Read Up on Our 2022 Book Award Nominees

A quick skim of the 2022 James Beard Book Award nominees will spark some culinary curiosity, but a closer look will have you speeding to your favorite book store before booking it to the kitchen, the bar cart, or the airport. From deep dives on microwave-focused cooking to evocative histories of Black cooks across the country to a biography on our namesake, there's more than enough to keep you busy until the James Beard Awards.

Baking and Desserts 

Cheryl Day's Treasury of Southern Baking
Cheryl Day 
(Artisan Books) 

Mooncakes and Milk Bread: Sweet and Savory Recipes Inspired by Chinese Bakeries 
Kristina Cho 
(Harper Horizon) 

Mother Grains: Recipes for the Grain Revolution
Roxana Jullapat 
(W.W. Norton & Company) 

Beverage with Recipes 

Death & Co Welcome Home: A Cocktail Recipe Book
Alex Day, Nick Fauchald, and David Kaplan with Devon Tarby and Tyson Buhler 
(Penguin Random House) 

The Japanese Art of the Cocktail
Masahiro Urushido and Michael Anstendig 
(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

The Way of the Cocktail: Japanese Traditions, Techniques, and Recipes
Julia Momosé with Emma Janzen 
(Penguin Random House)

Beverage without Recipes 

Foot Trodden: Portugal and the Wines that Time Forgot
Simon J. Woolf and Ryan Opaz  
(Interlink Books) 

Girly Drinks: A World History of Women and Alcohol
Mallory O'Meara  
(Hanover Square Press) 

The Noble Rot Book: Wine from Another Galaxy
Dan Keeling and Mark Andrew  
(Quadrille)

General 

Cook, Eat, Repeat: Ingredients, Recipes, and Stories
Nigella Lawson 
(Ecco) 

Cooking at Home: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying About Recipes (And Love My Microwave)
David Chang and Priya Krishna 
(Clarkson Potter)

Everyone's Table: Global Recipes for Modern Health
Gregory Gourdet with JJ Goode 
(Harper Wave) 

International  

Falastin: A Cookbook
Sami Tamimi and Tara Wigley 
(Ten Speed Press)

In Bibi's Kitchen: The Recipes and Stories of Grandmothers from the Eight African Countries that Touch the Indian Ocean
Hawa Hassan with Julia Turshen
(Ten Speed Press) 

Ripe Figs: Recipes and Stories from Turkey, Greece, and Cyprus
Yasmin Khan  
(W.W. Norton & Company)

Reference, History, and Scholarship 

Black Smoke: African Americans and the United States of Barbecue
Adrian Miller  
(University of North Carolina Press) 

The Flavor Equation: The Science of Great Cooking Explained + More Than 100 Essential Recipes
Nik Sharma 
(Chronicle Books) 

Koji Alchemy: Rediscovering the Magic of Mold-Based Fermentation
Rich Shih and Jeremy Umansky 
(Chelsea Green Publishing) 

Restaurant and Professional

Mister Jiu's in Chinatown: Recipes and Stories from the Birthplace of Chinese American Food
Brandon Jew and Tienlon Ho 
(Ten Speed Press) 

Modernist Pizza
Nathan Myhrvold and Francisco Migoya 
(The Cooking Lab) 

Pasta: The Spirit and Craft of Italy's Greatest Food, with Recipes
Missy Robbins and Talia Baiocchi 
(Ten Speed Press) 

Single Subject 

Cool Beans: The Ultimate Guide to Cooking with the World's Most Versatile Plant-Based Protein, with 125 Recipes
Joe Yonan  
(Ten Speed Press) 

Grains for Every Season: Rethinking Our Way with Grains
Joshua McFadden with Martha Holmberg 
(Artisan Books) 

The Hog Book: A Chef's Guide to Hunting, Butchering and Cooking Wild Pigs
Jesse Griffiths  
(Wild Hog Project)

U.S. Foodways

Black Food: Stories, Art, and Recipes from Across the African Diaspora
Bryant Terry
(4 Color Books)

Mosquito Supper Club: Cajun Recipes from a Disappearing Bayou
Melissa M. Martin  
(Artisan Books)

The Rise: Black Cooks and the Soul of American Food
Marcus Samuelsson with Osayi Endolyn 
(Voracious Books)

Vegetable-Focused Cooking  

The Korean Vegan Cookbook: Reflections and Recipes from Omma's Kitchen
Joanne Lee Molinaro  
(Avery) 

To Asia, With Love: Everyday Asian Recipes and Stories from the Heart
Hetty McKinnon  
(Prestel Publishing) 

Vegetable Kingdom: The Abundant World of Vegan Recipes
Bryant Terry  
(Ten Speed Press) 

Visuals

monk: Light and Shadow on the Philosopher's Path
Yuka Yanazume and Julia Hasting 
(Phaidon) 

Sushi Shokunin: Japan's Culinary Masters
Andrea Fazzari  
(Assouline)

Take One Fish: The New School of Scale-to-Tail Cooking and Eating
Rob Palmer and Daniel New 
(Hardie Grant) 

Writing

Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America
Marcia Chatelain  
(Liveright) 

Getting Something to Eat in Jackson: Race, Class, and Food in the American South
Joseph C. Ewoodzie Jr.  
(Princeton University Press)

The Man Who Ate Too Much: The Life of James Beard 
John Birdsall  
(W.W. Norton & Company) 

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The winners will be announced at the Media Awards ceremony in Chicago on the campus of Columbia College on Saturday, June 11, hosted by award-winning journalist, author, and host and executive producer of the new series Take Out on HBO Max, Lisa Ling. 

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*Nominated pieces without links did not provide URLs for viewing their materials.