Cookbooks are inspirational asides giving food lovers a means to see through their favourite chefs or home cook it has provided an added advantage of knowing the secret behind scrumptious recipes and how it is prepared.
Cookbooks also provide cultural and historical context to the food we have in the world today. This year we highlight 10 cookbooks that were released in 2021 they are transformational, inspirational, and enlightening bodies of work and they shape the idea we have about food. In no particular order, these are the 10 cookbooks for 2021.
Book Title: Black Food stories, art, and recipes from across the African diaspora [A COOKBOOK] Author: Bryant Terry
About the Book
BLACK FOOD is a beautiful, rich, and groundbreaking book exploring Black foodways within America and around the world, curated by food activist and author of Vegetable Kingdom Bryant Terry. In this stunning and deeply heartfelt tribute to Black culinary ingenuity, Bryant Terry captures the broad and divergent voices of the African Diaspora through the prism of food. With contributions from more than 100 Black cultural luminaires from around the globe, the book moves through chapters exploring parts of the Black experience, from Homeland to Migration, Spirituality to Black Future, offering delicious recipes, moving essays, and arresting artwork. As much a joyful celebration of Black culture as a cookbook, Black Food explores the interweaving of food, experience, and community through original poetry and essays, including “Jollofing with Toni Morrison” by Sarah Ladipo Manyika, “Queer Intelligence” by Zoe Adjonyoh, “The Spiritual Ecology of Black Food” by Leah Penniman, and “Foodsteps in Motion” by Michael W. Twitty. The recipes are similarly expansive and generous, including sentimental favorites and fresh takes such as Crispy Cassava Skillet Cakes from Yewande Komolafe, Okra & Shrimp Purloo from BJ Dennis, Jerk Chicken Ramen from Suzanne Barr, Avocado and Mango Salad with Spicy Pickled Carrot and Rof Dressing from Pierre Thiam, and Sweet Potato Pie from Jenné Claiborne. Visually stunning artwork from such notables as Black Panther Party creative director Emory Douglas and artist Sarina Mantle are woven throughout, and the book includes a signature musical playlist curated by Bryant.
Book Title: The Healthy Warrior’s Cookbook Author: Bukola Bolarinwa
About the Book
The Healthy Warrior’s Cookbook is a cookbook bridging this gap, giving food or meal inspiration not to the ‘healthy warriors’ alone but, to all and sundry. However, because nutrition plays a vital role in the management of Sickle cell Disease especially in childhood and adolescence where children can experience malnutrition and stunted growth due to sickle cell crisis and other compilations. There has been a lot of focus on medication to manage SCD but little investment in the role that nutrition can play … The Healthy Warrior’s Cookbook bridges the gap. It is a cookbook compiled by Sickle Cell and Blood Health Advocate, Bùkọ́lá Bolarinwa, with a major contribution from renowned food experts like Ozoz Sokoh, Natachi Ugbajah, Tobi Smith, Zuhra Abdullahi, Jenica Leah, and Sickle Cell Aid Foundation Nigeria (scafnigeria)
Book Title: Vegan Nigerian Kitchen
Author: Tomi Makanjuola
About the Book
Vegan Nigerian Kitchen is a comprehensive cookbook that includes 100 classic Nigerian recipes with a vegan twist, spanning savoury soups, stews, snacks, porridges, rice dishes, drinks, and lots more. It showcases traditional Nigerian cooking techniques that involve fermentation, steaming, and lots more. The author, Tomi Makanjuola, shares Nigerian recipes with a plant-based twist, gaining insight into our style of eating, and expanding the cooking repertoire of vegans. It’s a cookbook that shows the beauty of our culture through our food and reinforcement that the vegan lifestyle is accessible and abundant.
Book Title: Bress ‘n’ Nyam: Gullah Geechee Recipes from a Sixth-Generation Farmer
Author: Matthew Raiford
About the Book
Bress ‘n’ Nyam is a cookbook that contains more than 100 heirloom recipes from a dynamic chef and farmer working the lands of his great-great-great-grandfather. From Hot Buttermilk Biscuits and Sweet Potato Pie to Salmon Cakes on Pepper Rice and Gullah Fish Stew, Gullah Geechee food is an essential cuisine of American history. It is the culinary representation of the ocean, rivers, and rich fertile loam in and around the coastal South. From the Carolinas to Georgia and Florida, this is where descendants of enslaved Africans came together to make extraordinary food, speaking the African Creole language called Gullah Geechee. In this groundbreaking and beautiful cookbook, Matthew Raiford pays homage to this cuisine that nurtured his family for seven generations. In 2010, Raiford’s Nana handed over the deed to the family farm to him and his sister, and Raiford rose to the occasion, nurturing the farm that his great-great-great-grandfather, a freed slave, purchased in 1874. In this collection of heritage and updated recipes, he traces a history of community and family brought together by food.
Book Title: Nengi’s kitchen cookbook deliciously different.
Author: Nengi Ukpabi
About the Book
Deliciously Different is a book designed to give you a unique culinary experience with exciting recipes. Nengi’s kitchen cookbook is a collection of priceless cooking tips and recipes from delicious dishes, written with simplicity so you can prepare them without help from a third party. More than 30+ recipes to master!
Book Title: 10 Easy ways to love Plantain Authors: Morenike Ayo Vaughan and Dimeji ‘Bash’ Eyiowuawi
About the Book
10 Easy Ways To Love Plantain is a romantic cookbook for plantain lovers with 10 easy-to-learn recipes. Each recipe comes with hilarious poetic commentary that is sure to bring the reader culinary entertainment. This book 10 Easy ways to love Plantain is a perfect introduction to discover the wonders of plantain. The unique commentary will make you fall in love. Renny provides the instructions for easy recipes such as Plantain Fish Bites, Plantain Cupcakes, and Plantain Waffles. Bash provides complementary love letters to make you swoon. This book comes with full recipes and inspiring colourful pictures of every dish.
Book Title: The Low-Carbon Cookbook & Action Plan: Reduce Food Waste and Combat Climate Change with 140 Sustainable Plant-Based Recipes.
Author: Alejandra Schrader
About the Book
The low-carbon Cookbook is If you’re looking for a way to combat climate change from your kitchen, this cookbook will help you with your goals. You may not think your food has anything to do with global warming, but in reality, the food industry has an undeniable impact on the environment and contributes one-fourth of our global greenhouse gas emissions. You can take a few small steps to help lower that number by introducing a low-carbon diet into your kitchen and life – and The Low-Carbon Cookbook will show you exactly how. It includes: • An introduction to the climate crisis and what the low-carbon diet is • Expert tips and advice on how to eat a low-carbon diet • Science-backed information on how to shop and cook smart by making the most-climate friendly choices • 140 plant-based recipes made with fresh, wholesome, and seasonal ingredients that can help you lower your carbon footprint and foodprint.
Book Title: Parsi Kitchen: A Memoir of Food and Family
Author: Anahita Dhondy
About the Book
The Parsi Kitchen is a warm and whimsical memoir of Forbes Asia’s ’30 under 30′ and former chef-partner at SodaBottleOpenerWala, Anahita Dhondy who has spent the last decade taking her culinary heritage to ambitious new heights. The Parsi Kitchen is about how she embraced the cuisine that she grew up with. It is a cookbook inspired from her grandmother’s Ravo to a Bombay duck also inspired by her travels through Gujarat, the quirky tales behind her beloved dishes make for a delicious read. The Parsi Kitchen is a treasure trove of recipes and memories, The Parsi Kitchen is a book to be savoured.
Book Title: Waffles + Mochi: Get Cooking!
Author: Yewande Komolafe
About the Book
Waffles + Mochi is a cookbook about the stories behind the food we eat. It is a child-friendly cookbook, based on the Netflix children’s show from Higher Ground, President Barack Obama, and Michelle Obama’s production company in partnership with Netflix. Waffles and Mochi is a cookbook that showcases recipes and cooking adventures that take you around the world—from Delicioso Stew inspired by Peru to a Pani Puri Party in California to making Hands-on Onigiri in Japan. These best friends discover how chefs mix fresh ingredients to create delicious dishes that make our taste buds happy. Each chapter begins with a simple recipe to master—like creating magical salts to dust over your dishes, boiling eggs four ways, and baking a potato that’s anything but ordinary. Then the recipes build from there. Before you know it, you’ll be whipping up Tenacious Tomato Salad, Chicken Sancocho, Kimchi Grilled Cheese, and Cloud Meringues.
Book Title: Nadiya’s Fast Flavours
Author: Nadiya Hussain
About the Book
Nadiya’s Fast Flavours is a cookbook filled with over 100 delicious recipes (including all the ones from my upcoming BBC2 TV series!) which show you how to create maximum flavour with minimum fuss. Nadiya Hussain offers sour, sweet, spicy, zesty, earthy, fruity, herbal recipes and innovative ways to pack your meals with flavour, using clever shortcuts, hacks, and handy ingredients to put the va-va-voom into your food but without spending hours in the kitchen.
My Cookery Zone 