12 Favorite Cookbook Gifts

Sunset Magazine

To get gift ideas for the foodie in your life, check out these delicious culinary collections.


A personalized recipe book
Now there's a stylish place to stash all those recipes you've clipped from magazines and newspapers: Celia Sack's The Omnivore's Recipe Keeper. Embellished with food images culled from Celia's personal collection of vintage cookbooks (she owns Omnivore Books, in San Francisco), it's as beautiful as it is handy.


For the from-scratch cook
Make the Bread, Buy the Butter by Jennifer Reese describes the author's often funny attempts to make everything she and her family eat, from scratch. She tells you which foods are worth it-and which aren't.


Cult Chinese cookbook
It's practically impossible to get a seat at San Francisco's widly popular Mission Chinese Food, but the restaurant's new book, Mission Street Food: Recipes and Ideas from an Improbable Restaurant gives a way to satisfy the craving. Lots of quirky restaurant-biz reflections, with fun comic-book illustrations.
> Related: Quick and tasty Asian recipes


For the home brewer
Make six-packs from scratch with this beautifully designed, effortlessly readable little guide that streamlines a complex task so that anyone can follow. Ideal for the first-time brewer but smart enough for the veteran, too.


Free cookbook for sustainable kids' lunches
Developed as a template for school cafeterias, Cooking with California Food in K-12 Schools was written by award-winning cookbook writer Georgeanne Brennan, who worked with educational consultant Ann M. Evans to create crosscultural recipes that appeal to kids of any heritage.


For the would-be pizzaiolo
Finally, the genius behind Pizzeria Mozza and Osteria Mozza-venerated in Los Angeles for killer pizza and great Italian food, period-has published a cookbook. In it, Nancy Silverton took the best recipes from both restaurants and brings them all to you, along with expert tips and techniques for making gelato, pasta, pizza, and more.
> Related: 14 homemade pizza recipes


For the Chez Panisse fan
Since the late 1970s, Patricia Curtan has been making letterpress menus for Chez Panisse, embellished with her graceful block prints of fruits and vegetables, birds, and flowers. Menus for Chez Panisse brings these beautiful creations together, along with the stories behind each dinner. It's a book any food lover will savor for hours.

SEE ALL COOKBOOK GIFT IDEAS

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