Cookbooks

Help Us Pick Our Next Cookbook Topic!

April  1, 2016

First there was Genius Recipes, then Vegan and Baking. Coming up next is A New Way to Dinner, followed by two more books, but then what comes next?!

We have a lot of ideas but need your help deciding on one. Let us know in the comments which of these concepts you like best—or if you have a good idea we haven't listed here, we want to know!

Yours in lots of cookbooks,
The Food52 Eds

  • The Art of Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts

  • The Art of Boneless, Skinless Chicken Thighs, the follow-up

  • The New York City Forager’s Kitchen

  • Everyday Copper Cooking

  • Campari for Dinner

  • Years in Amanda’s Mother’s Kitchen

  • Amanda Versus Merrill

  • Chick Food (because this book and this book must've done so well!)

  • Just Tartine It!

  • The Avocado Toast Cookbook

  • 52 Ways to Make Dinner from Crème Fraîche

  • Put a Poached Egg on It

  • It’s All Easy: 3-Ingredient Dinners in 20 Seconds or Less

  • An Illustrated History of Butter Keepers

  • Grey is the New Black: An Unprecedented Look into Grey [not gray] Foods

  • The Homemade Artisanal Local Brooklyn Pantry

  • (Not)Not Sad Desk Lunch

  • Recipes That Are Better Than Yours

  • Eating Mold

  • Squishy Cakes, A to Bika Ambon

But wait: We're working on SO MUCH MORE:

See what other Food52 readers are saying.

  • Jona @AssortedBites
    Jona @AssortedBites
  •  Naomi Calnitsky
    Naomi Calnitsky
  • Nadia
    Nadia
  • Shelley Sorani
    Shelley Sorani
  • Wanda Abraham
    Wanda Abraham
Editor/writer/stylist. Author of I Dream of Dinner (so You Don't Have To). Last name rhymes with bagel.

34 Comments

Jona @. April 7, 2016
Prefer:
(Not)Not Sad Desk Lunch
or
Recipes That Are Better Than Yours
 
Naomi C. April 4, 2016
i like the foraging book idea. i've seen glimpes of foraging advice, like Violet Bakery's "notes on foraging" section at the back, but I wonder if a full book might be needed at this point that links the finding process to the creating. Sandor Katz did a little video where he foraged some wild berries and then showed how you can make so many different kinds of drinks from them depending on how you'd ferment them. Also, you could incorporate how to find "foraged" goods in the markets (e.g. fiddleheads, and other wild berry products) and then give recipes that complement them..!I have your baking book and its great.
naomi - Canada
 
Nadia April 3, 2016
The combination of health concerns and demonization of meat has turned many to alternative protein sources and vegetarian and vegan diets. My statement is neither judgemental nor critical. One of my daughters is vegetarian, and we eat fish often more than twice a week. Wehave recently become acquainted with a local organic farm which produces various animal products, including beef, chicken and rabbit. I was reminded recently when cooking Easter diner for 10, that I knew and undrstood very little about cutting, preparing and cooking meat, despite my 40 years of cooking what others have told me are above parr meals. I would really appreciate learning more about the basics of all meats, with both traditional and more modern recepies. I'd like to learn what has been lost of my family roots as farmers, from the basic cutting techniques from whole to pieces and parts, what parts are used for what types of recepies and cooking methods, preparation, understanding how and effects and tastes of different cooking methods from theBBQ grill to braising, short and long slow cooking, traditional and modern, flavours and spices, marinades and sauces. The whole 'shabang'. Thanks. ☺
 
Shelley S. April 3, 2016
Margaret, as long as you're addressing me personally, I've been married 50 years, many of them in Italy, and have not ever paid for over priced take out. At most we will have ordered delivery pizza maybe 10 times over the years. My point is that, if you want a 30 minute meal, you don't need a recipe or a cookbook. You just need to know how to grill. sauté, fry, poach or do any of those other things that cooks do. And, by the way, you usually do need more than 30 minutes to develop flavor, unless you're making an omelette or a ham sandwich.And my name is spelled with an e before y at the end. Bon appétit!
 
Wanda A. April 2, 2016
Most women work now. How about the working woman's cookbook. Some quick and easy recipes, also recipes that can be frozen and reheated (like casseroles), crock pot recipes, etc. When I worked I would make a few large meals on Saturday or Sunday and put them in serving size containers and freeze them. After a few weeks you have 7-8 different meals in the freezer. During the week you can throw in a few of the quick and easy meals. But, if you come home late, you can fall back on one of the frozen meals.
 
margaret April 2, 2016
Shelly, why would you assume that a meal made in 30 minutes is somehow unworthy of Food 52? Good flavor, interesting fusions of foods do not all take hours of prep and cooking. Top chefs can create fantastic dishes quickly. I prefer to save the labor intensive stuff for the weekends when I have more time. Superb dishes are superb whether they took 30 minutes or 30 hours to cook! Speed cooking does not equal inferior cooking. BTW, why would I want to pay for overpriced take-out when I can make it just as well for half as much at home? I prefer to put my money into other things.
 
Shelley S. April 2, 2016
Thank you, Arl, tamales, quick and easy meals, nachos, 8 cookies at a time (cut normal recipes or freeze the rest!), 30 minute meals INDEED! Now I really think some of these ideas are from April Fools. Food 52 should be so much more!
 
Jeanie April 2, 2016
Tamales
 
Arl E. April 2, 2016
Please don't turn Food52 Iinto an Internet version of all those cheap supermarket magazines touting fast, cheap, leftovers, freezer food, etc. Food52 is above that. That's what makes you an incredible site.
 
Kate April 2, 2016
SOUP!
 
jan April 2, 2016
Cooking for one...no leftovers, no frozen options. Baking for one: how about a recipe for 6 muffins or 8 cookies?
 
margaret April 1, 2016
30 Minute Meals for ONE--because I'm starving when I come home from work (and too cheap to eat take-out every night!)
 
Arl E. April 1, 2016
Foraging, mushrooms, and eggs would be my top choices for your next three books.
 
Kelli B. April 1, 2016
How about Quick and easy meals to make in a pressure cooker"
 
moe B. April 1, 2016
chick food, 30 second dinner, HOW TO USE LEFTOVERS (creatively) :)
eating mold is so weird to imagine even for an april fool's joke! :P
 
Chzplz April 1, 2016
Recipes for singles or couples! Not everything can be scaled down or frozen.
 
Rhonda35 April 1, 2016
I am enjoying all the April Fool's surprises on the site this year! And, although all of the book ideas sound, shall we say, interesting, I am genetically obligated to vote for "Years in Amanda's Mother's Kitchen!" The Judester would be so happy if that became a reality. :-)
 
jacqueline S. April 1, 2016
I'd like a cookbook with meals that are suitable to take to someone in need. How often to you hear of someone you'd like to help with a meal to reheat easily or go straight to the freezer and then your mind goes blank on what to make them
 
Mark April 1, 2016
Gluten Free. My wife is Gluten intolerant (the real thing, not just the fad), and we both scour your site for gluten free recipes.
 
Gardener-cook April 1, 2016
Too funny! But I do like the idea of a Food 52 forager's cookbook if "foraging" is expanded to include "food that might otherwise be discarded." I'm a rural forager, but think that there is "foraging" to be done in urban areas.
 
ariel A. April 1, 2016
The Avocado Toast Cookbook is clearly the answer...anything else would be a sign that Food52 is selling out.
 
Shelley S. April 1, 2016
Maybe Panfusine is right and those were all or almost all April Fools Day titles. Let us hope. Since I'm serious about cookbooks, I'm only buying ones that really teach, technique, basic recipes to make your own, farmers market finds to turn into dinner, making well-known restaurant dishes at home. I did like Merrill (Julia?) vs. Amanda (Jacques?) but please no New York stuff. The Left Coast readers like to cook too.
 
Lorna April 1, 2016
Amanda v. Merrill!
 
Eli C. April 1, 2016
"Campari for Dinner" but only if the title is changed to "Campari for Every Meal". Its always 5pm somewhere.
 
zeldie April 1, 2016
totally cracking up. I want to work in your kitchen...sounds like your are having such fun. how about "A gin cocktail with every meal". "snails, snakes, worms and more: eat directly from your garden"
 
Ejona V. April 1, 2016
(Not)Not Sad Desk Lunch
 
MLHE April 1, 2016
Let's give credit to the computer programmer in all of us for this person's brilliance: http://foodalgorithms.blogspot.com/
 
aargersi April 1, 2016
Foraged Protein: Cooking With Roadkill
 
Rhonda35 April 1, 2016
I'm dying!
 
Leslie S. April 1, 2016
Campari for Dinner!!!
 
benjclark April 1, 2016
I would read Just Tartine It!
 
Cristina S. April 1, 2016
I actually would too..can a book full of stuff-on-toast be one's desert island food?
 
ken April 1, 2016
How about a "whole grains" cookbook with pastas, bread and (pizza) dough, desserts, etc.?
 
Panfusine April 1, 2016
Assuming that this is the Annual April Fools Feature? but Amanda vs. Merrill's sounds like a great choice, from all the previous contest spots we've had...