Best Cookbooks 2017

This year has been a good year for anyone who resolved to get back in the kitchen—especially those who live and breathe by cookbooks. Six months in, we're already excited for fall, which promises releases like Yotam Ottolenghi's all-dessert read, Modernist Cuisine's bread book and Deb Perelman's second Smitten Kitchen cookbook. But first, let's take a look back at the dog-eared, tomato-stained books we're hooked on.

Get ready to combat dinner-prepping fatigue, one single-pan dish or roast chicken at a time. One TT editor has made no fewer than 10 recipes so far—and says she'd make them all again. The chorizo pork burgers and Clark's many chicken recipes were all hits with our cookbook club, who happily cooked their way through the book in June.

This reliable hit proves bread doesn't have to be a time-suck. Stafford has us using buttermilk pull-apart rolls for strawberry shortcake, adding Earl Grey tea to no-knead loaves and serving shakshuka in individual sesame bread bowls.

The hyper-seasonality of this book put it into immediate rotation: Once you get a little bored with the ingredients on hand, it's time to switch from Early Summer to Midsummer. Eating vegetables becomes an endless journey of joy with his collection of more than 200 recipes.

It may be the fried chicken and grilled pimento cheese he's known for at Brooklyn restaurant Pretty Southern, but Talbot's book shows that his cooking skills run deeper than a fryer. The ingredient-driven wholesome recipes, many of which are naturally gluten free, have already become staples—because when he says "world's fluffiest waffles," he means it. 

It's been out for only a month, but this book is a prime example of wanderlust in recipe form. While it seems like everyone and their neighbor is going to Croatia, you'll find us creating a vacation in our own kitchens, with authentic recipes and beautiful photographs to match.

Photo reprinted from Dinner. Copyright © 2017 by Melissa Clark. Photographs copyright © 2017 by Eric Wolfinger. Published by Clarkson Potter/Publishers, an imprint of Penguin Random House, LLC.