Cooking authentic Asian food at home can feel out of reach until you have the right teacher and these six are the best in print. From a James Beard winner's monumental, science-driven guide to the wok to the internet's most beloved Korean cooking authority, they cover Chinese, Korean and Japanese home cooking with real depth and real doability. These are the books that get you past the takeout menu and into genuinely great home-cooked Asian food.
We describe and compare these books rather than reprinting recipes. Pick your cuisine and get the wok hot.
Quick picks:
- Best for everyday Chinese: Every Grain of Rice by Fuchsia Dunlop. View on Amazon
- Best for technique: The Wok by J. Kenji López-Alt. View on Amazon
- Best for Korean: Maangchi's Real Korean Cooking by Maangchi. View on Amazon
Chinese cooking
The Wok by J. Kenji López-Alt
J. Kenji López-Alt is a James Beard Award-winning food scientist. A monumental, science-driven guide to stir-frying and the wok, exhaustive and genuinely definitive.
Best for: Mastering the wok.
→ View on AmazonEvery Grain of Rice by Fuchsia Dunlop
Fuchsia Dunlop is a leading Western scholar of Chinese cuisine. Authentic, achievable home-style Chinese cooking, the book that makes real Chinese food doable on a weeknight.
Best for: Everyday Chinese.
→ View on AmazonThe Woks of Life by The Leung Family
The Leung Family is a family behind one of the web's most-loved Chinese food blogs. The cookbook from a hugely popular, Pinterest-native site, warm family recipes across the Chinese diaspora.
Best for: Chinese family cooking.
→ View on AmazonKorean and Japanese
Maangchi's Real Korean Cooking by Maangchi
Maangchi is the internet's most beloved Korean cooking authority. The definitive home guide to Korean classics from the teacher who taught the world kimchi.
Best for: Authentic Korean.
→ View on AmazonJapan: The Cookbook by Nancy Singleton Hachisu
Nancy Singleton Hachisu is a respected scholar of Japanese home cooking. An encyclopedic, authoritative survey of real Japanese home food, the complete reference for the cuisine.
Best for: The Japanese reference.
→ View on AmazonEast by Meera Sodha
Meera Sodha is a food writer known for vibrant plant cooking. Vegan and vegetarian recipes across Asia, bright, bold and endlessly useful for meat-free variety.
Best for: Vegan Asian cooking.
→ View on AmazonHow we chose these
We looked past the marketing to the people behind the books: working chefs, award winners, food scientists, culture-bearers and the recipe developers whose food people actually cook again and again. Where an author is a food writer or blogger rather than a trained chef, that is a feature, not a knock: many of the most reliable, most-loved cookbooks come from obsessive home cooks. We describe and compare these books; we never republish their recipes.
