The Mediterranean and Middle Eastern table is where healthy and delicious stop being a trade-off. These six cookbooks capture its bright, herb-forward, deeply satisfying cooking, from two world-famous chefs' landmark celebration of a shared city to the book that made Persian food a Western phenomenon. Whether you want a tested reference to the healthiest diet on earth or a chef's vibrant, giftable masterwork, this shelf covers it. It is some of the most rewarding, most craveable food you can cook.
We describe and compare these books, we never reprint their recipes. Pick one and pour the olive oil.
Quick picks:
- Best overall: Jerusalem by Yotam Ottolenghi. View on Amazon
- Best for Persian: Persiana by Sabrina Ghayour. View on Amazon
- Best tested reference: The Complete Mediterranean Cookbook by America's Test Kitchen. View on Amazon
Chef-driven classics
Jerusalem by Yotam Ottolenghi, Sami Tamimi
Yotam Ottolenghi is two world-famous chefs from opposite sides of the city. A landmark, giftable book celebrating a shared food culture, gorgeous, moving and endlessly cooked-from.
Best for: A landmark gift.
→ View on AmazonPersiana by Sabrina Ghayour
Sabrina Ghayour is a chef who made Persian food a phenomenon. Vibrant, approachable Middle Eastern and Persian cooking, the book that put the cuisine on Western tables.
Best for: Approachable Persian.
→ View on AmazonZaitoun by Yasmin Khan
Yasmin Khan is a food writer documenting Palestinian kitchens. Recipes and stories from Palestinian home cooks, warm, political and beautifully written.
Best for: Palestinian home cooking.
→ View on AmazonEssentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan
Marcella Hazan is the woman who taught America real Italian cooking. The definitive Italian reference, unfussy, authoritative and the source of the famous three-ingredient tomato sauce.
Best for: The Italian classic.
→ View on AmazonEveryday Mediterranean
The Complete Mediterranean Cookbook by America's Test Kitchen
America's Test Kitchen is the rigorously tested test-kitchen team. The definitive tested guide to Mediterranean eating, hundreds of foolproof recipes rooted in the healthiest diet there is.
Best for: Tested Mediterranean.
→ 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 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.
