11 Best Cookbooks to Gift This Mother’s Day

Culinary creator Maxine Sharf’s debut cookbook proves why she’s earned a devoted following (over 4 million people and counting!) for recipes that are equal parts nourishing and comforting. Her recipes reflect her multicultural heritage, blending Chinese, Korean and Jewish influences, along with her California upbringing and culinary travel-inspired tastes. The recipes are accompanied by beautiful photographs and whimsically illustrated primers for cooking basics, like a season-to-taste chart, chopping 101 or how to build your own stir-fry.

Chapters are organized by day of the week to guide you to recipes to match your mood. Early weekday meals might include low-lift but restaurant-quality dishes like Miso-Butter Salmon, while a mid-week pick-me-up might mean reaching for Thai Basil Chicken Lettuce Cups. We plan to take a page out of Sharf’s book and savor weekend time with friends and family over dishes that invite lingering in the kitchen. These include many of her mother’s cherished recipes, like Mom’s Golden Crispy Chicken Potstickers, which doubles as a fun family activity if you’re so inclined, and Mom’s Fluffy Pancakes, tailor-made for a relaxing and restorative Sunday brunch.

This memoir/cookbook hybrid is for those who read cookbooks like novels. The book chronicles Bush’s baking journey through the seasons, beginning in winter with her first failed attempts when she sought out baking to remedy a lonely time in her life, to her growing skill and confidence as she progresses through the seasons and leans into her appetites and cravings in spring, summer and fall.

It’s a potent reminder that life, as with baking, does not always go according to plan. But if you’re willing to persevere, you will reap the sweet rewards, namely the likes of Cardamom Cruller with Plum Drizzle, Orange Olive Oil Poppy Seed Cake and Neapolitan Pavlova. Through gorgeous prose and delightful recipes, Bush imparts valuable life lessons for both baking and life: embrace failure and change and make room for pleasure and savoring new flavors.

Whether you’re a day-one follower or new devotee, there’s no denying the enduring appeal of Ree Drummond’s homespun charm and down-home cooking. Drummond, aka The Pioneer Woman, has always sought to weave stories about her family’s life on a ranch with her tried-and-true recipes, and her latest cookbook delivers in spades. This collection of essential recipes captures the story behind the dish and reveals hard-won cooking tips and dialed-in techniques, paired with helpful process photos to help you master them.

The recipes span just about every meal and occasion, from the #1 cowboy breakfast of all time, Biscuits and Sausage Gravy, to a Sunday-supper ready Ravishing Roast Chicken to dinner party-worthy Spicy Shrimp Scampi. Sprinkled throughout the book are family photos and stories, many of which are reflections on motherhood and now, grandmotherhood, proving that for Drummond, family is the essential ingredient in her home cooking.

Lucie Franc de Ferriere grew up in France, learning to bake cakes with her mother at their family-owned bed-and-breakfast in a historic château in Bordeaux. Her New York City bakery, From Lucie, might occupy a smaller footprint in the East Village, but she’s earned an outsize following for her whimsical fresh-flower-adorned creations. Her cakes reflect a European sensibility, with recipes that are less sugar-forward, all the better to let her creative flavor combinations shine (hello, Brown Butter Bay Leaf Mascarpone Tahini Cake). The book’s chapters span everyday cakes, show-stopping tiered cakes, reinvited desserts and afternoon goûter, which includes From Lucie’s sought-after Salted Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies and a Blueberry Fennel Loaf that would pair perfectly with a cup of tea.

The informative how-to sections have the potential to immediately transform your baking skills, like infusing butter, decorating cakes, making whipped cream and canning jams and curds. The book is also sprinkled with personal stories and gorgeous photography from Lucie’s farm that will make you want to immediately book a trip to the French countryside.

Food Network star, bakery owner and bestselling author Molly Yeh’s latest tome is a love letter to all things sugar. It’s fitting, given that she and her husband, Nick, live and work on a sugar beet farm and that many of her formative memories are of making sweets with her family. Many of the recipes draw inspiration from Yeh’s Asian and Jewish heritage, such as Red Bean Newtons and Toasted Sesame Cake, as well as her takes on nostalgic sweets, like her mom-inspired Cinnamon Sugar Chocolate Rugelach or Yellow Cake Cookie Bars. We can’t wait to whip up One-Bowl Any-Butter Cookie Bars when spur-of-the-moment cravings strike or Black Sesame Babka, one of Yeh’s favorite recipes in the book. Not sure where to start? The dedicated Dessert for Breakfast chapter includes inspiring bakes like Marzipan Poppy Seed Babka Muffins and weekend-worthy Chocolate Swirly Buns.

With its clever recipes, fun illustrations (by Danny Miller) and a heavy dose of whimsy, The Fishwife Cookbook packs a one-two punch of flavor and charm. Together with recipe developer Vilda Gonzalez, Becca Millstein, co-founder and CEO of Fishwife, showcases her signature high-quality, sustainably sourced tinned fish in 80 easy recipes organized by meal and mood. From Just a Quickie, start with Radish, Butter, and Anchovy Toast; upgrade your tuna sandwich with A Meal for One’s Trout Salad Sandwich; or crack open a tin of Smoked Salmon with Fly By Jing Chili Crisp and make a cozy bowl of Dan Dan Noodles, aptly filed under In Front of the Fireplace. We especially love the book’s Deep Dives, which offer how-tos such as assembling a five-minute snack plate, packing a perfect picnic or pairing tinned fish with potato chips. Score bonus points with mom by gifting the happiness-inducing The Fishwife Cookbook Gift Box, which comes with two tins of fish, tinned fish tongs and cute stickers and sticky notes, perfect for bookmarking her favorite recipes.

With her latest cookbook, Allyson Reedy celebrates 50 of the most viral and visually stunning recipes, plus photos from food bloggers and recipe creators. The book is chock-full of kitchen hacks that’ll help build your own Instagram-worthy recipe repertoire, including Michelle Tiang’s Ice Cube Tray Sushi, Snejana Andreeva’s Lasagna Soup or Jess Pryles’ Rice Paper Dumplings. This book has tons of foodie content creator inspo, whether it’s recreating Reedy’s own Millennial Pink Smoothie Bowl for breakfast or her Creamy Lemonade for a refreshing summer sipper, discovering the gustatory genius of Darryl Harmon’s Donut Grilled Cheese with Tomato Soup or celebrating social media’s influence on home cooking with a round of Dahianna’s Birria Tacos. Bonus points if you put together Deb Perelman’s Bagel and Cream Cheese Board for a festive Mother’s Day brunch. Just remember, the phone eats first, so be sure to use #thephoneeatsfirstcookbook when you post your Instagram- and TikTok-worthy dishes.

If Mom is looking for kitchen inspiration, turn to Meredith Hayden, a private chef, recipe developer and creator of the website Wishbone Kitchen. Her book’s 100 recipes prove that elegant and unfussy can go hand in hand and that home cooks can celebrate all seasons of life without tons of pressure. Ease in with dips like Hot Crab Dip and Really Good Guac, then move on to inspired back-pocket weeknight dinners including shareable sandwiches like the Ultimate Italian and big salads like the summer-ready Blueberry BBQ Grilled Chicken Salad. Hayden spent summers on Nantucket so she devotes plenty of recipe real estate to seafood, including how to break down a lobster destined for Wok Lobster or Lobster Avocado Salad and how to host a Nantucket Clam Bake, the ultimate al fresco entertaining hack. And don’t miss Not My Mom’s Roast Chicken, an homage to her mom and the recipe that started it all (her mom always saved the wishbone to snap after dinner), paired with a punchy parsley tarragon salsa verde.

Given his background as an acclaimed fashion designer, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Peter Som would create an equally elegant and intentional cookbook. But there are delightful surprises at virtually every turn, from the addition of unexpected yet genius ingredients to the beautiful storytelling sprinkled throughout. Som dedicated this book to his mom and grandma, who instilled in Som a love of food and whose cooking inspired Som’s approach in the kitchen. Family Style includes heirloom-worthy recipes like Chinese Steamed Egg, which Som augments with a garnish of bacon, sourdough and Parmigiano-Reggiano and Poached Chicken with Two Dips, including an Herby Ginger Sauce and Spicy Soy Sauce (to which he adds chili crisp). We’ll also take a page out of Som’s effortless entertaining handbook by making party favorites like Baked Camembert with Chili Crisp and Honey and Sole Meunière with Fish Sauce and Lime, both nods to his mom’s love of French cuisine, and wedges of Chocolate Hoisin Cake with Fluffy Frosting.

As a first-generation American with East African and South Asian roots, author Zaynab Issa has a wealth of culinary cultures to draw from. In Third Culture Cooking — a term for the blend of cultures of one’s parents’ homeland and the place one calls home — she celebrates her multi-cultural heritage as well as her U.S. suburban upbringing. With her old-school meets new-school framework, access to a global pantry and a heaping helping of creative flair, Zaynab has dreamt up 100 recipes jam-packed with bold flavors that are in their own category of American classics. To wit, the book shares space for the likes of her grandmother’s baklava, her sister-in-law’s biryani and the Cinnabon-inspired Mall Cinnamon Rolls of Zaynab’s youth. On the savory side, we can’t wait to make Udon Carbonara, Tandoori Tacos and Calabrian Chili Chicken with Caper Raita, while on the sweet side we’ve bookmarked the irresistible-sounding Banana Cake with Tahini Fudge and Almond Mocha Blondies.

What we love about this book and its particular giftability for moms is that every recipe in Snacking Dinners is designed to feed one. Author Georgia Freedman wants people to make an interesting, flavorful dinner for themselves, not just when cooking for other people. While the snacking dinners can be satisfying on their own, Freedman also offers suggestions for bulking up the plate. In five minutes, you can have a plate of Cold Tofu with Scallions, Tomato and Chile Crisp (made heartier with rice or alongside pan-fried freezer dumplings or a “splurgy snack” of Caviar Sandwich. If you’ve got more time to spare, Okonomiyaki Tater Tots read like the comfort food-mash-up we didn’t know we were missing. That said, recipes can easily be doubled for an inspired date night, like Shrimp Cocktail with Citrus-Gochujang Seafood Sauce, or tripled or quadrupled to break out of a dinnertime rut or to curate a party menu, like the game-night ready spread with Sweet-Spicy-Numbing Queso, Mix & Match Potato Bites and Roti Pizza.