Looking for a good Israeli or Jewish cookbook? For everyday Israeli home cooking, start with Orly Ziv's Cook in Israel: 100 kosher, mostly vegetarian recipes from her Tel Aviv kitchen. For a Jerusalem chef's table, try Moshe Basson's The Eucalyptus Cookbook. For baking challah and traditional breads, The Jewish Bread Bible covers both the techniques and the history.
This guide sorts the cookbooks we carry by what you want to cook, from Israeli and Middle Eastern dishes to Shabbat with the kids, kosher entertaining and the stories behind family recipes.
Quick picks
- For Israeli home cooking: Cook in Israel by Orly Ziv
- For a Jerusalem restaurant at home: The Eucalyptus Cookbook by Moshe Basson
- For bread and challah bakers: The Jewish Bread Bible by Eliezer Meir Saidel
- For Shabbat with children: A Taste of Torah by Aviv Harkov
- For kosher fine dining: Le Marais Cookbook
- For a cookbook with a story: Recipes of My 15 Grandmothers by Genie Milgrom
1. Israeli and Middle Eastern home cooking
Cook in Israel: Home Cooking Inspiration
By Orly Ziv
Orly Ziv is a nutritionist, cooking instructor and culinary tour guide who welcomes visitors into her Tel Aviv home to learn Israeli food. Her book collects 100 kosher, mostly vegetarian recipes with color photographs, many of them step by step. The flavors draw on her Jewish-Greek heritage and the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern kitchen, and the focus is on fresh, simple dishes that work for a weeknight or for guests. It won the 2013 Gourmand Award for Best First Cookbook in Israel.
The Eucalyptus Cookbook
By Moshe Basson
The Eucalyptus restaurant is a Jerusalem landmark, and this is its first cookbook. Chef Moshe Basson forages for wild greens and mallows, and the book's stories reach back to biblical times and into his mother's Iraqi kitchen. The recipes come with photographs and stories about the restaurant, its staff and its family. Choose it if you want Jerusalem cooking with real roots.
The Galilean Kitchen
By Ruth Nieman
Home cooking from the Galilee, gathered from Christian, Muslim, Druze and Bedouin women. The traditional recipes, passed down through generations, sit alongside the stories of the cooks who shared them. A good choice for anyone curious about the region's food beyond the familiar Israeli dishes.
Bone Soup and Flipped Bread
By Sue Spertus Larkey
The food and history of the Yemenite Jewish community, more than two thousand years old, and how its cooking changed after the move to Israel in the 1950s. It has more than a hundred traditional recipes for everyday meals, holidays and life-cycle events, plus a chapter on the Yemenite pantry and a shopping guide. Yemenite cooking has had a strong influence on Israeli food today, so this book explains a lot about what Israelis eat.
Cooking Together: The Israeli Pantry
By Foodie Israel
A cookbook that celebrates the farmers of the Western Negev, Israel's main breadbasket, and calls on readers to support them after October 7. It's a way to cook Israeli food and stand with the people who grow it.
2. Bread, challah and Shabbat
The Jewish Bread Bible
By Eliezer Meir Saidel
More "bread encyclopedia" than recipe book. Eliezer Meir Saidel, a professional baker who started baking as a child, combines traditional recipes and techniques with the history and symbolism of bread in Jewish life and ritual. It suits home bakers, professionals who want historical context, and anyone who has wondered why bread matters so much in Jewish tradition.
A Taste of Torah
By Aviv Harkov
One recipe for every weekly parashah, each with tips for cooking it together with your children. After each recipe comes a dvar Torah for older children and a bedtime story for younger ones, both based on that week's Jewish value. It runs from Bereishit to Vezot Haberachah and makes a lovely gift for young families.
3. Kosher entertaining and everyday cooking
Le Marais Cookbook
By Joseph de Meirelles
Recipes from Le Marais, the New York French bistro that became one of the best-known kosher restaurants in the United States, with a foreword by Hadassah and Joe Lieberman. Sections run from sauces and soups to beef, lamb, veal, poultry, fish and desserts. It's French cooking that happens to be fully kosher.
The Modern Menu
By Kim Kushner
Kim Kushner taught cooking from her own kitchen for years, and her students always asked what goes with what. So she arranged this book into menus, such as Vibrant, Crisp and Saucy, which you can follow or mix and match. Good for anyone who hosts often.
Easy & Elegant and Simply Delicious
By Mindy Ginsberg
Easy & Elegant collects popular gourmet dishes, "American style with Israeli influences," with color photographs and simple directions. Simply Delicious runs from bean stew to butterscotch brownies and includes a guide to herbs and legumes. For Passover, the same author's Easy Way Out Passover Cookbook keeps holiday cooking simple.
From Lokshen to Lo Mein
By Don Siegel
Kosher Chinese cooking, with notes on where to find kosher Chinese ingredients, the Jewish connection to Chinese food, and a few jokes along the way. A nominee in the 2007 Gourmand World Cookbook Awards, and a fun gift.
Simply Eggplant
By Shirley Smalheiser
More than 100 kosher recipes for eggplant, from baba ghanoush and latkes to calzones and desserts. Not a vegetarian book, as some recipes include meat.
For vegetarian cooks
ESRA's Meatless Meals and ESRA's Soups and Salads collect tested recipes from the members of ESRA, the English Speaking Residents Association in Israel, and the books raise funds for its community projects. Five Seasons in the Kitchen by vegan chef Avital Sebbag offers 75 seasonal vegan recipes inspired by Chinese Medicine.
4. Cookbooks with a story
Recipes of My 15 Grandmothers
By Genie Milgrom
Recipes and stories passed down through generations of Crypto-Jews, families who appeared Catholic after the Spanish Inquisition while secretly keeping Jewish customs. The grandmothers found clever ways to keep kosher while seeming to eat pork, and they hid their holidays and fasts inside their recipes. The collection was found hidden in the author's mother's house.
From Mac and Cheese to Matbucha
By Sherri Mandell
Part memoir, part cookbook: Sherri Mandell's move from America to Israel told through food and memory. Honest, funny and moving, and a natural gift for anyone who has made aliyah or dreams of it.
For wine lovers
Wine Journey: An Israeli Adventure is a Hebrew/English guide to nearly 200 Israeli wineries, with maps and infographics. The Kosher Grapevine by Irving Langer teaches the basics of tasting and pairing kosher wine, and the role of wine in Jewish history.
Frequently asked questions
What's the best Israeli cookbook for home cooks?
Cook in Israel by Orly Ziv is the easiest place to start: simple, fresh recipes, most of them vegetarian, with step-by-step photographs.
Which of these cookbooks are kosher?
Cook in Israel, Le Marais Cookbook, Simply Eggplant and From Lokshen to Lo Mein are all kosher cookbooks.
Is there a good book on baking challah and Jewish bread?
The Jewish Bread Bible covers traditional Jewish bread recipes along with their history and meaning.
What's a good cookbook gift for Chanukah?
For a beautiful gift, try The Eucalyptus Cookbook or Bone Soup and Flipped Bread. For a family with young children, A Taste of Torah is a lovely choice.
Want to browse more? See our full Cookbooks & Food collection.