, this 350-recipe tome by two world-renowned names in Korean cuisine covers everything from fermentation, bap (cooked rice dishes), banchan (accompaniments), broth, noodles and, of course, dessert.

While the scope of the book may seem intimidating to newcomers to Korean cookery, this is also its strength; think of it as a standard-setting reference-style cookbook. October 4, $50.

My Everyday Lagos by Yewande Komolafe

If you’d like to expand your West African repertoire beyond jollof rice and groundnut stew—though there are two extremely delicious versions of both in this book—New York Times contributor and recipe developer Yewande Komolafe’s first solo cookbook is a fantastic place to start with Nigerian cuisine.

Komolafe's recipes draw from her own experiences growing up in Lagos, and how she's translated those flavours based on where she's lived since. Her writing is moving, as are the visuals of the food and city that contributed to the cook she is today. October 24, $48.

Snacking Bakes by Yossy Arefi

The treats-anytime-in-any-kitchen ethos of Snacking Cakes, Arefi’s second cookbook, pulled me through some of the drearier weeks of the fall of 2020. I love low-stakes, non-occasion baking recipes with high payoff. This new collection of beautifully photographed cookies and bars—most of which can be whipped up in a single bowl in under an hour—is a worthy follow-up. November 7, $53.

In Mary’s Kitchen by Mary Berg

“Unfussy” is an overused term in cookbooks these days—especially for over-styled lifestyle tomes of 20-ingredient salad plates and entire tablescapes included in the food photography. Mary Berg’s second book, a collection of whole-plate dinners and batch-baked sweets, truly fits the bill for the unfussy bar: highly cookable weeknight recipes that teach and don’t speak down, and designed to help the average home cook get ahead without prepping multiples of the same meal each week. October 10, $35.

Company by Amy Thielen

Reading Thielen’s followup to her much-celebrated New Midwestern Table, it occurred to me that more cookbooks on the subject of entertaining should include menus. Not in a prescriptive, performative way—the success of casual entertaining rests on the ability to improvise, after all—but in the spirit of functional fantasy.

Planning ahead, whether it’s the shopping or the cooking or the slight mental gymnastics of how things will get from counter to plate in a hospitable amount of time, can be part of the pleasure of cooking for others, and this book very successfully makes the case for it. Out now, $54.

Start Here by Sohla El-Waylly

Billed as “culinary school, but without the student loans,” El-Waylly’s much-anticipated debut cookbook absolutely delivers on scope. It’s nearly 700 pages, and more than dishes or recipes, it focuses on technique. How do you taste to correct for salt? How do you cream butter into sugar, and why is it important for it look and feel a certain way?

This approach appeals to first-time social media food enthusiasts and seasoned cooks alike who are interested in learning a set of skills over merely following a series of steps. (Also know that doing so will free you up to cook way more than just the recipes in Start Here.) It’s an excellent gift, and an ideal first cookbook to give to a loved one. October 31, $60.