Take a book : 5 gastronomic books to read in 2026

From the US to the UK, current gastronomic literature tells – or rather writes – a lot about what’s going on in cooking today: the return of retro without irony or false nostalgia, jello that is regaining its credentials in pastry, regional Italy told from Seattle, the plant that finally comes out of its militant straightjacket, or fermentation put back to the rhythm of the seasons. Overview.

Retro dishes are not dead

With Retro Recipes, Bobby Hicks brings back on the table very dated dishes, often too quickly mocked, for what they tell about an era, a popular taste and a real culture of comfort food without treating them as a joke, nor as a pure object of nostalgia. The book picks into the vast American domestic repertoire, from "Hoppin’ John" (a southern United States dish made with rice, corn beans, and smoked pork) to "Tuna noodle casserole" (a tuna noodle casserole, often paired with a creamy sauce) by way of the Chicken à la Kiev and the "Lazy Daisy Cake", this soft cake covered with a brown coconut-sugar glaze that has been baked...

Retro Recipes: Vintage Dishes with a Modern Twist

Jelly (not belly)

The jelly comes back from (very) far away. In Europe, she most often evokes cold buffets, cheesy aspics or bad memories of decorative cooking. In New York, the boutique Solid Wiggles has done something else since 2020: a very visual playground, between pastry, cocktail and pop culture. Jena Derman, pastry chef, and Jack Schramm, mixologist, sign a book dedicated to jelly-shots and jelly-cakes, with more than 45 recipes. The subject may seem gadget, but it touches on something very current: the return of frank textures, desserts that stand out, edible objects that make people talk at the table.

Solid Wiggles: Recipes and Techniques for Phenomenal Jelly Shots and Cakes

The Piedmont, from Seattle with love

We know Italy from pasta with tomato, pizza, and Roman or Neapolitan cuisine. Much less that of Piedmont, which is renowned for its butter, egg-yolk pasta, risottos, stewed meats, hazelnuts and, of course, its nebbiolo wines, among the best in the world. The author tackles here precisely this territory, from Seattle, where the same-named restaurant has become reknown for its work around Piedmontese cuisine. Stuart Lane has more than 75 recipes, with a clear emphasis on handmade pasta - tajarin, agnolotti - but also antipasti, roborative dishes, side dishes and desserts such as semifreddo. The book has the merit of reminding us that there is not an Italian cuisine, but Italian cuisines.

Spinasse: An American Love Letter to Piemonte Cuisine

Veg Everything shake (every)things up  

Plant-based cuisine has suffered from a huge misunderstanding for too long: choosing between the "wise" plate and the "militant" dish. Veg Everything takes the subject on a different tack. The book brings together 100 recipes from NYT Cooking (the New York Times recipes, always perfect, remade a thousand times before publication), selected by Tanya Sichynsky, author of the newsletter The Veggie. The angle is as simple as it is smart: cooking more vegetables does not condemn to side dishes, on the contrary, whether it’s the shawarma-style cauliflower and its tahini sauce, the spicy tomato beans or the creamy green vegetable pie.

Veg Everything: Recipes for Weeknights, Parties and the Bites in Between

Fermentation is everything but alternative cuisine

For a long time, fermentation was just a matter of jars, tupperware style, extra bacteria and (a lot of) patience. An intimidating affair considered as alternative cuisine. With A Year of Fermentation, Sam Cooper brings it back to the side of the bar. The idea ? Not to ferment above ground, but to start from what each moment of the year gives, from the garden as well as the market. Kombucha, apple cider vinegar, sourdough, miso, sauerkraut... the book covers the great classics, but puts them in a logic of micro-seasons, picking, preservation and taste. Yotam Ottolenghi sums up the promise rather well: "This man has the gift of making even the most ambitious projects possible."

A Year of Fermentation: A Seasonal Guide to the Art & Science of Fermentation