Here we have a wonderful cookbook, though so specialized that not all cooks will readily accept it. Yet it’s beautifully produced with gorgeous photo illustrations. Flavor Bombs is written by Adam Fleischman, the chef and owner of many restaurants based on the idea in this cookbook. It’s the umami flavor he is focusing on, using ingredients specifically enriched in umami. As Fleischman claims, this is not only a recipe book but a guide to bringing out flavor bombs in your own dishes. His section on a umami pantry is a must to stock ingredients essential in his dishes.

Here we have an excellent vegan cookbook by Chloe Coscarelli filled with good vegan recipes in the traditional array from breakfasts through snacks and sandwiches to beverages and sweets. Coscarelli’s recipes in Chloe Flavor are well written, easy to follow, and nicely laid out for the cook’s convenience. Many beautiful photo illustrations are scattered throughout the book (though the book designer should’ve cut out some of the author’s too many photos).

The best word to describe Great Tastes is mediocrity. Danielle and Laura Kosann created a cookbook that does little to inspire the home cook to bother with any of the recipes. The recipes are well written and easy to follow with readily available ingredients, but they are the same old, same old such as egg Benedict, lime-blueberry pancakes, onion soup, and a Moscow mule. For many of the recipes, the authors preface the title with an “easy” that you may translate as “simple and plain.”

The signature dish for this New York City sandwich shop is num pang, a flavorful and unusual Cambodian sandwich, after which the authors Ratha Chaupoly and Ben Daitz named their establishment. They decided to share their recipes in their cookbook, Nam Pang. This is basically a Cambodian cookbook written for American cooks to American taste. The basis of the cookbook is their signature sandwich having four key ingredients: fresh cucumber, cilantro, chili mayo and pickled carrots (the last two you easily prepare yourself).

If you enjoy kitchen work, you’ll have many hours of fun with Fermentation Revolution, plus the benefit of many, many fermented products like sauerkraut, fermented cucumber pickles, or shoyu (soy sauce). Sébastien Bureau and David Côté did an admirable job...

Whether you are looking for quick weeknight meals, snacks, or something more substantial to impress the weekend guests, Giada’s Italy has you covered. It’s not only full of mouth-watering recipes, it also has a cozy, intimate family feel to it. The beautiful photographs of food and the author with her daughter made me think that this book was put together with a sense of love and joy, which shines through every page.

Back in the late 70’s, someone had an idea to compile a cookbook from current artists’ photos and favorite recipes, but the project was left unfinished. Rediscovered decades later, we get to see opened a time capsule of the era, revealing a curious assemblage that reveals the artists and the period, in a highly intimate and personal way. You can certainly use this cookbook in the standard sense – sections include “Breakfast,” “Appetizers,” etc.

Readers may be aware that Stephanie Izard has won several coveted awards such as Top Chef and Iron Chef. She also owns three acclaimed restaurants, and now she has written a beautifully designed cookbook, which I found both enjoyable and practical. I love the idea of casual dining, and many of the recipes in this book are great for that purpose. But what I first noticed is the exciting and inventive dishes. While I wouldn’t think of having Grilled Pork Belly with Sauce Green, Peaches, and Blackberries, it does sound new and different. In fact, after going through the selection of dishes in the book, I was inspired to think of ways that I could add more fruit to savory dishes.

What better way to get kids interested in healthy eating than to get them into the kitchen? Ruby Roth, who has written and illustrated a number of other books for kids, has created an amazing children’s cookbook with The Help Yourself Cookbook for Kids. Unlike so many other cookbooks that seem to rely on processed ingredients and an abundance of sweet treats, this cookbook seeks to get kids interested in real food; these recipes are packed full of fresh fruits and veggies, “superfoods,” whole grains, and nuts. Kids can make five-minute tomato sauce to use on pasta or pizza, Broc-O-Tree Bisque (a delicious — and green — broccoli soup), a variety of salads, and yes, even desserts like No-Bake Chocoballs or No-Bake Coconut Grass Shacks.

Jesse Kropelnicki has been a coach for athletes for a long time, but, in addition to coaching their physical aspects, he extended his training into feeding the athletes the correct foods to increase their performances. And thus we have The Endurance Training Diet and Cookbook. The book is in two parts with equal lengths: in the first part, he discusses athletes’ diets and nutrition in detail. This is a very good and useful section for any athlete, yet it may apply to anyone physically active. Kropelnicki developed a specific diet for athletes he calls a Core Diet, a nutritionally balanced diet relying mostly on core foods of fish, lean meats, lean dairy, fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and legumes. He includes many useful and informative sidebars and nice photo illustrations of performing athletes. Excellent tables (Fueling Windows, Carb-Loading Examples) are scattered throughout.