The cookbooks you recommended for our August book club pick

And our August 'winner'

Aug 05, 2026

This time last week I asked you for ideas of what August’s cookbook club pick might be - subscribers’ choice! And it has been a fascinating joy sifting through all your ideas and responses.

Thank you so much for taking the time to let me know the books you love. There are some of this list I have never heard of, others that had me nodding along at the wisdom of your choices.

I thought it might be interesting for you, too, to read what cookbooks are out there that others love on repeat. So here is a breeze through of some of the recommendations you sent in. Starting with the ‘winner’. that will be August’s cookbook club choice:

Cuisines of Odesa: Recipies and Stories from Ukraine’s Historic City

by Maria Kalenska

I’m choosing this one blind! It was recommended by the brilliant Felicity Spector and she certainly knows of what she speaks when it comes to Ukraine and food, so I feel in safe hands. Felicity called it “beautiful and important” which will do for me.

A quick scope around has told me that Maria Kalenska is a food and travel writer, who founded Ukraine’s first cookery school. She divided her time between Germany and Ukraine, and co-launched the “Bake for Ukraine” initiative to address the food crisis caused by the war.

This book came out in Feb this year and brings together - I think! I hope! remember, we’re discovering this one together! - Odesa’s influences across Ukrainian, Jewish, Greek, Turkish, and Armenian food traditions. From the blurb:

Learn about Odesa’s fascinating food culture, from street food to elegant cuisine, with recipes covering appetizers, main courses, desserts, and more. Discover unique seafood dishes that highlight the region’s coastal bounty from the Black Sea. Wake up to Kefir Mini-Pancakes, Sweet Egg Bread Toast, and Rose Petal Jam. Enjoy a lunch of Dumplings with Potato and Cabbage and a Wild Garlic Salad. Finish the day with Chicken Borscht with Beans and Challah Bread. And don’t forget dessert with lovely Odesan Chocolate-Glazed Eclairs. This is European comfort food at its finest, offering familiar flavors and textures that the whole family can enjoy.

I’m in. It’s on order and over the coming weeks I’ll look forward to getting stuck into it ahead of our meet up to discuss online on:

Monday 31st August, 9am - 10am BST

Message me if you’d like to join in for that (paid subscribers only). The usual more details to come.

And then here are some of the others you suggested for us:

But First, Dinner: Food for Our Real Lives by Eleanor Steafel

I love Eleanor Steafel’s work and it seems I’m not alone. Comments that accompanied this suggestion included:

“funny, relatable, clever
“entertaining and useful… it has a cosy and old fashioned design as well”

I didn’t know, until one of you told me, that Lucy Mangan claims this as the only cookbook she has / enjoys.

It’s Eleanor’s second book. I love her first - The Art of Friday Night Dinner - and consider that one of the most essential of modern cookbooks. But this follow up had somewhat passed me by. Perhaps overshadowed by Ella Risbridger’s new one, which some of you compared Eleanor’s to - with Eleanor coming out on top.

So now this is another one on order - you guys have done nothing to help with the state of my full shelves….

Dear Grace: Recipes from your mother, for the next chapter in life by Claire Thomson

Watch this space for Sept….

Delia Smith’s Summer Collection: 140 Recipes for Summer by Delia Smith

An oldie but a goodie. First published in 1993 and a timely reminder not just of the joys of seasonal shopping / cooking / eating but that in the thrall of ever more newly released cookbooks, there is much to be said for ones to go back to and back to.

Many of its recipes are available online too.

Kitchen Person: Notes on Cooking & Eating by Rachel Cooke

I can’t vouch for Rachel or her book any better than the person who suggested it to us:

“I have just read (twice actually!) Rachel Cooke’s Kitchen Person. In fact I left it on the plane on the way back to Sydney last week so have just ordered another one. Truly brilliant writing, so many nuggets of knowledge and wisdom, incredibly funny but also heart breaking given her recent passing. I can’t stop thinking about her.”

Rachel was a wonderfully insightfully and witty columnist and author. The book of hers that lives on my desk at the moment is Her Brilliant Career: Ten Extraordinary Women of the Fifties; and on my bedside table stack is The Virago Book of Friendship. This one shall now be added to the kitchen, making Rachel the writer who features in most rooms in our flat.

Tony / Appetites: A Cookbook by Anthony Bourdain

This recommendation was for both a film and a book.

Film first: the upcoming release Tony “about the formative youthful kitchen experiences of legendary badass chef, Anthony Bourdain’. It’s out in mid Aug. Do let me know what you think of it if you go! I’d love to say I would but in honesty I know I am more likely to catch it on streaming.

We could take our pick of any of the Bourdain books to accompany the film as a recommendation. Its suggester did single out Appetites, ten years old this autumn. I remember we did it back in the old days of the Borough Market Cookbook Club and so I thought it might be fun to dig out the list of its dishes cooked and shared for that:

Ratatouille; Potato salad; Kuching-style laksa; Lasagne bolognese; Roasted cauliflower with sesame; Meatball parm hero; New England clam chowder; Meatloaf with mushroom gravy; Roasted baby beets with red onion and oranges; Buttermilk biscuits

Quite the menu!

That’s not even all of the ones you bothered to take the time to want to share with me and each other. I hope you’ve found some good ones here! Do please keep the conversation going in the comments if you’d like to. And more details to come soon on August’s pick and its meet up on Aug 31st, 9am.