In the JoyHog kitchen, our taste for food seldom goes beyond anything that’s hard to eat while watching our favorite stories. This year, however, we noticed quite the pile of cookbooks arrive at JH HQ. Someone is trying to tell us something. But we have as much fun with the Kitchen Aid as the next guy, so we’ll give a few new recipes a try during the cold winter ahead.

The Concise World Atlas of Wine

by Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson
Mitchell Beazley
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Okay, so this one’s not so much a cookbook as a snob’s guide to where their inebriation comes from but there’s nothing wrong with that. Just look up your country of choice, then the region, and you’ll have yourself a topographical map of the best vineyards in the area. Also noted are some of the best houses – in spots like Champagne. Waiter!

Coco: 10 World Leading Masters Choose 100 Contemporary Chefs

Phaidon
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Fans of shows like ‘Top Chef’ will love this book. 10 of the world’s favorite tastemakers including Mario Batali, Gordon Ramsey and Ferran Adrià use this juicy tome to point out some the the coolest kitchens in the world and the young visionaries who are putting them on the map. For each restaurant and chef selected, we get a handful of recipes to try on our own. We’re licking our chops over April Bloomfield’s Chocolate Orange Cake with Spiced Cream.

I Know How To Cook

by Ginette Mathiot
Phaidon
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It seems like there have been quite a few cookbooks hitting the shelves touting themselves as “bibles” this year. Mathiot’s “Bible of Home Cooking” is appearing for the first time in English after three best-selling generations in France. This 1000-pager is a big girl, for sure, but once you see the pictures of the food you’ll mow down seniors and small children to pay for your copy and rush out to the farmer’s market. On page 194 there is a recipe for Aurore Soup – the ingredients being butter, pumpkin, tomatoes, potatoes and crème fraîche. (smacks lips).

Jamie’s Food Revolution

by Jamie Oliver
Hyperion
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First of all, whatever kind of paper this book is printed on, it’s the best paper ever. Secondly, Jamie Oliver is the bee’s knee’s. Whether you’re watching his TV series (especially ‘Jamie at Home’) or pawing through his books (’Jamie’s Italy’ is a JH fave), the man knows his stuff. The recipes in ‘Revolution’ are actually not revolutionary by our estimation of culinary-ness, but rather just simple, classic, delicious. From “twenty-minute meals” to pasta, stir-fry, stews and roasts, this is a great first cookbook for someone and it’s his call to action for “friends teaching friends how to cook good, honest, affordable food.” Just lead the way, Jamie, we’re right behind ya.

New Classic Family Dinners

by Mark Peel
Wiley
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For those of you who missed that ‘Top Chef,’ Mark Peel is the owner and executive chef at Campanile – just a stone’s throw from JH HQ in LA and a personal favorite of JP’s. The restaurant has a very popular grilled cheese night, which is important to note. The fare at Campanile (and in the pages of this new cookbook) is like nouveau Norman Rockwell – classics to be sure, but with a modern twist. This past Thanksgiving we tried the Roasted Tomato Soup and the Devil’s Food Layer Cake with White Mountain Frosting. Soooo worth it.

The Russian Heritage Cookbook

by Lynn Visson
Overlook Press
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We weren’t really in the market for a cookbook featuring 360 authentic Russian recipes, but Visson’s revised edition shows off a cuisine that doesn’t get much play here in the states. You’ll find a lot of hearty fare in here, including a whole chapter on pirogs and pancakes (ummm, YA) and something called Siberian cookies.

The Silver Spoon: Pasta

Phaidon
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Here comes another one of those bibles. This time though, we are being treated to an expanded section of the Italian favorite, “The Silver Spoon.” This book is so specified on pasta that it features 57 shapes. That’s right, shapes. From that we get 360 recipes – divided between dried and fresh pasta – long and short, cut and filled. Tagliatelle with lemon anyone?

Tips Cooks Love: Over 500 Tips, Techniques and Shortcuts That Will Make You a Better Cook!

by Rick Rodgers
Andrews McMeel Publishing
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This one is more of a stocking stuffer than a gift, but hey. From the folks at Sur La Table, this little book has got tips for those of you who are completely culinarily challenged (do any of you really not know how to soften butter?) plus a few words of wisdom for the novices out there (custards, charts on equivalents of cups to ounces and stuff). It’s a small enough book so it can sit on your kitchen counter. Right next to the butter dish.

Vefa’s Kitchen

by Vefa Alexiadou
Phaidon
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Now here was an episode of Martha you should have caught… This woman has had quite the culinary career but this is the first time her recipes have gone out to the public without being self-published. The book has 650 recipes like Baked Cheese Triangles (that’s right, we said it) and will bring American home cooks one step closer to appreciating the Mediterranean tastes that don’t always get a lot of play in the US. So get that Phyllo dough out of the freezer, people.