Much like new movies, music, and television shows, new cookbooks are being released at a stunning pace. Of course, in NYC you can double down and get a cookbook or memoir straight from the restaurants debuting them.
Some names on the list may make you say ‘ooh, I love that place!” Others may be new for you, or, you may have never realized there was a literary component to the restaurant. Regardless, rest assured that this entire lineup promises some truly top-tier food.
Dona Murad’s Librae Third-culture Recipes From a Cult New York Bakery
It’s easy to sum up the Librae cookbook in one word: stunning. With some of the most inventive, imaginative, and picturesque pastries, desserts, breads, and cookies you’ve ever seen (the croissants alone are worth the price of admission), Murad’s array of Bahrain-influenced desserts are showstoppers.
Coming off of a recent James Beard nod for outstanding bakery, Murad’s cookbook is thorough, precise, and a marvel to flip through. Librae, located in the East Village, incorporates ingredients like feta, a’aatar, rose, pistachio, and tahini in order to diversify standard pastries and provide a multitude of vibrant, unique offerings.
Murad, who was raised in Bahrain, crafts the recipes. Expect lots of butter and ingredients the chef is passionate about, including zhoug, cardamom, and urfa biber, a type of chili pepper. Visit Librae Bakery and find the cookbook at 35 Cooper Square in the East Village.
Eric Sze’s Taiwanese?
Wenwen, chef Eric Sze’s cult favorite eatery in Brooklyn, offers unique and classic Taiwanese fare and cocktails. Think Asian-style popcorn chicken, cold sesame noodles, and fried tengyuan with ice cream. Sze wrote the cookbook Taiwanese?, with Elyse Inamine, showcasing 70 recipes revolving around Taiwanese cuisine in all facets. With tongue-in-cheek tone and incredible photography and essays from his travels and his studies, Sze contexulaties his journey from Taipei to his career in NYC.
Overall, this book is a great addition to the Asian-American cookbook oeuvre, and one that allows you to enjoy some of the Wenwen highlights right in your own home. As far as that question mark in the title, Sze explained on social media that: “This book is a deep dive into the lineage of Taiwanese identity and sometimes the blissful cultural dilemma and question marks we tend to have.” Visit Wenwen at 1025 Manhattan Ave., Greenpoint in Brooklyn to get your own copy.
Renato Poliafito’s Dolci!: American Baking with an Italian Accent: A Baking Cookbook
Two-time James Beard nominee Renato Poliafito is a master of the classic Italian pastry. With Dolci!: American Baking with an Italian Accent: A Baking Cookbook, he more than earns that exclamation point thanks to an incredible array of outrageously picturesque and wildly flavorful Italian and Italian-American desserts.
Poliafito, who helms Ciao, Gloria and Pasta Night, both in Park Slope, Brooklyn, originally worked in print and design before pivoting to desserts and coffee. He co-wrote the book with Casey Elsass, and in it you’ll find an array of recipes for treats such as biscotti, brownies, cakes, tiramisus, and Honey-Ricotta Black and White Cookies. Visit Ciao, Gloria and Pasta Night at 550 Vanderbilt Ave., and 575 Vanderbilt Ave., respectively.
Irene Yoo’s Soju Party: How to Drink (and Eat!) Like a Korean: A Cookbook
This celebration of all things soju is such a welcome exploration of the spirit, and this James Beard Award-winning book also features a handful of small bites and snacks to go along with the drinks. Written by Irene Yoo, who runs Orion Bar in Bushwick, the book features essays on the history of Korean drinks, unique illustrations, insights into drinking games, and more.
On the recipe side, look for delightful pairings at the Jujube Ginseng Negroni and a Kimchi Carbonara. A lot of the included dishes and drinks feature the same Asian ingredients and tipples found at Orion Bar, such as smoked tea, samgyetang soju, ginseng, misugaru, and ume plum whiskey. Also look for savory food and drink, desserts, and zero-proof mocktails too. Visit Orion Bar at 157 Suydam St., Bushwick in Brooklyn, to purchase the book and have a drink.
Paulie Gee’s Pizza from the Heart: 100 Recipes for Pies, Pasta, Salads, and More
Billed as a “love story between Paulie, Mary Ann, and pizza,” this book highlighting the Greenpoint shop should be on every shelf thanks to the recipes and the story behind it all.
The legend started with Paulie Giannone, aka Paulie Gee, who left the corporate world to enter the wide world of pizza with his wife Mary Ann. Now, 15 years later and 45 years into their marriage, the two have birthed a cookbook.
Co-written with Sarah Zorn, the lineup includes an array of pastas, salads, and other delicious offerings beyond the iconic pizza. Of course, there’s that too with favorite combos such as Hellboy, Mo Cheeks, and In Ricotta da Vegan also gracing the pages. The Giannone’s also added in some collaborations with other NYC hot spots and excellent drinks and desserts.
Visit Paulie Gee’s at 60 Greenpoint Ave., in Brooklyn, where you can also get the cookbook.
Sabrina Rudin’s Healthy With a Side of Happy
The Spring Cafe Aspen has been a haven for vegans, vegetarians, and those looking to enjoy a plant-based meal since chef Sabrina Rudin opened it in 2021. Like her first cafe in Aspen, Colorado, everything served features cold-pressed oils, gluten-free and sprouted flours, TENSUI filtered waters, and is only cooked in stainless or carbon steel pots and pans.
That ethos continues in Rudin’s cookbook, Healthy With a Side of Happy, which offers an assemblage of plant-based, simple-to-make recipes. The 100 recipes span everything from breakfast and smoothies to sandwiches, dips, snacks, and desserts. Wisit Spring Cafe at 153rd Centre St. in Chinatown, and purchase the cookbook here.
Ayesha Nurdjaja’s Mediterranean All the Way
Ayesha Nurdjaja is a Food Network star and a rising social media personality. Best part, the chef captures all the best about the New York City food scene while showcasing her multi-cultural, bombastic, jovial, and funny as hell personality.
A Brooklyn resident though and through, Nurdjaja is half Indonesian and half Italian, which have both influenced her culinary repertoire. It’s no wonder her two restaurants Shuka and Shukette have garnered such a following.
Her cookbook, with dishes like Halloumi Schnitzel with Tomato Jam, harnesses the chef’s years in the various kitchens doing various cuisines perfectly. Visit Shuka at 38 MacDougal St. and Shukette at 230 9th Ave. Nurdjaja is also a chef-partner at Cookshop, located at 15610th Ave.where you can get the book.
Lucas Sin’s Cha Chaan Teng
Cha Chaan Teng is an incredible tour-de-force for James Beard Award-winning chef Lucas Sin, the founder of Junzi Kitchen. Born in Hong Kong, Sin crafted the book like he crafted his fast-casual, noodle-centric, Northern Chinese restaurant.
There’s a comfort and familiarity undeniably present throughout the book, which offers elevated recipes, actionable tips, tricks, and guidance, and a genuine adoration for all things Hong Kong.
Cha Chaan Teng, essentially a Hong Kong-based diner, contains a hodgepodge of the city’s best, from breakfast dishes and desserts to hearty mains and delicious treats, snacks, and bites. There’s also a lot of eggs mentioned throughout. The recipes may be meticulously detailed, but they aren’t complicated on the plate. Visit Junzi Kitchen at 2896 Broadway in Morningside Heights to get the book and a great meal.
Keith McNally’s I Regret Almost Nothing
Released in 2025 and the winner of the 2026 Gotham Book Prize, restaurateur Keith McNally’s superb memoir follows him from London to New York City. In between those trips are all the restaurants he’s worked in and opened, his family, friends, and loved ones, plus the personal struggles he faced. Overall, it’s brazen, upfront, and unfettered in its honesty, making it one heck of a memoir, with the NYC restaurant world as its primary setting.
McNally, who helped to open Balthazar, Pastis, Minetta Tavern, Morandi, The Odeon, and more, weaves childhood background, restaurant industry know-how, an amazing amount of personal anecdote, stories, and jokes, and lots of brutal honesty to create a memory that is unrivaled in its scope. He moved to NYC in 1975 and has been a stalwart figure in the city’s restaurant scene ever since.
Anyone interested in the history of NYC restaurants or, of course, McNally himself, will no doubt be a huge fan. Plus, what better way to understand the subject than by taking the book on it and reading over a fine glass of wine and perfect steak.
Esther Choi’s Hand Taste
Esther Choi, a Food Network mainstay who also runs Mokbar and Ms. Yoo, has written a cookbook that encompasses the best of both worlds.
Hand Taste is all about harnessing sohn-mat, or “hand taste,” and the chef incorporates many restaurant dishes and cocktails in this tome. Think of it as a culinary magical touch, and the chef credits her own grandmother with teaching her these methods, ranging from everything from japchae and kimchi to Korean fried wings, mandu, and jeon.
Overall, the book proves expansive but also relatable, instructional, and aspirational, making it a great addition to the library for serious home chefs, and those who love reading a cookbook like a juicy novel. Choi also recently released a condiment line called Sessy, co-hosts of Food Network’s 24 on 24, and has been in other shows including First We Feast’s Heat Eaters.
