The most enriching recipes are the ones passed down from generationally between family members and friends, but celebrities can bring a little something different to your kitchen table. Let's face it: food has become even more of a coping mechanism or escape lately, so it's literally vital that the meals we're turning to are healthier and enriched more often than not.
Click through 25 well-received celebrity cookbooks to refresh your palate.
Chrissy Teigen became an instant hit in kitchens across the world when Cravings: Recipes for All the Food You Want to Eat hit the shelves in February 2016. People took such a liking to her recipes that a sequel cookbook, Cravings: Hungry for More, was necessary for September 2018. Teigen shares her favorite recipes—such as Cast Iron Pizza, Buttery Adobo Chicken & Cauli Rice, and 3-Cheese Lobster Artichoke Dip—on her Cravings by Chrissy Teigen website.
Snoop Dogg first pivoted to culinary arts through his friendship with Martha Stewart. The duo premiered Martha & Snoop's Potluck Party Challenge on VH1 in 2016—with on-air chemistry so good that they were guest hosts of The Ellen DeGeneres Show—and the show lasted three seasons through February 2020. All episodes are available to stream on VH1's website.
Snoop, with Stewart and Ryan Ford as co-authors, released From Crook to Cook: Platinum Recipes from Tha Boss Dogg's Kitchen in October 2018. BuzzFeed's then-staff writer Michelle No tried five recipes, including pancakes that were "fluffier than any IHOP or diner stack, spaghetti, and meatballs as well as chicken wings that "were the most succulent wings I've had since I ate in the South."
The title is derived from what Reese Witherspoon's Grandma Dorothea calls Southern women (h/t Simon & Schuster), and the pages reflect all the best parts of Sweet Home Alabama. Prior to the book's September 2018 release, the award-winning actress provided an excerpt to PopSugar, and the site swore by her Baked Brie recipe.
From Laguna Beach to the New York Times bestsellers list, Kristin Cavallari has matured gracefully. Cavallari put out a health-centric cookbook True Roots: A Mindful Kitchen with More Than 100 Recipes Free of Gluten, Dairy, and Refined Sugar in April 2018. Somehow, the mother of three and CEO and founder of Uncommon James had time to conjure up 100-plus more recipes for True Comfort: More Than 100 Cozy Recipes Free of Gluten and Refined Sugar—dropped November 2020. Cavallari chose five recipes from the latter with Insider, including guacamole and nachos.
Patti LaBelle's powerhouse voice has spoken for itself for decades. It turns out the decorated Grammy Award winner has a hold on cooking, too. LaBelle has published four cookbooks, including New York Times bestseller LaBelle Cuisine: Recipes to Sing About in 1999. We're going with 2017's Desserts LaBelle: Soulful Sweets to Sing About because, well, dessert. Her viral sweet potato pie will change your tastebuds forever.
David Burtka is a professional chef by trade—going to culinary school in 2009 after building a reputation as an actor—and he decided to share his gift with the rest of us by publishing his debut cookbook, Life Is a Party: Deliciously Doable Recipes to Make Every Day a Celebration, in April 2019. There aren't just 106 recipes to thumb through, either. Burtka included party themes and playlists. "It's not just for parties," he told BUILD at the time of the book's release. "These are all stand-alone recipes, and you can break them out for any occasion. It's a seasonal book, so it focuses on seasonal cooking and going to your farmer's markets and local purveyors."
Laila Ali notched an undefeated 24-0-0 record in the boxing ring. Do you really want to be the one to question her cooking abilities? Ali channeled her energy into Food for Life: Delicious & Healthy Comfort Food from My Table to Yours!, her debut cookbook, in 2018. For a sneak-peek into her 100-plus "sassy recipes, watch the four-time champion whipped up her lamb chop and quinoa recipe with Steve Harvey.
Gwyneth Paltrow is synonymous with her all-natural lifestyle brand Goop, but the Oscar-winning actress and entrepreneur packed her health advocacy into her fourth cookbook, The Clean Plate: Eat, Reset, Heal, published in January 2019. Along with meal plans, Paltrow included cleanses and detoxes from a team of doctors. Paltrow cooked her teriyaki bowl on Good Morning America to give people a taste, coinciding with the book's release. Her other cookbooks are My Father's Daughter (2011), It's All Good (2013) and It's All Easy (2016).
Who doesn't love a couple who cooks together? Actor Stanley Tucci and Felicity Blunt, his literary agent wife, published a family-first cookbook titled The Tucci Table: Cooking with Family and Friends in October 2014. You might salivate just watching this trailer. It served as the follow-up to The Tucci Cookbook. "After I made [1996 film] Big Night, I learned quite a bit during the making of the film and writing the film, I kind of thought my love affair with food would end," Tucci said during an appearance on BUILD in 2015. "But it didn't. It only got greater."
Freddie Prinze Jr. didn't rest on laurels as a '90s, early-2000s heartthrob. The actor published Back to the Kitchen: 75 Delicious, Real Recipes (& True Stories) from a Food-Obsessed Actor in June 2016, and the cookbook was co-authored by Rachel Wharton with a foreword by fellow '90s acting juggernaut Sarah Michelle Gellar. Prinze Jr. discussed his foray into cooking on BUILD, and he attributed the life lessons he learned from his mother to always happening "over the stove." Check out his spin on roasted chicken and nachos.
OK, this cookbook was going to make the list based on the title alone. The cookbook is actually the anti-cookbook. "This ain’t no cookbook," the description reads on Barnes & Noble. "This ain’t no memoir. This is Action Bronson’s devotional, a book about the overwhelming power of delicious—no, f@#$%&! amazing—food."
People love them some Chip and Joanna Gaines. The couple stepped away from Fixer Upper, their renovation HGTV series in Waco, Texas, that propelled them to fame from 2013-18, only to announce that the series will come back on their own Magnolia Network.
Joanna published Magnolia Table: A Collection of Recipes for Gathering with Marah Stets in April 2018. Volume 2 went to print in April 2020. Her cooking acumen and recipes jumped off the page in television form with Magnolia Table with Joanna Gaines premiering Jan. 4.
This is mostly just for fun, a collector's item, seeing as Tastes Like Schitt: The Unofficial Cookbook of Schitt's Creek is authored by Rose Apothecary—the fictional store of David Rose (Dan Levy) and Patrick Brewer (Noah Reid)—and was independently published last December.
Schitt's Creek charmed its way through the Emmys in record-breaking fashion. There is perhaps no show in history to have gone out with such a bang, as the comedy ended after its sixth season in April 2020, but it will presumably live forever on streaming services. Hopefully, you have better luck folding in the cheese than David and Moira.
Don't worry. Gordon Ramsey will not be hovering over your shoulder judging you as he does so well on television. Gordon Ramsay Quick and Delicious: 100 Recipes to Cook in 30 Minutes Or Less, published September 2020, is the renowned chef's latest offering. It gives you all the tools without the sass. If cookbooks aren't your thing—first, you've clicked onto the wrong slideshow, but second, Ramsay has a delectable YouTube channel full of mouthwatering recipes.
If Marcus Samuelsson was good enough to be honored as a guest chef at the White House for the Obamas, he's good enough for you. To lump him (and the other professional chefs on this list) in as having a celebrity cookbook is almost insulting; the only reason he is a celebrity is that he is one of the best chefs in the world—and he earned every teaspoon of it. The James Beard Award winner and Red Rooster founder have published a handful of successful cookbooks since 2003, and the most recent one came last October: The Rise: Black Cooks and the Soul of American Food. Check out his commentary on Black food in America, as well as an inside look into how to make his shrimp and grits, with T.J. Holmes on Good Morning America.
On Netflix's smash series Queer Eye, Antoni Porowski's segments can often be outshined by other aspects of the makeover. Jonathan Van Ness completely transforms someone's hairstyle. Tan France gives someone the wardrobe of their dreams. Karamo Brown gets real and mines someone's psyche or past traumas. Bobby Berk renovates someone's home. Each episode often ends with the makeover hero cooking something solo that he or she learned during the week from Porowski, but it still feels like he doesn't get quite the same screen time.
So, Porowski teamed up with food editor and writer Mindy Fox to share recipes that didn't make it on Queer Eye in Antoni in the Kitchen, published September 2019. "This was an opportunity to show my story through food," he said during an appearance on Your Morning, "and all of the recipes that have shaped me from Polish heritage to stuff that I made in college when I was broke in New York to stuff that I make now." The co-authors will follow it up with Antoni: Let's Do Dinner in September.
Stephen Curry is called Chef Curry as an MVP and championship-winning baller, but the nickname feels misplaced. His wife, Ayesha, is the real Chef Curry. The mother of three first made noise with her 2016 cookbook The Seasoned Life: Food, Family, Faith, and the Joy of Eating Well—a New York Times bestseller. The couple welcomed Robin Roberts into their home for an up-close look at how she brings her popular recipes to life.
Curry got, even more, real with 2020s The Full Plate: Flavor-Filled, Easy Recipes for Families with No Time and a Lot to Do, and she is certainly well-versed on the subject as a busy mother of three.
Christina Tosi is an accomplished chef, appearing as a judge on MasterChef and MasterChef Junior, but she has truly set herself apart as the founder of Milk Bar. The New York City-based restaurant is known for its unparalleled pastries. Tosi's 2020 cookbook Milk Bar: Kids Only is full of 85 sweet recipes. Learn to bake a new family-favorite with your kid(s).
Bobby Flay has been everywhere from the restaurant circuit to the Food Network to Iron Chef since 1991. But Bobby at Home: Fearless Flavors from My Kitchen, his 2019 cookbook co-authored with Stephanie Banyas and Sally Jackson, serves up over 165 recipes straight from his home.
Danny Trejo solidified his status as one of Hollywood's most beloved villains as Machete in the Spy Kids franchise. However, Trejo has endeared himself off the screen as a chef and restauranteur. Trejo's Tacos, his restaurant self-described as a "Mexican restaurant from the most badāss Mexican," was founded in 2016. April 2020 brought the cookbook Trejo's Tacos: Recipes and Stories from L.A.
Martina McBride was nominated at the 46th annual Grammy Awards in 2003 for her gold-certified single "This One's For The Girls," but her 2018 cookbook Martina's Kitchen Mix: My Recipe Playlist for Real Life is for everybody. McBride took inspiration from her family, including recipes from her husband and mother-in-law in her 100-plus recipes. She previously shared her cooking insights with her own Food Network show, Martina's Table, and her County Fair Orange Cake is among popular fan favorites.
Questlove put an A-list potluck together into one book, and we're all invited. The Roots legendary drummer took a page from Snoop Dogg and enlisted Martha Stewart to help write Mixtape Potluck Cookbook: A Dinner Party for Friends, Their Recipes, and the Songs They Inspire , which debuted October 2019. Stewart isn't the only eye-grabbing co-author. The whole book is based upon Questlove's friends—Natalie Portman, Q-Tip, Jessica Biel, Jimmy Fallon, and 50-something more—sharing their favorite recipes with him. "He also pairs each cook with a song that he feels best captures their unique creative energy," the book's description reads. It really is a party on paper.
Tia Mowry will always be known for Sister, Sister, and her other roles alongside her twin sister, Tamera. Both women have found success in individual pursuits, and for Tia, that includes cooking. She published Whole New You: How Real Food Transforms Your Life, for a Healthier, More Gorgeous You with co-author Jessica Porter in 2017. The cookbook—and her culinary work in general, including hosting Tia Mowry at Home—was inspired by her lifelong battle with dieting, which she opened up about on BUILD.
Ree Drummond has become a Food Network staple from her Oklahoma ranch. The Pioneer Woman is the title of her television series, but it's also her all-encompassing persona. In October 2019, The Pioneer Woman Cooks: The New Frontier: 112 Fantastic Favorites for Everyday Eating was published. The recipes show how her tastes have evolved since stepping into the public eye, such as Portobello Bun Burgers and Instant Pot Pumpkin Spice Oatmeal.
If you're missing Jesse Tyler Ferguson after Modern Family ended it's record-setting, 11-season run last April, hold on for just a little longer. The adored actor paired with recipe developer and food writer Julie Tanous for Food Between Friends, due out in March.
Megan Armstrong (@megankarmstrong) is a writer with previous work appearing in places such as Billboard, Bleacher Report, GQ and others. She's most interested in writing about people and how they live their lives, through the framework of music, entertainment and sports.
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