The best recipe developers of our era did not come up through restaurant kitchens, they built devoted followings online by testing recipes obsessively until they work every time for regular home cooks. These eight cookbooks come from the most-loved and most-pinned food bloggers around, the names you probably already search when you need dinner. If you have ever pinned a recipe and had it turn out perfectly, its creator is likely on this list and their book gathers their best work in one reliable place.
We describe and compare these books rather than reprinting recipes. Follow your favorite from screen to shelf.
Quick picks:
- Best overall: Half Baked Harvest Super Simple by Tieghan Gerard. View on Amazon
- Most beloved: The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook by Deb Perelman. View on Amazon
- Best for baking: Sally's Baking Addiction by Sally McKenney. View on Amazon
Weeknight and comfort
Half Baked Harvest Super Simple by Tieghan Gerard
Tieghan Gerard is a blogger with a massive Pinterest following and cozy-cabin aesthetic. Streamlined versions of her wildly popular recipes, big flavor with fewer steps, the fall-comfort pin magnet.
Best for: Cozy weeknight comfort.
→ View on AmazonThe Smitten Kitchen Cookbook by Deb Perelman
Deb Perelman is one of the original and most beloved food bloggers. Clever, reliable, tiny-kitchen-tested recipes with a devoted following, a modern home-cooking essential.
Best for: Smart home cooking.
→ View on AmazonThe Skinnytaste Cookbook by Gina Homolka
Gina Homolka is a blogger with a huge Pinterest following. Lightened-up versions of the food you crave, with the calorie-aware, flavor-first approach that made her a phenomenon.
Best for: Lighter comfort food.
→ View on AmazonDamn Delicious by Chungah Rhee
Chungah Rhee is a blogger with an enormous Pinterest audience. Fast, flavor-packed 30-minute meals from one of the most-pinned recipe sources anywhere.
Best for: 30-minute meals.
→ View on AmazonOnce Upon a Chef by Jennifer Segal
Jennifer Segal is a professionally trained chef turned popular blogger. Every recipe tested to foolproof reliability, exactly what a busy home cook wants: no misses.
Best for: Foolproof weeknight cooking.
→ View on AmazonBaking and global
Sally's Baking Addiction by Sally McKenney
Sally McKenney is a blogger with an enormous Pinterest following. Reliable, beginner-friendly baking from one of the most-searched names online, the recipes just work.
Best for: Beginner baking.
→ View on AmazonThe Mediterranean Dish by Suzy Karadsheh
Suzy Karadsheh is a blogger with a large Pinterest following. Bright, approachable Mediterranean home cooking from one of the most-searched food sites, healthy and genuinely craveable.
Best for: Everyday Mediterranean.
→ 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 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.
