Skip to content

Top Navigation

Cooking Light Cooking Light
  • Recipes
  • Cooking 101
  • Eating Smart
  • Healthy Living
  • News

Profile Menu

Your Account

Account

  • Email Preferences

Manage Your Subscription

  • All Access Subscribers
  • Magazine Subscribers
  • Cooking Light Diet Subscribers
Login
Logout
SUBSCRIBE
Pin FB

Explore Cooking Light

Cooking Light Cooking Light
  • Explore

    Explore

    • 31-Day Healthy Meal Plan

      Our 31-day calendar of meals and tips shows you how to cook more and love it with fun, family-friendly meals that come together quickly and deliciously. Read More
    • Dinner Tonight: Quick and Healthy Menus in 45 Minutes (or Less)

      Hundreds of delicious recipes, paired with simple sides, that can be on your table in 45 minutes or less. Read More
    • Our Favorite Healthy Air Fryer Recipes

      Who ever said that chicken wings, doughnuts, and pizza couldn't be healthy? Read More
  • Recipes

    Recipes

    See All Recipes
    • Breakfast & Brunch
    • Lunch
    • Dinner
    • Drinks
    • Recipe Makeovers
    • Quick & Healthy
    • Diabetic
    • Gluten-Free
    • Vegetarian
    • Cooking Light Live
  • Cooking 101

    Cooking 101

    See All Cooking 101
    • Essential Ingredients
    • Cooking Techniques
    • Meet the Chef
    • Cooking Resources
    • Budget Friendly
    • Smart Choices
  • Eating Smart
  • Healthy Living

    Healthy Living

    See All Healthy Living
    • Weight-Loss
    • Health
    • Fitness
    • Home
    • Travel
    • Nutrition 101
  • News

Profile Menu

Your Account

Account

  • Email Preferences

Manage Your Subscription

  • All Access Subscribers
  • Magazine Subscribers
  • Cooking Light Diet Subscribers
Login
Logout
Sweepstakes

Follow Us

  1. Home
  2. Cooking 101
  3. Best “World” Cookbooks

Best “World” Cookbooks

February 06, 2013
Each product we feature has been independently selected and reviewed by our editorial team. If you make a purchase using the links included, we may earn commission.
Skip gallery slides
Pin
Credit: Photo: Randy Mayor
For a culinary adventure, we're showcasing standout cookbooks featuring the tastiest recipes from around the world.
Start Slideshow

1 of 7

Pin
Facebook Tweet Email Send Text Message

Top 6 World Cookbooks

Credit: Photo: Randy Mayor
Enjoy our favorite books that don’t fit neatly into our previous geographic categories, such as Latin American, French, Italian, or European.

See more of the best cookbooks from the past 25 years

1 of 7

Advertisement
Advertisement

2 of 7

Pin
Facebook Tweet Email Send Text Message

The Book of Jewish Food: An Odyssey from Samarkand to New York

Credit: Photo: Randy Mayor
The Book of Jewish Food: An Odyssey from Samarkand to New York By Claudia Roden, Knopf, 1996. Hardcover. $45; 668 pages

Chef and historian Claudia Roden succeeds with a formidable assignment: define and categorize the cuisine of a people spread throughout the globe, many of whom have adopted entirely new cuisines. The Book of Jewish Food samples from all corners of the diaspora, from the roasts and hearty dumplings of Eastern Europe (Ashkenazi) to the spiced stews and date-filled pastries of Spain, Turkey, and the Middle East (Sephardic). Detailed histories and numerous archival photographs make this a rich and varied exploration of Jewish identity (Did you know there were Jewish communities in China? In India?), in addition to more than 800 well researched recipes and tales from Roden’s own upbringing in Cairo.

Roden’s food favors simplicity: short ingredient lists and patient instruction. You feel that a favorite grandmother is finally sharing her secrets. “Take 1 piece of dough, roll it between your palms, and pull it out into a long fat rope … a little fatter at one end,” she instructs in the recipe for round challah. Stew with Stuffed Chicken and Chickpeas, a must-try North African recipe, is a fragrant homecoming dish redolent with nutmeg, cinnamon, and saffron, made comforting with the hearty additions of potatoes, chickpeas, and hard-boiled eggs.

GIVE THIS TO: A curious cultural historian; a cook of any skill level. —Hannah Klinger

2 of 7

3 of 7

Pin
Facebook Tweet Email Send Text Message

The Slow Mediterranean Kitchen: Recipes for the Passionate Cook

Credit: Photo: Randy Mayor
The Slow Mediterranean Kitchen: Recipes for the Passionate Cook   By Paula Wolfert, John Wiley & Sons, 2003. Hardcover. $35; 350 pages

Delicious things happen when you slow down: Flavors meld, and the cook can ease into a more leisurely pace. “Slow-cooking is relaxing and more forgiving,” Wolfert maintains, “since there’s usually a decent margin of error.” The approach doesn’t refer only to cooking in a slow cooker or slow oven. For Wolfert, the term also applies to braising, marinating, macerating, presalting, pickling, or even allowing bread to go stale.

The slow cooker does make its appearances, as in the intriguing Sephardic Long-Simmered Eggs, a recipe in which whole eggs go for 12 hours with a little olive oil, red onion skins, salt, and ground cumin. The result is unique and worth-it good: firm yet creamy yolks and whites with a beige color and subtle earthy flavor.

In Night-and-Day Slow-Roasted Pork Shoulder, the meat cooks at least 12 hours and can go as long as 24. It’s fall-apart tender, moist, and succulent, a revelation among all those versions of slow-cooked pork. There are many more such treasures here—about 150 of them inspired by Wolfert’s travels in North Africa, Turkey, Greece, Spain, France, and the rest of the Mediterranean. All are designed for cooks who will trust in the method and dedicate good time to pulling the richest flavors from the deepest parts of meats, vegetables, and more. 

GIVE THIS TO: Cooks who love the rewards of a leisurely, handcrafted dish. —Adam Hickman

 

3 of 7

Advertisement

4 of 7

Pin
Facebook Tweet Email Send Text Message

A Year of Russian Feasts

Credit: Photo: Randy Mayor
A Year of Russian Feasts By Catherine Cheremeteff Jones, Jellyroll Press, 2002. Paperback. $17; 192 pages

This compact book paints a warm and delicious picture of a country whose cuisine is largely misunderstood by Americans. Taken from her three years living in Moscow in the early 1990s, a tumultuous period that marked the fall of the Russian Communist Party, Jones recounts her experiences in Russian homes and shares the true cuisine of Russia, not the poor gruel of the economic crisis nor the overly opulent, frozen-in-the-aspic-of-time foods of a bygone era. She was “never served a Charlotte Russe, Strawberries Romanov, Beef Stroganov, [or] Chicken Kiev” during her time in Russia, but instead “delicious food lovingly prepared by skillful cooks.”

Although the book includes a recipe for Borscht (perhaps the most widely known “Russian” soup), Jones explains that borscht is really a Ukrainian dish and that real Russians prepare Shchi, a cabbage soup that’s simple, delicious, and the perfect comfort food on a cold night. Like Shchi, the rest of the recipes are inviting, simple, and soul-satisfyingly free of fanfare. Potato Casserole with Mushroom Sauce, a real standout, tops baked dill-flecked mashed potatoes with a densely savory sauce.

Each chapter opens with a vignette—tales of a simple meal at a communal apartment, a foray into a Butter Week bliny festival, an autumn wedding—followed by recipes that relate to the scene. Through Jones’ writing and recipes, the cold and frozen images of Russia recede, replaced by thoughts of cozy homes, warm dishes, and welcoming people sharing their proud traditions.

GIVE THIS TO: Comfort-food junkies looking for something a little different. —Tiffany Vickers Davis

 

4 of 7

5 of 7

Pin
Facebook Tweet Email Send Text Message

The Food of Morocco

Credit: Photo: Randy Mayor
The Food of Morocco By Paula Wolfert, Ecco, 2011. Hardcover. $45; 517 pages

Wolfert’s first foray into the lushly flavored North African cuisine, 1973’s Couscous and Other Good Food from Morocco, was inducted into the James Beard Cookbook Hall of Fame for good reason. This latest effort bolsters her credentials as America’s foremost authority on Moroccan food.

As gorgeous to flip through as it is delicious to cook from, the book is a comprehensive offering of authentic Moroccan cuisine, from couscous dishes and slow-cooked tagines to hearty harira and grilled brochettes. Her Beef Tagine with Roasted Cauliflower is an exceptionally satisfying dish, with complex, nuanced flavor that belies the recipe’s elegant simplicity. The seductively spiced salads that begin traditional Moroccan meals, like Wolfert’s Eggplant Zaalouk, are some of the tastiest light dishes you’ll find west of Marrakech.

GIVE THIS TO: Cooks who have visited Morocco, or anyone interested in authentic world flavors and techniques. —Tim Cebula

 

5 of 7

6 of 7

Pin
Facebook Tweet Email Send Text Message

Mediterranean Street Food: Stories, Soups, Snacks, Sandwiches, Barbecues, Sweets, and More from Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East

Credit: Photo: Randy Mayor
Mediterranean Street Food: Stories, Soups, Snacks, Sandwiches, Barbecues, Sweets, and More from Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East By Anissa Helou, William Morrow, 2002. Paperback. $20; 277 pages

Helou explains that as a child in Beirut, she was forbidden from eating on the street. “Girls from good families don’t,” her uncles told her. But she was enticed by the vivid aromas, the call of lively vendors, and the pleasure others seemed to take. When she grew up, Helou became something of a street-food addict; this most democratic of food “is a great way to get to know both the food and the people of a country you are visiting,” with the added bonus that you can watch the food being cooked in front of you, and learn. 

Helou brings the stalls of Damascus and Crete and Istanbul to life through writing and her own photography. Chickpea and Lamb soup, a favorite of Helou’s from Morocco, was an eye-opener both for its depth of flavor and for disproving the kitchen rule about cooking dried beans with tomatoes (the chickpeas softened up just fine). Simply-named Chicken Kebabs deliver deep flavor with easy preparation and few ingredients. Omelets, stuffed breads, soups, and pastries litter the book, offering tasty and inspiring ways to diversify your palate. 

GIVE THIS TO: Cooks who enjoy bold flavors. —Tiffany Vickers Davis

 

6 of 7

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

7 of 7

Pin
Facebook Tweet Email Send Text Message

Jerusalem: A Cookbook

Credit: Photo: Randy Mayor
Jerusalem: A Cookbook By Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi, Ten Speed Press, 2012. Hardcover. $35; 320 pages

Ottolenghi’s 2011 book Plenty was an exciting and exuberant take on vegetarian cooking, and with this title the London chef is back with business partner Tamimi, exploring the melting-pot (or is it bubbling-over-pot?) foods of the city in which both were born. Ottolenghi was from the Jewish side of town, Tamimi from the Muslim side, and “the flavors and smells of this city are our mother tongue.”

Well, everyone should speak the language of their Pistachio Soup: Flavored with saffron and a refreshing orange juice spritz at the finish, it’s creamy, tangy, spice-fragrant, and surprising. Or Burnt Eggplant with Garlic, Lemon, and Pomegranate Seeds—a baba ghanoush-type dish with the brilliant pop of juicy pomegranate seeds. For something a little less exotic, there’s Chicken with Caramelized Onion and Cardamom Rice, a lovely one-pot dinner that steps up boring chicken and rice with fragrant spices and sweet currants. Food photos—there are lots of them—are vibrant, beautiful, and exciting, making this a book for perusing as much as for utility.

GIVE THIS TO: Cooks who like bold, cultural mash-up cuisines. —Scott Mowbray

 

7 of 7

Replay gallery

Share the Gallery

Pinterest Facebook

Up Next

    Share the Gallery

    Pinterest Facebook
    Advertisement
    Skip slide summaries

    Everything in This Slideshow

    Advertisement

    View All

    1 of 7 Top 6 World Cookbooks
    2 of 7 The Book of Jewish Food: An Odyssey from Samarkand to New York
    3 of 7 The Slow Mediterranean Kitchen: Recipes for the Passionate Cook
    4 of 7 A Year of Russian Feasts
    5 of 7 The Food of Morocco
    6 of 7 Mediterranean Street Food: Stories, Soups, Snacks, Sandwiches, Barbecues, Sweets, and More from Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East
    7 of 7 Jerusalem: A Cookbook

    Share & More

    Facebook Tweet Email Send Text Message
    Cooking Light

    Magazines & More

    Learn More

    • Customer Service this link opens in a new tab
    • Advertise
    • Content Licensing
    • Accolades this link opens in a new tab

    Connect

    MeredithCooking Light is part of the Allrecipes Food Group. © Copyright 2023 Meredith Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Cooking Light may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice. Privacy Policythis link opens in a new tab Terms of Servicethis link opens in a new tab Ad Choicesthis link opens in a new tab California Do Not Sellthis link opens a modal window Web Accessibilitythis link opens in a new tab
    © Copyright Cooking Light. All rights reserved. Printed from https://www.cookinglight.com

    View image

    Best “World” Cookbooks
    this link is to an external site that may or may not meet accessibility guidelines.