Cooking book series in reading order

by Betty Crocker

by Katherine Hall Page

by Ina Garten

by Jerrilyn Farmer

by Mark Bittman

by Peter King

by Ellen Hart

by Mary Stanton

by Giada De Laurentiis

by Carolyn Keene

by Yuto Tsukuda

by Hairy Bikers

by Ella Mills (Woodward)

Betty Crocker is a fictional character created in 1921 by General Mills, then the Washburn-Crosby Company, to answer consumer questions about products in a personal voice. The character is used in advertising campaigns for food and recipes. The catalogue carries 251 books under the Betty Crocker name, from Betty Crocker's Cooky Book (1948) to Betty Crocker's Frosting Secret (2025). Titles include Betty Crocker's Picture Cookbook (1950) and Betty Crocker's Cookbook (1969). Subjects cover American cooking, quick and easy cooking, cookies, pasta and chicken.

Mary Berry is an English food writer, chef, baker and television presenter, born on 24 March 1935. Berry trained in catering at college and went to France at 22 to attend Le Cordon Bleu. The Hamlyn All Colour Cookbook (1970) was the first Mary Berry book, and the Baking Bible followed in 2009 among more than 75 cookery titles. Berry has presented television series for the BBC and Thames Television. The catalogue opens with Mary Berry's Cookbook (1970) and covers baking, cakes, desserts, freezer cooking and make-ahead cooking, with titles such as Popular Freezer Cookery (1972) and Family Cooking (1978).

Mark Bittman

44 books• 1 series

Mark Bittman is an American food journalist and author, born in 1950, and a former New York Times columnist. Bittman promotes VB6, a flexitarian diet of vegan eating before 6 p.m. The catalogue lists 44 books from Fish: The Complete Guide to Buying and Cooking (1994) to How To Cook Everything Kids (2024), including The Minimalist Cooks at Home (1999) and the How to Cook Everything series. Subjects include quick and easy cooking, international cooking and vegetarian cooking.

Faith Fairchild, a caterer who solves murders, is the detective Katherine Hall Page wrote 36 catalogued books around. Food and cooking run through the titles themselves: The Body in the Belfry (1990), The Body in the Kelp (1990), The Body in the Bouillon (1991), The Body in the Vestibule (1992) and The Body in the Cast (1993). Christie & Company, standalone novels, short stories and non-fiction fill out the catalogue, which closes at The Body in the Web in 2023.

Jamie Oliver

40 books• 1 series

Jamie Oliver is an English chef and restaurateur whose 40 catalogued books are mostly cookbooks. The Naked Chef (1999) accompanied the BBC Two series of the same name that ran to 2001, and Jamie's Kitchen, Jamie's Dinners and Jamie's Italy extend a run reaching Eat Yourself Healthy (2025). Oliver started the Feed Me Better campaign in 2005 to put healthier food into schools, and the government later backed it; the first Jamie's Italian restaurant opened in 2008. Oliver has also written the children's series Billy and the Giant Adventure.

Gary Rhodes wrote cookbooks centred on British cooking. Rhodes Around Britain (1994) was the first of 20 books, followed by More Rhodes Around Britain (1995) and Open Rhodes Around Britain (1996). Desserts, quick cooking and entertaining appear among the subjects, with titles such as Gary Rhodes' Sweet Dreams (1998) and Great Fast Food (2000). Gary Rhodes 365 (2008) is the last title.

Ina Garten

17 books• 1 series

Ina Garten writes cookbooks under the Barefoot Contessa name, on American and French home cooking, entertaining, menus and make-ahead meals. The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook (1999) opens the run, followed by Barefoot Contessa Parties! (2001), Barefoot in Paris (2004), Back to Basics (2008) and Make It Ahead (2014). Seventeen catalogued titles reach Simply Ina in 2026.

Prue Leith, born Prudence Margaret Leith on 18 February 1940, is a South African and British restaurateur, chef, cookery writer, novelist and broadcaster. Leith judged BBC Two's Great British Menu from 2005 to 2016, then replaced Mary Berry as a judge on The Great British Bake Off in 2017 after the show moved to Channel 4, staying until 2025. Leith was also Chancellor of Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, from 2016 to 2024. The catalogue lists 42 books from Leith's All Party Cookbook (1972) to Being Old...and learning to love it! (2026), including Leith's Cookery Bible and the Angelotti Chronicles novels. Paul Hollywood shares credit on 2 of the books.

Catering and murder run together in Diane Mott Davidson's mysteries, which put the caterer Goldy Bear Schulz into criminal investigations. The run opens with Catering to Nobody (1990) and the catalogue reaches 19 titles, among them Dying for Chocolate, The Cereal Murders, Killer Pancake and a Goldy's Kitchen Cookbook. Cooking sits beside detection throughout, and the catalogue is listed as likely complete.

Cozy mystery is Tamar Myers's form, and 49 catalogued books carry her name across three series: Pennsylvania Dutch Mystery, Den of Antiquity and Amanda Brown. Too Many Crooks Spoil the Broth (1993) opens the catalogue and Cousins From a Distant Sun (2026) is the newest entry. The recurring sleuths are Magdalena Yoder and Abigail Timberlake, and the books' subjects take in Mennonites, hotelkeepers, antique dealers, women detectives and cooking.

Gordon Ramsay

27 books• 1 series

Gordon Ramsay, born 8 November 1966, is a British chef, restaurateur, television presenter and writer. Gordon Ramsay Restaurants, founded in 1997, has earned 17 Michelin stars in total and holds eight. Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in Chelsea, London, has kept three stars since 2001 and is run by chef Matt Abé. Ramsay first became famous through the 1999 British miniseries Boiling Point. The catalogue lists 27 books from 2000 to 2023, starting with Passion for Flavour, A Chef for All Seasons and Passion for Seafood (2000). Humble Pie (2006) and Playing with Fire (2007) are listed, and Gordon Ramsay's Uncharted (2023) is the newest. Quick and easy cooking and British cookery appear in the subject tags.

Nigel Slater is an English food writer, journalist and broadcaster, born in 1956. Quick cooking is his signature subject: Real Fast Food (1992), Real Fast Desserts (1993), The 30-Minute Cook (1994) and 30-minute Suppers (1996) all work that ground, with Real Cooking (1997) and Real Good Food (1997) after them. Slater wrote for Marie Claire for five years before moving to The Observer Magazine, where his column has run for more than a decade, and he is the principal writer for Observer Food Monthly. His 27 catalogued books reach A Thousand Feasts (2024), at a median of 288 pages.

Alton Brown

13 books• 1 series

Alton Brown writes about cooking and the equipment and science behind it. Thirteen books are catalogued from 2002 to 2025, beginning with I'm Just Here for the Food (2002) and its later companions, then Alton Brown's Gear for Your Kitchen (2003), I'm Just Here for More Food (2004) on baking, the three Good Eats volumes of 2009, 2010 and 2011, EveryDayCook (2016) and Food for Thought: Essays and Ruminations (2025). Brown created and hosted the Food Network series Good Eats, which ran 16 seasons, presented the miniseries Feasting on Asphalt and Feasting on Waves, and commentated on Iron Chef America and Cutthroat Kitchen. Good Eats Reloaded recapped the show on Cooking Channel, and Good Eats: The Return ran from 2019 to 2021. Brown was born in 1962.

Nigella Lawson, born 6 January 1960, is an English food writer and television cook. After Oxford, Lawson became deputy literary editor of The Sunday Times in 1986 and later worked as a freelance journalist. How to Eat (1998), the first cookbook, sold 300,000 copies, and How to Be a Domestic Goddess won the British Book Award for Author of the Year. The Channel 4 series Nigella Bites began in 1999 and won Lawson a Guild of Food Writers Award. The catalogue lists 14 books through Cook, Eat, Repeat (2021), including Feast (2004) and Nigella Express (2007).

Delia Smith is an English cook and television presenter who teaches basic cookery skills in a direct style. Her 32 catalogued books start with Delia's How to Cheat at Cooking (1971) and include the How to Cook series and the Delia Collection, covering cakes, baking, puddings, soups, fish and Italian cooking. Smith is Honorary Life President of Norwich City with her husband Michael Wynn-Jones, and the two were joint majority shareholders of the club from 1998 to 2024. You Matter: The Human Solution (2022) is the most recent catalogued title.

Giada De Laurentiis

19 books• 1 series

Italian cooking dominates the subject tags for Giada De Laurentiis, whose catalogue begins with Everyday Italian: 125 Simple and Delicious Recipes (2005) and runs to Super-Italian (2025). Giada De Laurentiis, born Giada Pamela De Benedetti on August 22, 1970, is an Italian-American chef, entrepreneur, writer and television personality. Giada De Laurentiis hosted Giada at Home on Food Network, appears on NBC's Today as a contributor and guest co-host, and founded the catering company GDL Foods. Awards include a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Lifestyle Host and a Gracie Award. The listing also includes the Recipe for Adventure series, and its subjects extend to children's fiction, magic, and space and time.

Anthony Bourdain

23 books• 3 series

Anthony Bourdain (June 25, 1956 – June 8, 2018) was an American celebrity chef, author and travel documentarian. A 1978 graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, Bourdain spent several years as executive chef at Brasserie Les Halles in Manhattan, and an essay in The New Yorker in the late 1990s launched the writing career. The catalogue opens with Bone in the Throat (1995) and Gone Bamboo (1997), then Kitchen Confidential (2000), A Cook's Tour (2001) and Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook (2004). The Anthony Bourdain Reader (2025) is the newest title, and Hungry Ghosts and Get Jiro Graphic Novels are the listed series. Cooking, restaurants and food share the subjects with mystery and detective fiction.

Jerrilyn Farmer is an American writer of humorous cozy mysteries. The catalogue holds 9 books published between 1998 and 2009, built around the Hollywood caterer Madeline Bean, and records two series: Madeline Bean Culinary Mystery and Red Carpet Murder Mystery. Sympathy for the Devil (1998), the first novel, won the Macavity Award and took Agatha and Edgar nominations. Immaculate Reception, Killer Wedding, Dim Sum Dead, Mumbo Gumbo, Perfect Sax and The Flaming Luau of Death follow, and the listing ends with Murder at the Academy Awards (2009). Farmer wrote for television game shows and sketch comedy, and has taught mystery writing at the UCLA Extension Writers Program.

Lorraine Pascale writes cookbooks. Recorded subjects include baking, baked products, recipes, quick and easy cooking, international cooking, low-fat and low-calorie diets, cookies and cake. Eight titles run from Baking Made Easy (2011) to Bake (2017), taking in Home Cooking Made Easy (2011), Lorraine Pascale's Fast, Fresh and Easy Food (2012), A Lighter Way to Bake (2013), Everyday Easy (2014), How to be a Better Cook (2014) and Eating Well Made Easy (2015). The median recorded length is 288 pages across five volumes measured.

Ruth Reichl

14 books• 1 series

Ruth Reichl, born in 1948, is an American chef, food writer and editor who spent two decades as a food critic, mostly at the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times. Reichl edited Gourmet magazine as editor-in-chief, co-produced the PBS program Gourmet's Diary of a Foodie, hosted Gourmet's Adventures With Ruth and served as culinary editor for the Modern Library, and has won six James Beard Foundation Awards. The catalogue holds 14 Reichl books, including Tender at the Bone (1998), Comfort Me with Apples (2001), Garlic and Sapphires (2005) and The Paris Novel (2024). Subjects include cooking, memoir and New York restaurants.

Jane Yolen

237 books• 22 series

Jane Yolen (Jane Hyatt Yolen, February 11, 1939 to June 11, 2026) was an American author of fantasy, science fiction and children's books. The Devil's Arithmetic, a Holocaust novella, is the best-known Yolen work, and Owl Moon and The Emperor and the Kite are among the others. The short works Sister Emily's Lightship and Lost Girls both won Nebula Awards. The catalogue counts 237 books from The Witch Who Wasn't (1964) to Daddy Plays a Mean Guitar (2026). Series include Commander Toad, How Do Dinosaurs...?, Pit Dragons, the Young Merlin Trilogy, Books of the Great Alta and Tartan Magic. Yolen worked as an editor, collaborated most often with Adam Stemple, and in 2012 became the first woman to give the Andrew Lang lecture.

Ellen Hart writes mystery novels around two recurring sleuths, Jane Lawless and Sophie Greenway. Women detectives, Minneapolis, restaurateurs and lesbian characters are standing subjects, and culinary detail runs through the books: Hart worked as a professional chef for 14 years. The catalogue holds 35 titles published between 1989 and 2020, opening with Hallowed Murder (1989) and continuing through Vital Lies (1991), Stage Fright (1992), A Small Sacrifice (1994) and The Oldest Sin (1995). In a Midnight Wood (2020) is the last catalogued book.

Susan Branch is an American author, watercolourist and designer who illustrates her own books. Heart of the Home is the cookbook series Branch is known for, and the 44 catalogued titles also take in memoirs, guided journals, travel writing and keepsake books. The run opens with Heart of the Home (1986) and reaches Distilled Genius - A Collection of Life-Changing Quotations (2022), at a median 80 pages. Cooking, entertaining, home economics and Christmas recur as subjects. No new title has appeared since 2022.

Joanne Pence writes culinary mysteries. The amateur sleuth is Angie Amalfi, an underemployed food writer and gourmet chef in San Francisco, and Amalfi's romance with homicide inspector Paavo Smith runs alongside the cases; the flavour is humorous, screwball adventure. Born Joanne Lopez in San Francisco, Pence attended the University of California, Berkeley and managed operations analysis at the Social Security administration from 1970 to 1998. The catalogue lists 58 titles, opening with Dangerous Journey (1987) and Something's Cooking (1993) and reaching Deadly Ever After in 2025. Series include Cook and Inspector Mysteries, Inspector Rebecca Mayfield Mystery, Angie & Friends Food & Spirits Mysteries and Donnelly Cabin Inn.