Has there ever been a better time to be a home cook? We’re not talking about the gadgets that put restaurant-quality cooking at our fingertips, or the abundance of increasingly diverse produce we have access to in Australia. We’re talking about the number of extraordinary Australian cookbooks that have hit shelves this year, elevating our home cooking and teaching us kitchen skills at the same time. An expert in Asian cuisines has taken us by the hand and shown us the ropes, a vegetable devotee has given everyday salads a glow-up and a beloved baker has had us bookmarking all the cakes we will make when we have time.
Each of this year’s best cookbooks signals the dynamism and excitement of Australian food as it stands right now, whether it’s a book from a restaurant at the pinnacle of the local dining scene, a self-taught cook showing you don’t need formal training to make an impact, or a young chef sharing their heritage and showcasing the cultural diversity that is modern Australia. Here are the 18 best Australian cookbooks of 2024.
Tony Tan’s Asian Cooking Class by Tony Tan
$59.99
Over his 40-year career, Tony Tan has cemented himself as Australia’s foremost Asian-cooking authority. His exhaustive research, culinary cred (he trained in London and Paris, and later worked alongside Stephanie Alexander), and a love of food sparked by growing up in Malaysia as the child of Hainanese immigrants, have resulted in an unparalleled depth of knowledge of the cuisines of Asia. Here, Tan digs into his trove of recipes and shares 150 of those he loves most, from Indonesian beef rendang to roti john, a street food enjoyed in Brunei, Singapore and Malaysia, as well as Thai red duck curry with lychee, his mother’s roast chicken, Typhoon Shelter Crab and pandan chiffon cake.Who’s it for? Anyone looking for a sharp and knowledgeable overview of Asian cooking and styles of eating.
Chae by Jung Eun Chae
$60.00
Securing a reservation at Chae, in Victoria’s Dandenong Ranges, can be tricky. To enjoy Jung Eun Chae’s meticulous, involved Korean cooking, patrons must vie for one of 24 seats a week. It’s this considered approach that’s communicated in the pages of Chae, the cookbook, through which Chae, the chef, waxes lyrical about cooking Korean food the slow way and according to the seasons. Expect recipes spanning multiple types of kimchi, as well as wintery pumpkin porridge, knife-cut noodles with pippies and more.Who’s it for? Anyone who can’t snag a Chae reservation; the Korean-cuisine-curious.
Salad for Days: Breezy Ways With Veg, All Year Round by Alice Zaslavsky
$45.00
Salads aren’t just for summer – and Alice Zaslavsky, an out-and-proud veg-lover, wants you to know it. Salad for Days offers up dozens of recipes that span the seasons and which – crucially – you’ll actually want to eat. In spring there’s the lush crunch of a bean salad, for summer a bright burrata and peach number and for autumn and winter heftier crowd-pleasers. Plus, the cornucopia of dressing recipes alone is worth the price of the book. Like everything Zaslavsky does, the book is suffused with a joy that’ll convert even the most diehard veggie-hater.Who’s it for? Those who want to work more veg into their days but can’t bear another boring salad.
Good Cooking Every Day by Julia Busuttil Nishimura
$44.00
Seasonality and simplicity are the threads running through beloved cook Julia Busuttil Nishimura’s new book. It’s a call for home cooks to make every meal special, whether they’re cooking for one, dishing up a midweek meal for the family or prepping a long lunch for their mates. The appeal of this book is simple: approachable recipes you’ll want to cook and eat. That means orange sugar-dusted madeleines, stracci with zucchini, tomatoes on toast and other lovely, easy dishes for any and all occasions.Who’s it for?
Anyone looking to inject their cooking repertoire with a little more chic.
Tarts Anon by Catherine Way and Gareth Whitton
$45.00
A bakery dedicated to tarts and only tarts is a niche concept – but Melbourne’s Tarts Anon has more than proven its worth. And now anyone who wants to replicate that passion for tarts, sweet or savoury, can do so at home with the debut cookbook from Tarts Anon chef Gareth Whitton and his business and life partner Catherine Way. Inside, recipes for traditional tarts like lemon tarts and vanilla custard rub shoulders with less-traditional takes including a carrot cake tart and black forest tart, plus savouries such as a mushroom and parmesan number.Who’s it for?
Anyone looking get really, really good at a specific bake.
Tipo 00 The Pasta Cookbook by Andreas Papadakis
$49.99
Even if you’ve never been to Melbourne pasta restaurant Tipo 00 – named for the flour used to make pizza and pasta – chef-owner Andreas Papadakis’s cookbook is bound to appeal. It embodies the restaurant’s ethos of serving top-tier bowls of pasta made with the best seasonal produce, plus shares tips for perfecting your dough, guides to the different pasta shapes and wine-pairing recommendations. For fans, there are Tipo 00 classics including asparagus ravioli, cocoa paccheri with pine mushrooms and “tipomisu”, as well as foolproof rigatoni pomodoro, a weekend-project lasagne and more.Who’s it for?
Home cooks looking to master the art of pasta.
Ela! Ela! by Ella Mittas
$39.99
Ella Mittas self-published her debut cookbook Ela! Ela! in 2022. But this year, it was picked up by Murdoch for a second edition, which has a few more recipes and a stunning woodcut print on the cover by Mittas herself – so, here it is on this year’s list. Essays and recipes trace the chef’s travels, as she cooked and ate her way across Turkey and Greece before arriving back home and realising the value and joy of the Greek Australian culture of her hometown, Melbourne. Mittas’s own evocative imagery brings the book and recipes to brilliant life.Who’s it for?
The travel-hungry; those who love a story to go with their recipes.
Ellie’s Table: Food From Memory and Food From Home by Ellie Bouhadana
$55.00
Hosting a dinner party? You’ll want to pick up this charmer from former head chef of Melbourne’s Hope St Radio Ellie Bouhadana. There’s a story behind each recipe, but the important thing is they’re all eminently achievable. The book is broken down into sections that reflect the order of a dinner party – but also the way her family, North African Jewish on one side, Ashkenazi Jewish on the other, prefers to eat. Think easy-to-assemble snacks for when guests arrive, and a show-stopping main event, such as a roast chicken enveloped in anchovy butter, or a whole sea bream with crispy skin. And yes, it does feature her Melbourne-famous focaccia.Who’s it for?
Anyone missing Bouhadana’s cooking at Hope St Radio, or just planning a top-tier dinner party.
Beatrix Bakes Another Slice by Natalie Paull
$50.00
Specificity is key for Natalie Paull, founder of now-closed Melbourne bakery Beatrix. She anticipates the troubles you might run into and the questions you might have, and incorporates them into her enchanting recipes to ensure they’re foolproof – a godsend when it comes to the notoriously finicky art of baking. In essence, Paull’s second cookbook is giving you skills and confidence “for life”. The result is a seriously lovely collection of cakes, traybakes, cookies and more.Who’s it for?
Bakers who want recipes they trust will work.
Love Crumbs by Nadine Ingram
$54.99
Beautiful, romantic cakes fill the pages of Nadine Ingram’s second cookbook – much as they fill the shelves of her adored Sydney bakery, Flour and Stone. Ingram’s creativity takes full flight here, and she infuses the book’s 50 recipes with her non-baking passions as well: art, botanicals, love stories and music. An example: a multi-layered pistachio, rhubarb and ginger cake inspired by a John Olsen painting. These aren’t whip-up-after-work recipes; these are recipes for when you’re ready to invest your time in creating something beautiful.Who’s it for?
Committed home bakers.
Ho Jiak: A Taste of Malaysia by Junda Khoo
$55.00
The vibrant flavours and multiple modes of eating – hawker-style, home-style, street food and banqueting – found in Malaysia form the core of this bold cookbook from Sydney chef-restaurateur Junda Khoo. Like the menus at his Ho Jiak restaurants, it’s a whirlwind of joy: classics like char kway teow and satay nuzzle against contemporary creations like the laksa bombs (meat or tofu dumplings in laksa soup) that have become a hit at Ho Jiak Town Hall.Who’s it for?
Malaysian-food lovers and those who can’t get to Ho Jiak nearly enough.
On Sundays: Long Lunches Through the Seasons by Dave Verheul
$55.00
The pleasures of weekend long lunches are many – but nowhere near enough cookbook pages have been devoted solely to their joys. This bold book from Dave Verheul, of sharp Melbourne wine bar Embla (home to many a langorous long lunch), is rectifying that. Nine years of Embla recipes fill the book, offering a host of new ways to spin meat and veg. Most of these recipes – golden-glazed roast chicken, woodfired sourdough, ferments – are labours of love, designed for hours spent in the kitchen lovingly preparing a meal for friends and family. They may take a while but, importantly, they’re doable and well worth the effort.Who’s it for?
Devoted hosts who want to dedicate plenty of time to cooking for their friends and family.
The Broadsheet Melbourne Cookbook: The New Classics
$54.99
The current state of Melbourne’s world-class dining scene has been distilled into the sequel to Broadsheet’s original Broadsheet Melbourne Cookbook from 2015. A reflection of the constant evolution of Melbourne’s world-class dining scene, it stars 80 recipes from longstanding favourites France-Soir and Stokehouse and newcomers such as Manze and Askal, allowing you to recreate Melbourne-famous dishes – like Napier Quarter’s focaccia, Toddy Shop’s fish curry and Lee Ho Fook’s lamb pancakes – at home.Who’s it for?
Melburnians who want the inside track on their favourite restaurant dishes.
Vegan Italian Food by Shannon Martinez
$45.00
Think of Italian food and cheesy pizza, meat-laced pastas and creamy gelato will likely come to mind – but much Italian cuisine is naturally vegan, thanks to generations of cucina povera-style cooking; that is, the humble cooking of peasants who often couldn’t afford meat or dairy. Both sides of Italian cuisine are on show in Shannon Martinez’s plant-based take on Italian cooking, which makes many previously out-of-the-question dishes available for vegans. Her famous tiramisu is there, as is a plant-based cacio e pepe that has all the peppery sharpness and creaminess of the original, sans dairy.Who’s it for?
Those who are vegan but don’t want to miss out on Italo faves.
Quality Meats by Luke Powell
$55.00
If you’ve never felt the urge to make your own smallgoods, this book by Luke Powell is still worth a gander if you want to find out how the sausage is made (literally). Powell is the brains behind Sydney’s LP’s Quality Meats, which supplies sausages, mortadella, saucisson and other smallgoods to some of the city’s best restaurants and cafes. This book takes an all-encompassing approach to cooking: not only will you make a pizza, but you’ll make the pepperoni that tops it; if you tackle the sausage muffin, you’ll be making that sausage.Who’s it for?
Ambitious home cooks looking for their next project.
Some of My Best Friends Are Cookies by Emelia Jackson
$39.99
Think of your favourite biscuit and it’ll likely be in Dessert Masters and Masterchef contestant Emelia Jackson’s second cookbook. Melting moments? Tick. Iced Vovo? Yep. Really good chocolate-chip cookies? You bet. In total, there are 80 biscuit recipes here, from classics from around the world to new creations, like the tiramisu-inspired cookimisu, an Earl Grey millionaire’s shortbread and many more. It’s a cookie cookbook worth its weight in cookie dough.Who’s it for?
Sweet tooths.
This Is a Book About Street Food
$39.99
It’s all there in the title: a book about street food by Masterchef contestant and avid traveller Brendan Pang. While Tony Tan’s book looks at the full sweep of Asian cooking and dining styles, Pang’s takes a more zoomed-in approach, looking at those dishes you’ll find in the street markets of Taipei, the hawker outlets of Singapore and the roadside stalls of Bangkok. Think Singapore chilli crab, banh mi, onigiri, mango sticky rice and many other dishes as vibrant as the streets and stalls from which they’re sold.Who’s it for?
Recently returned travellers from Asia missing the accessibility of big-flavour street food.
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