The Cookbook Explosion Nobody Asked For
Walking into any bookstore today feels like stepping into a culinary wonderland. The cookbook section stretches endlessly, packed with glossy covers promising everything from “30-minute meals” to “molecular gastronomy at home.” Sales fluctuate a little year to year, but they’re generally stable — around 20 million or so, and in one recent year, cookbook sales spiked about 16%.
But here’s the thing that’ll make you scratch your head: despite owning dozens of cookbooks, most home cooks are still ordering takeout three nights a week. In my regular rotation, I probably was regularly using three? Four? admits one cookbook collector who owns 47 cookbooks.
Something’s clearly not adding up here. We’re buying more cookbooks than ever, yet feeling less confident in our kitchens. The problem isn’t that we don’t want to cook – it’s that cookbooks aren’t giving us what we actually need.
The Recipe Disaster You Never Hear About
Cookery books may still be selling like hotcakes but I sometimes wonder why given that so many of the recipes don’t actually work. Unsurprisingly it’s not a subject the publishing industry cares to dwell on but it’s a more widespread problem than you’d think.
You know that sinking feeling when you’ve followed a recipe to the letter, only to end up with something that looks nothing like the picture? Tsp printed as tbsp – just one letter’s difference – but a potentially catastrophic effect, particularly in a baking recipe. An extra zero on the number of grams – 250 instead of 25.
Chefs are particular culprits because they’re simply not used to thinking in terms of recipes, being vague in the extreme about the quantities and methods involved. One food writer recalls working with a chef whose fish soup recipe called for “a gallon of fish stock” – just what every home cook has to hand.
The worst part? If a recipe goes wrong you may well think it’s your fault than the author’s or the publisher’s but not all cookery books are as reliable as they should be.
The Celebrity Chef Problem
Turn on the Food Network any day of the week and you’ll see perfectly coiffed chefs whipping up elaborate dishes in pristine kitchens. The situation isn’t likely to improve as publishers continue to go for TV tie-ins and new authors who’ve never written a book before.
These celebrity chefs live in a different universe from the rest of us. They’ve got prep cooks, unlimited budgets, and professional equipment. Yet somehow, they’re writing cookbooks for people who are lucky to have a functioning can opener.
There are so many variables from one cook to the next—everything from your stove to your cookware to the ambient temperature in your kitchen can shift the cook time on a recipe. But celebrity chefs assume everyone’s kitchen performs exactly like theirs.
The result? Recipes that work perfectly in a professional test kitchen but fall apart in your average Tuesday night chaos.
The Ingredient Hunt That Never Ends
Here’s a fun game: flip through any trendy cookbook and count how many ingredients you’ve never heard of. Do you have, or know where to get, Thai basil, harissa, pomegranate molasses, poblano chiles? Then this one’s for you!
Cookbook authors seem to live in a fantasy world where every home cook has access to specialty Middle Eastern markets and imported Italian cheeses. Some reviewers on Goodreads found some of the ingredients (such as dandelion greens and branzino) impossible to obtain in their area.
What happens when you can’t find that one crucial ingredient? Most recipes offer zero substitutions, leaving you to guess whether regular basil will work instead of Thai basil, or if you should just give up entirely.
It’s like being handed a map to a treasure, but half the landmarks don’t exist in your neighborhood.
The Time Trap Nobody Talks About
Every cookbook promises quick and easy meals, but they’re playing fast and loose with the concept of time. And I wondered to myself, how does Bobby know how long it will take on my stove, with my pans? There are so many variables from one cook to the next—everything from your stove to your cookware to the ambient temperature in your kitchen can shift the cook time on a recipe.
That “20-minute meal” doesn’t count the time you spent hunting for ingredients, prepping vegetables, or cleaning up afterward. And don’t get me started on the magic phrase “season to taste” – how are beginners supposed to know what that means?
Even the various burners on the same stove will perform differently, so unless the recipe also describes the visual cues to watch for, don’t trust the time marks. Yet most cookbooks treat timing like it’s an exact science.
Real home cooks need to know what things should look, sound, and smell like at each stage – not just arbitrary time stamps.
The Pretty Picture Problem
Modern cookbooks have become coffee table books masquerading as cooking guides. Every page is a glossy photograph of perfectly plated food that would make a restaurant jealous.
But here’s the cruel irony: Cookbooks, like all forms of cultural production, are mostly kind of bad. But unlike film, or literature, or even opera, they seem to exist within a culture of very strange universal praise because nobody really engages with cookbooks critically.
They appear on lists of the season’s best books compiled by editors who often have not read or cooked from them. They are posted about on Instagram by industry friends and colleagues of the author who got the book for free (#ad) and can’t wait to dive in to the book but probably never do.
The result is cookbooks that look gorgeous but fail miserably in actual kitchens. We’re buying beautiful objects, not practical cooking guides.
The Technique Vacuum
Recipes hardly ever teach you anything, and they can even set you up to fail. Kind of like the way GPS can get you more lost than you’ve ever been.
Most cookbooks hand you a list of ingredients and a series of steps, but they never explain the why behind what you’re doing. It is better to work toward developing one’s own skills in the kitchen rather than following recipes, because understanding techniques will carry you through any new dish.
Think about it: if you understand how to properly sauté vegetables, you can make hundreds of different dishes. But if you only know how to follow a recipe for sautéed mushrooms, you’re stuck the moment you want to try zucchini instead.
The best cookbooks teach you to think like a cook, not just follow instructions like a robot.
The Portion Size Fantasy
Have you ever made a recipe that claimed to serve four people, only to realize it barely fed two? Also your and your family’s appetites may differ from the author’s. I recently cooked a recipe for 6 that just about fed 3 not especially greedy people.
Cookbook authors seem to think everyone eats like fashion models surviving on lettuce leaves and good intentions. Their “serves 4” is more like “serves 2 actual humans who haven’t eaten since breakfast.”
This isn’t just annoying – it’s genuinely misleading. When you’re planning a dinner party and the main course disappears in five minutes, you learn quickly that cookbook portion sizes exist in an alternate dimension.
Real home cooks need realistic portions that account for the fact that people actually enjoy eating food.
The Skills Gap Nobody Addresses
Have you ever tried to follow a recipe that seems to assume that you graduated from culinary school? This happens to me when I look at many older cookbooks, and even some of the cookie recipes left behind by my own dear grandmother.
Cookbook authors assume you know how to properly dice an onion, what “medium heat” means on your particular stove, or how to tell when something is “done.” But where exactly are home cooks supposed to learn these fundamental skills?
None of this is too bad for the experienced cook who reads through a recipe before starting to make it but it’s far more difficult for those who lack the knowledge to spot an error and the knowhow to deal with it.
It’s like handing someone sheet music and assuming they can read notes, understand rhythm, and play an instrument. The gap between cookbook expectations and real-world cooking skills is enormous.
The Complexity Addiction
There’s a weird prejudice in cookbook culture that simple recipes aren’t “real cooking.” Your recipes are too simplistic, she blurted out. It threw me for a loop—too simplistic?
But here’s what cookbook authors don’t want you to know: Creating simple recipes is often more difficult than creating complex ones. Conjuring a recipe that relies on only a few ingredients yet sends your taste buds into an orgasmic frenzy takes a great deal of understanding of ingredients.
It takes years of experience to learn, and to be able to teach, “simplicity.” And that is my goal as a cooking teacher and a cookbook author – to teach students to be able to cook on their own. It takes a lot of experience to prepare “simple” just right.
The best home cooks aren’t the ones who can execute 47-step recipes – they’re the ones who can make something delicious with whatever’s in their fridge.
The Social Media Influence Shift
While cookbooks continue to dominate sales, something interesting is happening in how people actually find recipes. While cookbooks remain important sources of recipes and ideas, Instagram and TikTok are rapidly rising as influences.
Young home cooks are increasingly turning to social media for cooking inspiration because it feels more authentic and accessible than traditional cookbooks. Young cooks drive the shift to social media as social media, in turn, helps to drive engagement among young cooks.
These platforms show real people cooking in real kitchens, making mistakes, and adapting recipes on the fly. It’s the opposite of the polished, perfect world that traditional cookbooks present.
Maybe it’s time cookbook publishers paid attention to what’s actually working for home cooks instead of what looks good on a bookshelf.
The Equipment Assumption
Flip through any cookbook and you’ll find recipes that casually mention stand mixers, food processors, immersion blenders, and specialized pans. All the recipes can be made in a single pan, making this book a good resource for those with small kitchens, a limited amount of cooking equipment, or those who just hate doing dishes.
But most home cooks are working with basic equipment in cramped kitchens. They don’t have marble countertops, professional-grade ranges, or unlimited storage space.
The best cookbooks acknowledge these limitations and work within them, rather than assuming everyone has a Williams Sonoma wishlist budget.
Real home cooks need recipes that work with what they have, not what they wish they had.
The Inspiration Without Foundation Problem
People give different reasons for why they don’t cook, but I discovered the common thread underlying all the issues: Relying on recipes is the main reason people struggle with cooking.
The most successful cookbook authors understand this fundamental truth. The secret to building a cooking habit is learning to cook without recipes. This may sound like a magic trick, but it isn’t as hard as you think.
Removing the burden of following a recipe frees you from all the stress, frustration and waste that comes from not having an intuitive sense in the kitchen. It is the ultimate foodist freedom.
The cookbook industry has it backwards. Instead of creating more complex recipes, they should be teaching people to become confident, intuitive cooks who can adapt and improvise.
What Home Cooks Actually Want
So what would a cookbook look like if it actually served real home cooks? Now the emphasis is really on quick and easy, single-pot dishes. The type of thing you would expect if people were having to integrate cooking back into very busy lives.
Home cooks want recipes that are flexible, forgiving, and educational. They want to understand why they’re doing each step, not just what to do. Every recipe includes suggestions for swaps and substitutions, so you’ll never feel stuck or stymied.
They want realistic portions, achievable ingredients, and honest time estimates. Most importantly, they want to learn skills that will make them better cooks, not just recipe followers.
I think people are just tired of deciding what to make for dinner. Flipping through a cookbook can be less overwhelming than scrolling endlessly on your phone, looking for inspiration.
The cookbook industry is sitting on a goldmine of frustrated home cooks who want to learn, but they’re too busy chasing trends and pretty pictures to notice. The publishers who figure this out first will own the future of food publishing. What are you waiting for?
