One of the gifts that people most like getting home cooks is books—cookbooks in particular. But there are only so many cookbooks you can gather before it starts to become overwhelming. That’s why we recommend getting the following books for your home cook friends—they’re about cooking and food but they have more to offer than just recipes that—let’s be honest—most of us find on the internet these days anyway.
Julie and Julia by Julie Powell
Did you know that the popular 2009 Meryl Streep film Julie & Julia is actually based off of a book with the same title? In the book, home cook Julie Powell recounts her adventures cooking every single one of the 524 recipes in Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking in just a year.
Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain
Famous for his wit and acerbic, blunt tone, Anthony Bourdain’s memoir Kitchen Confidential reads like having a gossip with a close friend over a glass of whiskey. Only Bourdain’s stories are much wilder than most of our friends probably are, making this book gripping and impossible to put down.
Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
As yummy as a chocolate cake, Like Water for Chocolate is a romantic, touching novel telling the stories of the women in the all-female De La Garza family from Mexico. The book puts food and cooking at its core, with each chapter thematically tied to a different recipe.
