By Leigh O’Connor.
In 2025, cookbooks weren’t just about what’s on the plate - they’re about who we become when we gather, forage, shop and slow down.
This year’s top five reads carry you from red-dust camps in the Kimberley to Melbourne’s footy heart, from the bright, plant-powered promise of longevity to the everyday kindness of a weekly grocery run and onward to Tuscany’s hushed Winter kitchens.
Each book is a doorway into comfort, curiosity and better living, stitched with stories as nourishing as the meals themselves, ready to cook and share. Open them and feel firelight, stadium roar and the stove’s sigh.
"Food has many functions in life. It bonds people. It divides people. It provides social opportunities, but I suppose its most important job is to keep you alive.” – Grandad.
Ever wanted to go bush and build your own oven? Ever wanted to know how to cook a cheap and easy feed with just pantry staples and one pot?
Look no more: 'Gone Bush' is your new bush-cooking bible!
Meet Outback Tom and Grandad, from the Kimberley region of Western Australia. The pair make cooking and bush videos to more than 290K followers on TikTok and 200K on Instagram and now they have released their very Australian, very tasty guide to making your own comfort food – bush style.
Few athletes capture the imagination of fans both on and off the field the way Christian Petracca does. Known for his electrifying performances with the Melbourne Football Club - where his strength, precision and relentless drive earned him a Norm Smith Medal and premiership glory - Christian now takes on an entirely different arena: the kitchen.
His debut cookbook, 'Christian Petracca On Trac', is as much a heartfelt story of family, resilience and joy as it is a practical guide to nourishing meals. This is not a glossy vanity project from a celebrity dabbling in food.
Rather, it is an intimate and disarmingly honest window into how cooking became a grounding force for one of the AFL’s brightest stars. Petracca admits freely that he is "not a trained Chef, not even close”, but that humility becomes one of the book’s greatest strengths.
Ask a room full of people to raise their hands if they eat a vegetarian or vegan diet for at least part of the week and some will raise their hands.
Ask them if they believe eating a vegetarian or vegan diet will make them healthier, the majority will raise their hands.
It’s happening across the Western world. Most people are turning away from meat-centric diets and incorporating more plant foods. Some are choosing to become vegetarians or vegans, the latter abstaining from all animal products, even honey.
Whatever your reason for adopting a plant-rich diet, it’s clear this is more than just a fad. In his new book, ‘Plant Power: The Key to Healthy Longevity’, Professor Luigi Fontana delivers the essential plant food guide to enrich your health including more than 80 deliciously filling recipes
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From the very first page, ‘The Weekly Grocery Shop’ feels like more than a book. It’s like having a wise, supportive friend stroll beside you down the supermarket aisles, gently guiding your choices and reminding you that shopping for food can be an act of care, not a chore.
Nabula El Mourid writes with warmth, authenticity and a lived understanding of the small daily struggles we all face around food. As the founder of Supermarket Swap, she started by helping people make healthier choices with her app and community, inspired by her own journey as a Mum searching for clearer, simpler answers to the confusing world of food labels.
Her story shines through every page, blending practical know-how with a deep compassion for families who want to eat well without overspending or overcomplicating life.
Winter drapes Tuscany in a quieter kind of beauty. The vineyards, stripped of clusters, stand skeletal against skies of soft grey. Villages glow with lantern light as dusk falls early and the air carries a bite that sends people hurrying indoors where kitchens hum with warmth.
It is here, in this tender season of stillness and depth, that Amber Guinness situates her newest work, 'Winter in Tuscany'.
This is not just a cookbook, but an evocation of atmosphere - a way of living and eating that embraces the richness of the cold months. Amber paints a portrait of Tuscan Winters through food: steaming bowls of ribollita thick with beans and kale, roasted game brushed with juniper and herbs, glossy chestnuts popping by the fire.
