Best summer cookbooks to buy, 2024

Best summer cookbooks at a glance

• Best Greek cookbook: Greekish by Georgina Hayden, £19.60
• Best Sicilian cookbook: Sicilia by Ben Tish, £20.19
• Best for seasonal produce: Greenfeast Spring Summer by Nigel Slater, £24
• Best for interesting salads: Savage Salads by Kristina Gustafsson, £15.61
• Best for Italian desserts: La Vita è Dolce by Letitia Clark, £20.03
• Best barbecue cookbook: Pitt Cue Co. The Cookbook, £26
• Best vegetarian barbecue book: The Green Barbecue by Rukmini Iyer, £17.99
• Best for summer cooking with kids: Foraging with Kids by Adele Nozedar, £14.99
• Best for quick summer meals: Speedy Mob by Ben Lebus, £9.43
• Best for summer holiday reading: The Ten (Food) Commandments by Jay Rayner, £6
• Best unique food memoir: Notes from a Young Black Chef by Kwame Onwuachi, £9.32

Best summer cookbooks to buy 2024

Greekish by Georgina Hayden

• Available from Amazon (£19.60), Waterstones (£21.99)

Best Greek cookbook

Channel memories of sunny Greek holidays no matter what the weather at home with this gorgeous cookbook bursting with simple meal ideas from Georgina Hayden. Inspired by her Greek-Cypriot heritage, everything from midweek meals to dinner party inspiration is covered here. Think spanakopita jacket potatoes, the perfect feta fried in filo and drizzled with honey, baklava cheesecake and much more.

Available from:
Amazon (£19.60)
Waterstones (£21.99)

Sicilia by Ben Tish

• Available from Amazon (£20.19), Waterstones (£26)

Best Sicilian cookbook

Discover a new angle on Italian cooking with this tome to Sicilian cuisine by Ben Tish. Tish explores the diverse Arab, French and Greek influences that are linked to Sicilian cooking. Chapters on bread, fritti, meat, fish, vegetables, sweets and of course pasta and rice will soon have you transported to this sun-soaked isle.

Available from:
Amazon (£20.19)
Waterstones (£26)

Greenfeast Spring/Summer by Nigel Slater

• Available from Amazon (£18.97), Waterstones (£24)

Best for seasonal eating

Make the most of seasonal summer produce with Nigel’s guide to spring and summer. Expect around 100 recipes, almost all of which can be on the table in under 30 minutes. It’s an honest portrayal of Nigel Slater’s dinner habits, putting the focus firmly on veggie produce. Dishes are usually named after a trio of ingredients (such as miso, mushrooms and pak choi; tomatoes, basil and breadcrumbs; and halloumi, melon and chilli) and the book is divided into how you might cook or serve your dinner: in a bowl, on a plate, in the oven, or on the grill, for example. You can also pick up the other cookbook in this series, Greenfeast: Autumn, Winter.

Available from:
Amazon (£18.97)
Waterstones (£24)

Savage Salads by Kristina Gustafsson and Davide del Gatto

• Available from Amazon (£15.61)

Best for interesting salads

Summer feels like the season of salads, but there’s no need for these to be boring. With this book, you'll never eat a sad salad again. It's written by Kristina Gustafsson and Davide del Gatto, who set up shop in London to sell fully-loaded salads and soon had long queues out the door. This book is full of their famous protein-rich, vitamin-packed salad recipes, all made with meat, fish or cheese.

Available from:
Amazon (£15.61)

La Vita è Dolce by Letitia Clark

• Available from Amazon (£20.03), Waterstones (£28)

Best for Italian desserts

This is the must-have Italian cookbook if you have a sweet tooth. Proving there is more to Italian cooking than pizza and pasta, this dives into the world of homemade gelato, biscuits, tarts, cakes and more. The elegant dishes make perfect dinner party desserts for any summer entertaining you've got planned. Think citrus and Campari upside-down cake, classic cannoli, peach sorbet and much more.

Available from:
Amazon (£20.03)
Waterstones (£28)

Pitt Cue Co. The Cookbook

Best barbecue cookbook

If you're planning a barbecue this summer, this is the bible for you. From the acclaimed London restaurant famous for their Southern American barbecue and grilling style, this is a masterclass in meat, fire and smoke. From their ultimate pulled pork shoulder to a chipotle and confit garlic slaw, smoked ox cheek toasts and sticky bourbon pudding, there are enough recipes in here to make you want to keep the barbecue going all year round.

The Green Barbecue: Vegan and Vegetarian by Rukmini Iyer

A barbecue doesn’t always have to be a meat feast. The Green Barbecue has 75 veggie and vegan recipes designed for grilling, from side dishes to veggie centrepieces. Think five spice grilled aubergine, mozzarella-stuffed mushrooms and crispy barbecue tofu. Plus, there’s a chapter on barbecue desserts too.

Available from:
Amazon (£14.05)
Waterstones (£17.99)

Foraging with Kids: 52 Wild and Free Edibles to Enjoy with Your Children by Adele Nozedar

• Available from Amazon (£11.75), Waterstones (£14.99)

Best for cooking with kids

If you’re running out of summer holiday activities to keep kids occupied, this book is here to help. Foraging with Kids calls for families everywhere to get exploring outdoors, engaging with what’s growing and getting hands-on in using it. There are 52 foraging-inspired projects to connect adventure with play and help you get outside with your little helpers.

Available from:
Amazon (£11.75)
Waterstones (£14.99)

Speedy Mob by Ben Lebus

Best for quick summer meals

When it’s hot out, you might not want to spend hours in the kitchen. This book from the MOB team promises you’ll have a meal ready in just 12 minutes, and we time tested several of them to check. Split into chapters, including brunch, salads, pasta and gnocchi, rice and noodles, ‘flashy’ (for when you want to impress) and ‘sweet stuff ’, there’s lots of timesaving hacks so you’ll be eating alfresco in no time.

The Ten (Food) Commandments by Jay Rayner

Best light-hearted food book

If it’s a light-hearted, food-packed read you’re after, then you could do a lot worse than turning to this fun paperback, penned by restaurant critic-turned-culinary prophet Jay Rayner. Soak up his irreverent teachings on food envy, stinky eats and worshipping at the altar of leftovers. Each chapter is dedicated to a new 21st-century food commandment, with anecdotes, observations and musing all woven into sharp and canny essay-style pieces. There are a few recipes too, giving you the push to put each new law into practice in the kitchen.

Available from:
Amazon (£5.58)
Waterstones (£6)
Foyles (£6)

Notes from a Young Black Chef by Kwame Onwuachi

Best unique food memoir

So powerful is this memoir by Kwame Onwuachi that, weeks after its release, news broke that it was to be adapted for film. In it, Kwame crafts a picture of how he became one of America’s best-loved chefs: his upbringing in the Bronx, time spent in Nigeria living with his grandfather, and how food became a gateway to an alternative life. He depicts with candour what it’s like to be a person of colour breaking into the world of fine dining, illuminating the barriers built by racism. In tracking his journey from cooking on a Deepwater Horizon cleanup ship to appearing on American TV show Top Chef, this young chef crafts a sincere and profound story of determination and passion in the face of adversity.

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