Decoding Carmy's Cookbook Shelves on 'The Bear'

Like countless viewers across the globe, the Food & Wine staff was in the thrall of the The Bear from the moment the series reared its head on Hulu last year. (Seriously, we have a Slack channel called #theoriginalberf.) Of course we were collectively delighted to find that protagonist Carmy Berzatto had a Best New Chef accolade on his roster, but the nuanced, empathetic, often anxiety-inducing portrayal of restaurant life had us gobbling up every last crumb and starving for this second season. Now that we've had a moment to digest — and carefully catalog a slew of screenshots until our heads pounded — associate editorial director Chandra Ram and executive features editor Kat Kinsman are sharing their feelings about what Carmy's newly-expanded cookbook collection says about his development as a chef, as well as a chronological list of all the titles we've been able to spot.

Carmy and the cookbook chaos shelving

Sometimes I wonder how I occupied my time in the days before technology ate my brain. The physical evidence would show that I drew and painted, wrote letters and poems for fun (by hand!), pawed through grimy record crates, hung out with friends (I swear I had some; there are pictures), and collected books as if shelf space were not a finite entity. Many, many, many of them are cookbooks, which comes in handy because apparently what I do now is watch streaming TV and movies and pause to forensically examine what's on people's shelves in the kitchen or open on the counter as they prepare a meal, and try to identify it. (Favorite thus far: Paul Bettany's character Vision making Chicken Paprikash from a Saveur recipe in Avengers: Age of Ultron.) 

Niche hobby but hey, it pays off sometimes. Like when I'm watching entire series of TV shows in as few sittings as is medically possible. Having slurped down the first season of The Bear in a Covid fever haze last year when it roared outta nowhere, I was perhaps less than focused in my viewing, taking in the vibes and the plotlines on my crummy little laptop screen rather than on the comparative vista of the TV screen outside my quarantine quarters. Otherwise, I surely would have clocked the heaps of pricey, cheffity-chef cookbooks heaped on the floor of our protagonist, fictional F&W Best New Chef (year undetermined) Carmen Berzatto, in lieu of any actual furnishings. (As @thesarahyork noted about the homekeeping and dating proclivities of "an exclusive strain of Sexually Competent Dirtbag™️ that only exists in a restaurant kitchen" in a Twitter thread about Carmy: "This man does not have curtains in his apartment but he has a 1,400 dollar knife that is only for cutting fish.")

Building shelf confidence

In season two of The Bear, Carmy has closed down The Original Beef, the down-at-the-heels Italian beef sandwich place he returned to Chicago to helm after the owner, his brother Michael, died by suicide. In its stead, he and his ragtag kitchen crew are plotting to open the fine-dining venue of his dreams (and occasional fiery nightmares), which — once walls are sledgehammered down, fire suppression system passes muster, and mold is abated — contains a luxurious amount of room for a cookbook shelf so presumably his $500+ set of elBulli 2005-2011 or shopworn copy of Lessons in Excellence from Charlie Trotter don't get esoteric fruit vinegars dripped all over them while he and his newly-promoted chef de cuisine Sydney are testing recipes for the opening menu.

C.S.I.: Cookbook

The books, which have seemingly tripled or quadrupled in number (and which I paused and took grainy pictures and screenshots of and compared against my own collection or used fragments of words or graphics on the spine to track down like I work for a culinary CSI division), are meticulously selected and entirely fitting with the continuing self-education of a fine-dining chef who's done stints at Noma, Eleven Madison Park, The French Laundry, and their fictional analogues. It's deeply steeped in French technique á la the Troisgros Brothers, Pierre Gagnaire, Jacques Maximin, Joël Robuchon, Jacques Pépin, Sébastien Bras, and their peers. It veers toward Scandinavian precision with a whole suite of René Redzepi tomes (though pastry chef Marcus keeps copies stashed out of harm's way on a shelf above his work station) and the works of Magnus Nilsson and Christian Puglisi. It trips into molecular whimsy via el Bulli, wends over to Japan to meditate on the methods of Masaharu Morimoto and Shizuo Tsuji; goes fancy Cali with 1988 F&W Best New Chef Thomas Keller, Alice Waters, and 2009 F&W Best New Chef Christopher Kostow; and finds soul and root in Italian and Italian American home cook fare as well as the works of African American scholars like Dr. Jessica B. Harris and Toni Tipton-Martin.

Carmy even nerds out over non-recipe prose in the writings of Anthony Bourdain (which, duh), R.W. Apple, Calvin Trillin, multiple biographies of Julia Child, and several of the America's Best Food Writing compendiums, stacking their words around him to drown out the distraction of anything that doesn't serve his singular purpose. Food & Wine's associate editorial director Chandra Ram shares her insights below about how this habit may have come to be, and where she can sense their impact on his development as a chef.

A sharp turn

But here's where Carmy is a mystery to me, as well as to my colleagues who have punched in hella hours on the line. The ingredients of his cookbook collection are all carefully sourced, but the mise is a total mess with no organizational systems — alphabet, Dewey Decimal, cuisine, culture, Library of Congress — at all in evidence. They're just on shelves now, rather than the floor. It's a major aberration for a tweezer dweeb like chef Carmy Berzatto, who so clearly finds purpose, stability, and probably even safety in the kind of methodical creative process documented on the pages of books like La Technique, Relae: A Book of Ideas, and Mugaritz: A Natural Science of Cooking, and the kindred spirits who crafted them.

As my boss, our editor-in-chief Hunter Lewis, said on Slack when he saw the semi-incoherent shelving: "Curious as to why Carmy obsesses over the perfect tape edges à la Sean Brock but not more rhyme or reason for his bookshelves." 

Chandra concurred, "Chaos shelving, for sure."

One possible reason, as Hunter mused, "Maybe the staff reshelves haphazardly. He’s quite generous with his knives. Maybe cookbooks too." I'm going to assume that's where Carmy's aspiring fancyman cousin and Blade Runner megafan Richie nabbed his copy of Will Guidara's Unreasonable Hospitality — presumably filling the empty slot with the copy of Ridley Scott: A Retrospective that otherwise juts out among the food lit like a pan handle at a 90° angle. 

I may be reading too much into the housekeeping proclivities of a fictional character, but I'm chalking that up to the exquisite detail the writers, crew, and cast — including culinary producer and chef Courtney Storer, creator and co-showrunner Christopher Storer, and chef Matty Matheson as restaurant handyman Fek — have put into the creation of this sweaty, heartfelt, passionate, empathetic, and often enervating portrayal of a profession and people I hold dear, and characters I've come to adore. If Carmy's books are askew, so must be the man himself and — without giving too many spoilers away — I'd bet Richie's lucky new suit or Marcus' beanie that by the next time we see the chef on the warm side of the walk-in door, those books won't just be categorized and alphabetized; they'll be uniformly re-covered in grease-proof paper with kitchen tape labels bearing the Sharpied-on title, author, publish date, and possibly even the ISBN in a violent attempt to restore order to his life. A chef as fixated as Carmy isn't turning over a new leaf anytime soon. — Kat Kinsman

How Carmy's bookshelves built The Bear

What can we learn from Carmy’s bookshelves? Cookbooks are often the first round of culinary education for anyone who aspires to be a chef. Even casual viewers of The Bear know that Carmy came to love food while growing up in Chicago, in a home you’d call chaotic only if you were feeling generous. There, his mother Donna cooked elaborate meals — possibly the only way she knew how to show love. We saw how that experience impacted Carmy as a person struggling to create a supportive atmosphere in his restaurant, and even try to have a personal relationship. 

Chicago born and fed

The Bear loves Chicago; the city is as much a part of the show as any character, imprinted on Carmy’s heart as permanently as the 773 area code tattooed on his arm. The camera does as well, swooping above the city in each episode to share the El racing through downtown under cloudy gray skies, the entrance to Wrigley Field, the meatpacking shops in Fulton Market. 

But as deeply as Carmy is connected to Chicago and its food, he had to leave in order to find success, and we see evidence of that need on his bookshelves. Before cooking at three-Michelin-starred restaurants in New York and Copenhagen, he first left home to pursue the order and solace of the brigade kitchen station system; we think while training at the Culinary Institute of America; note his copies of the school’s textbook, The Professional Chef, on the bottom shelves. 

While he was gone, Chicago’s culinary scene fine-tuned itself beyond its reputation as being a meat-and-potatoes town with a lot of old-school Italian restaurants. The dining options became more sophisticated when 1999 F&W Best New Chef Paul Kahan opened Blackbird and Michael Kornick opened MK, and over the course of Tony Mantuano’s game-changing tenure at the fine dining Italian spot Spiaggia. Today, Chicago is still home to an abundance of red sauce joints, and Blackbird, MK, and Spiaggia are no more. But what’s left are the cooks who came up through those restaurants, and their influence on dining and Chicago palates. 

Friends, family, and the opening menu's foundation

Chief among those restaurants that shape the city is Avec, the restaurant where Sydney used to work and where she goes for inspiration and advice in an early episode of season two. Avec partner Donnie Madia even appears as a guest at The Bear's friends and family dinner before it opens to the public. Avec’s focaccia is one of the most iconic restaurant dishes in the city, so while the version on the opening menu at The Bear isn’t the same, we have to believe there are a few crumbs from the recipe in Carmy’s copy of one of Kahan’s cookbooks, Cooking For Good Times. 

The crystal-clear bone broth served early in the meal might be straight out of Carmy’s copy of Escoffier’s Le Guide Culinaire, but when we try to figure out how he came to pair it with frozen grapes, it feels like it could have sparked from the intersection of Grey Kunz’s The Elements of Taste and Sean Brock’s South. 

While Carmy’s appreciation for pasta may have been born in his mother’s kitchen, it was fine-tuned by the likes of cookbooks authored by 2010 F&W Best New Chef Missy Robbins (another former Chicago chef who moved to New York), Evan Funke, and Jonathan Waxman on his shelves, all of whom are godparents to the bucatini course. That giant T-bone steak is a nod to Chicago’s big shoulders/big slabs of meat reputation, but I think he may have been influenced by The River Cottage Meat Book. 

And while the Feast of the Seven Fishes course is an act of taking back that holiday tradition from the traumatic night depicted earlier in the season, watching the staff baste whole shrimp takes us straight to the stories and recipes chef Melissa Martin shares in the Mosquito Supper Club cookbook. 

Baked in from the start

Obviously, Copenhagen’s chef Christian Puglisi’s book, Relae: A Book of Ideas, had some influence over the Copenhagen Sundae, but what about the other dessert courses? Pastry chef Marcus studied technique everywhere he could find it; The Tartine All Day cookbook on the top chef looks like it was just sourced — possibly so he could create a tender dough for the honey bun? Melissa Weller’s A Good Bake is another resource for creative, fun pastries like those. And when he turned a typically savory “The Michael” cannoli, a savory take on the classic Italian dessert, it is perhaps a nod to Albert Adria's crunchy Parmesan balls, and how Ferran Adrià played with expectations and flavors (his Family Meal book is on the shelves). We also spy hints there from 2000 F&W Best New Chef Andrew Carmellini’s Urban Italian and 2014 F&W Best New Chef Matthew Accarrino’s SPQR. 

Love at first bite

Scattered among the cheffy books are a few homier options — one called Hurry-Up Pasta Recipes in particular stands out. I have my own versions of books like that, the ones you pilfer from the family kitchen, or snatch up from the sale table at the bookstore when you have no money but are desperate to learn everything you can about cooking techniques. They may not be sources of culinary inspiration anymore, but they are markers of where we’ve all come as cooks and chefs; a bit of nostalgia on the bookshelf that remind us of all the possibilities and hope from when working in food was new to us. I love seeing those; it’s another sign that Carmy isn’t afraid to say where he came from. 

Sharing is caring

And then, there’s the dupe on the bookshelf. The amount of time my colleagues and I spent trying to figure out why Carmy has two copies of Edward Lee’s Smoke & Pickles was a sign that we were going too far into this investigation. It could be a set error. But I like to think that it’s an extra copy there on purpose; Carmy was generous in sharing his knife with Tina, and certainly would do the same with his books. Lee’s soulful writing, freewheeling energy and thoughtful cooking are well worth the cost of an extra book.  — Chandra Ram

Carmy's Cookbook Collection

The 1940s

1941

Escoffier: Le Guide Culinaire: the First Complete Translation Into English: the Complete Guide to the Art of Modern Cookery — H.L. Cracknell and R.J. Kauffmann 

The 1950s

1954

Food In England: A Complete Guide to the Food That Makes Us Who We Are — Dorothy Hartley

The 1960s

1965

Great Italian Cooking — Luigi Carnacia

1968

The Complete Book of Pasta — Jack Denton Scott

1969

The Escoffier Cookbook and Guide to the Fine Art of Cookery: For Connoisseurs, Chefs, Epicures Complete With 2973 Recipes — Auguste Escoffier

The 1970s

1971

Ice Cream, Sherbet, and Ices — Linda McDonald

1973

Beard on Bread — James Beard

1976

La Technique: An Illustrated Guide to the Fundamental Techniques of Cooking — Jacques Pépin 

1977

The Key to Chinese Cooking — Irene Kuo 

1978

Trout — Ernest Schwiebert 

The 1980s

1981

Kaiseki: Zen Tastes in Japanese Cooking — Kaichi Tsuji 

1982

Giuliano Bugialli's Classic Techniques of Italian Cooking — Giuliano Bugialli 

The Modern Art of Chinese Cooking — Barbara Tropp 

The Nouvelle Cuisine — Jean Troisgros and Pierre Troisgros 

1983

Escoffier: The Complete Guide to the Art of Modern Cookery — H.L. Cracknell and R.J. Kauffmann

1984

The Four Seasons Cookbook — Charlotte Adams, special consultant James Beard

1986

The Cuisine of Jacques Maximin — Jacques Maximin

1988

In Pursuit of Flavor — Edna Lewis

1989

Giuliano Bugialli's Classic Techniques of Italian Cooking — Giuliano Bugialli (1989) Note: Carmy seems to own two editions.

The 1990s

1990

The Dooky Chase Cookbook — Leah Chase

1991

Sauces: Classical and Contemporary Sauce Making — James Peterson 

1992

Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking — Marcella Hazan 

1993

Les Dimanches De Joël Robuchon — Joël Robuchon 

Hurry-Up Pasta Recipes — Publications Intl. 

Classic Thai Cuisine — David Thompson 

La Tante Claire: Recipes from a Master Chef — Pierre Koffman and Timothy Shaw 

1994

The Tummy Trilogy: American Fried; Alice, Let's Eat; Third Helping — Calvin Trillin 

Soul Food: Classic Cuisine from the Deep South — Sheila Ferguson

Goose Fat & Garlic: Country Recipes From Southwest France — Jeanette Strang

Frida's Fiestas: Recipes and Reminiscences of Life with Frida Kahlo — Marie-Pierre Colle and Guadalupe Rivera

1995

Cooking Through the Seasons — Joël Robuchon 

1996

Chez Panisse Vegetables — Alice Waters 

1997

The All-New, All-Purpose Joy of Cooking — Irma S. Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker, Ethan Becker 

Culinary Carving and Plate Decoration — Harvey Rosen

1998

Larousse Gastronomique The New American Edition of the World's Greatest Culinary Encyclopedia — Jennifer Harvey Lang 

1999

Culinaria Spain — Marion Trutter 

Lessons in Excellence from Charlie Trotter— Paul Clarke 

The French Laundry Cookbook — Thomas Keller 

The Africa Cookbook: Tastes of a Continent — Jessica B. Harris 

The 2000s

2000

Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly — Anthony Bourdain 

The Chicago Tribune Good Eating Cookbook — Carol Mighton Haddix, editor 

Art Fare: A Commemorative Celebration of Art and Food — Toledo Museum of Art Aides

2001

The Elements of Taste — Gray Kunz and Peter Kaminsky  

The Moro Cookbook — Samuel Clark and Samantha Clark 

The Professional Chef — Culinary Institute of America 

Moosewood Restaurant New Classics: 350 Recipes for Homestyle Favorites and Everyday Feasts — Moosewood Collective 

Salami — Hans Gissinger and Gérard Oberlé

The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern — Claudia Fleming

English Seafood Cookery — Rick Stein

2002

Roger Vergé's New Entertaining in the French Style — Roger Vergé

The Zuni Café Cookbook: A Compendium of Recipes and Cooking Lessons from San Francisco's Beloved Restaurant — Judy Rodgers

2003

Kitchen of Light: New Scandinavian Cooking — Andreas Viestad 

Cooking by Hand — Paul Bertolli 

Craft of Cooking: Notes and Recipes from a Restaurant Kitchen — Tom Colicchio 

2004

The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating — Fergus Henderson 

On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen — Harold McGee 

Grand Livre de Cuisine — Alain Ducasse 

Italian Easy: Recipes from the London River Cafe — Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers 

Bouchon — Thomas Keller

2005

Susur: A Culinary Life — Susur Lee 

Nobody Knows the Truffles I've Seen — George Lang

2006

Tartine Bread — Elisabeth Prueitt and Chad Robertson 

Barefoot Contessa at Home: Everyday Recipes You'll Make Over and Over Again — Ina Garten 

Happy in the Kitchen — Michel Richard 

Au Pied de Cochon — Martin Picard 

Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany — Bill Buford

The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals — Michael Pollan

Vegetables by 40 Great French Chefs — Patrick Mikanowski, Lyndsay Mikanowski, Grant Symon

2007

Morimoto: The New Art of Japanese Cooking — Masaharu Morimoto 

The River Cottage Meat Book — Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall 

The Year of Eating Dangerously: A Global Adventure in Search of Culinary Extremes — Tom Parker Bowles 

The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons, and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution — Alice Waters

The Tenth Muse: My Life in Food — Judith Jones

Darina Allen's Ballymaloe Cookery Course — Darina Allen

Pierre Gagnaire: Reinventing French Cuisine — Jean-François Abert

2008

The Complete Robuchon — Joël Robuchon 

Urban Italian: Simple Recipes and True Stories from a Life in Food — Andrew Carmellini and Gwen Hyman 

2009

Pastry: Savory and Sweet — Michel Roux 

Far Flung and Well Fed: The Food Writing of R.W. Apple, Jr. — R.W. Apple Jr. 

The 2010s

2010

Noma: Time and Place in Nordic Cuisine — René Redzepi

Quay: Food Inspired by Nature — Peter Gilmore 

The Essential New York Times Cookbook — Amanda Hesser 

The Flavor Thesaurus: Pairings, Recipes, and Ideas for the Creative Cook — Niki Segnet 

Oaxaca al Gusto — Diana Kennedy 

Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook — Anthony Bourdain

The Frankies Spuntino Kitchen Companion & Cooking Manual — Frank Castronovo, Frank Falcinelli, and Peter Meehan

Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking — Michael Ruhlman

2011

The Mozza Cookbook: Recipes from Los Angeles's Favorite Italian Restaurant and Pizzeria — Nancy Silverton, Matt Molina, and Carolynn Carreno 

Momofuku Milk Bar — Christina Tosi 

The Family Meal: Home Cooking with Ferran Adrià — El Bulli

2012

Appetite for Life: The Biography of Julia Child — Noel Riley Fitch 

Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child — Bob Spitz

SPQR: Modern Italian Food and Wine — Shelley Lindgren, Matthew Accarrino, Kate Leahy 

The Art of Fermentation — Sandor Ellix Katz 

LudoBites: Recipes and Stories from the Pop-Up Restaurants of Ludo Lefebvre Paperback — Ludovic LeFebvre 

The Art of the Restaurateur — Nicholas Lander  

Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art — Shizuo Tsuji 

Jerusalem: A Cookbook — Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi 

Flour Water Salt Yeast: The Fundamentals of Artisan Bread and Pizza — Ken Forkish 

Toqué!: Les Artisans d'Une Gastronomie Québécoise — Normand Laprise

Mugaritz: A Natural Science of Cooking — Andoni Aduriz, Raul Nagore, and Hirukuna SL

Fresh & Easy: What To Cook & How To Cook It — Jane Hornby

POLPO: A Venetian Cookbook (Of Sorts) — Russell Norman

2013

The A.O.C. Cookbook — Suzanne Goin 

Daniel: My French Cuisine — Daniel Boulud 

Smoke and Pickles: Recipes and Stories from a New Southern Kitchen — Edward Lee 

2014

A New Napa Cuisine — Christopher Kostow 

Relae: A Book of Ideas — Christian Puglisi 

elBulli 2005-2011 — Ferran Adrìa, Albert Adrìa, and Juli Soler

Eating with the Chefs: Family Meals from the World's Most Creative Restaurants — Tara Stevens 

2015

NOPI: The Cookbook — Yottam Ottolenghi and Ramael Scully 

Gjelina: Cooking from Venice, California — Travis Lett 

Hartwood: Bright, Wild Flavors from the Edge of the Yucatán — Eric Werner, Mya Henry, Christine Muhlke, Oliver Strand 

The Nordic Cookbook — Magnus Nilsson 

Zahav: A World of Israeli Cooking — Michael Solomonov and Steven Cook 

Benu — Cory Lee 

The Jemima Code: Two Centuries of African American Cookbooks — Toni Tipton-Martin 

White Heat 25 — Marco Pierre White 

Franklin Barbecue: A Meat-Smoking Manifesto — Aaron Franklin and Jordan Mackay 

My Pantry: Homemade Ingredients That Make Simple Meals Your Own — Alice Waters

The Violet Bakery Cookbook — Claire Ptak

The NoMad Cookbook — Daniel Humm, Will Guidara, and Leo Robitschek

Organum: Nature Texture Intensity Purity — Peter Gilmore

2016

Tasting Rome: Fresh Flavors and Forgotten Recipes from an Ancient City — Katie Parla and Kristina Gill 

Everything I Want to Eat: Sqirl and the New California Cooking — Jessica Koslow 

The Del Posto Cookbook — Mark Ladner

Institut Paul Bocuse Gastronomique: The Definitive Step-by-Step Guide to Culinary Excellence — Institut Paul Bocuse

2017

Tartine All Day: Modern Recipes for the Home Cook — Elisabeth Prueitt 

Night + Market: Delicious Thai Food to Facilitate Drinking and Fun-Having Amongst Friends A Cookbook — Kris Yenbamroong 

Peppers of the Americas: The Remarkable Capsicums That Forever Changed Flavor — Maricel E. Presilla 

Pizza Camp: Recipes from Pizzeria Beddia — Joe Beddia 

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner…Life — Missy Robbins 

Bianco: Pizza, Pasta, and Other Food I Like — Chris Bianco

Borago: Coming from the South — Rodolfo Guzmán

Pok Pok The Drinking Food of Thailand — Andy Ricker

2018

The Noma Guide to Fermentation — René Redzepi and David Zilber 

SOUL: A Chef's Culinary Evolution in 150 Recipes — Todd Richards 

Masa: Techniques, Recipes, and Reflections on a Timeless Staple — Jorge Gaviria 

Rich Table — Sarah Rich and Evan Rich 

2019

Notes from a Young Black Chef — Kwame Onwuachi and Joshua David Stein

Serious Eater: A Food Lover's Perilous Quest for Pizza and Redemption — Ed Levine 

Ethiopia: Recipes and Traditions from the Horn of Africa — Yohanis Gebreyesus 

American Sfoglino: A Master Class in Handmade Pasta — Evan Funke 

Nothing Fancy: Unfussy Food for Having People Over — Alison Roman 

Jubilee: Recipes from Two Centuries of African American Cooking — Toni Tipton-Martin 

My Mexico City Kitchen: Recipes and Convictions — Gabriela Camara and Malena Watrous 

South: Essential Recipes and New Explorations — Sean Brock 

Cooking for Good Times: Super Delicious, Super Simple — Paul Kahan 

The Best American Food Writing 2019 — Samin Nosrat and Sylvia Killingsworth 

Saltbox Seafood Joint Cookbook — Ricky Moore  

Tu Casa Mi Casa: Mexican Recipes for the Home Cook — Enrique Olvera, Luis Arellano, Gonzalo Gout, Daniela Soto-Innes 

Alpine Cooking: Recipes and Stories from Europe's Grand Mountaintops — Meredith Erickson 

Ama: A Modern Tex-Mex Kitchen — Josef Centeno and Betty Hallock 

The Whole Fish Cookbook: New Ways to Cook, Eat and Think — Josh Niland 

Signature Dishes that Matter — Curated by Susan Jung, Howie Kahn, Christine Muhlke, Pat Nourse, Andrea Petrini, Diego Salazar, and Richard Vines

The 2020s

2020

La Buvette: Recipes and Wine Notes from Paris — Camille Fourmont and Kate Leahy 

A Good Bake — Melissa Weller and Carolynn Carreno 

Mosquito Supper Club: Cajun Recipes from a Disappearing Bayou — Melissa M. Martin 

Sun and Rain — Ana Ros 

Fäviken: 4015 Days, Beginning to End — Magnus Nilsson 

The Barbuto Cookbook: California-Italian Cooking from the Beloved West Village Restaurant — Jonathan Waxman 

My Korea: Traditional Flavors, Modern Recipes — Hooni Kim

Dessert Person: Recipes and Guidance for Baking with Confidence — Claire Saffitz

2021

Black Smoke: African Americans and the United States of Barbecue — Adrian Miller 

Africola: Slow Food Fast Words Cult Chef — Duncan Welgemoed  

Rodney Scott's World of BBQ: Every Day Is a Good Day: A Cookbook — Rodney Scott and Lolis Eric Elie 

An Unapologetic Cookbook — Joshua Weissman 

Mr. Jiu's In Chinatown — Brandon Jew and Tienlon Ho 

Black Food: Stories, Art, and Recipes from Across the African Diaspora — Bryant Terry, editor 

Africola: Slow Food Fast Words Cult Chef — Duncan Welgemoed 

Bress 'n' Nyam: Gullah Geechee Recipes from a Sixth-Generation Farmer — Matthew Raiford 

Sandor Katz's Fermentation Journeys — Sandor Ellix Katz 

monk: Light and Shadow on the Philosopher's Path — Yoshihiro Imai 

That Sounds So Good: 100 Real-Life Recipes for Every Day of the Week — Carla Lalli Music 

Ms. Philippines Cooking in America Nanay's Authentic Filipino Fiesta Food — Elizabeth N. Guevara-Buan 

Tuscan Women Cook: Nonnas. Memories. Recipes. — Coleen Kirnan 

The Hungry Eye: Eating, Drinking, and European Culture from Rome to the Renaissance — Leonard Barkan 

Cooking at Home: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying About Recipes (And Love My Microwave) — David Chang and Priya Krishna 

Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect — Will Guidara

2022

Noma 2.0: Vegetable, Forest, Ocean — René Redzepi, Mette Søberg, and Junichi Takahashi 

Ghetto Gastro Black Power Kitchen — Jon Gray, Pierre Serrao, Lester Walker, Osayi Endolyn 

Gullah Geechee Home Cooking: Recipes from the Matriarch of Edisto Island — Emily Meggett 

Claridge’s – The Cocktail Book: More than 500 Cocktail Recipes for Every Occasion — Claridge's 

Via Carota: A Celebration of Seasonal Cooking from the Beloved Greenwich Village Restaurant: An Italian Cookbook — Jody Williams and Rita Sodi 

The Pastry Chef Handbook: La Patisserie de Reference — Pierre Paul Zeiher and Jean Michel Truchelut 

Bras: The Tastes of Aubrac — Sébastien Bras 

I Am From Here — Vishwesh Bhatt 

Core — Clare Smyth and Kieran Morris 

Diasporican — Illyanna Maisonet 

2023

Sweet Enough: A Dessert Cookbook — Alison Roman