22 Best Asian Cooking Books

Jet Tila presents Asian dishes ranging from drunken noodles and pho to Korean barbecue and miso-roasted fish. Recipes accompany explanations of ingredients, flavor, history, and technique, helping home cooks reproduce familiar restaurant foods and explore a wider range of cuisines.

Bill, Judy, Sarah, and Kaitlin Leung share Chinese and Chinese-American dishes alongside their family’s food stories. The collection brings together traditional home cooking, restaurant experience, and the younger generation’s preferences, with recipes intended for home kitchens.

Andrea Nguyen explains how to make savory and sweet dumplings, filled pastries, buns, and rolls from several Asian cuisines. Recipes are organized around doughs and wrappers, with instructions for preparing fillings, shaping parcels, and cooking them by different methods.

Fuchsia Dunlop introduces everyday Chinese home cooking with vegetables at its center and modest amounts of meat and fish. Recipes accompany explanations of essential seasonings and techniques, showing how a stocked pantry and straightforward methods can produce varied meals.

Shizuo Tsuji explains Japanese cooking through ingredients, tools, techniques, and recipes. The book develops an understanding of preparation and presentation, giving cooks a foundation for making traditional dishes rather than simply following isolated instructions.

Maangchi introduces Korean home cooking through soups, stews, barbecue, rice dishes, side dishes, kimchi, and pickles. The collection explains ingredients and techniques while giving home cooks a route from simple preparations to more involved meals.

López-Alt makes the wok feel useful, not mysterious, with clear lessons on heat, tools, prep, and motion. The book moves from fried rice and noodles to tempura and curries, showing how one pan can handle fast, flavorful cooking.

Andrea Nguyen adapts Vietnamese cooking for everyday meals using ingredients available in ordinary supermarkets. Recipes include banh mi, rice-paper rolls, pho, and desserts, with shortcuts and practical guidance that help home cooks develop Vietnamese flavors without extensive specialty shopping.

Shu Han Lee explores Singaporean cooking through recipes and the practice of adjusting food by taste and intuition. Classic and modern dishes range from kaya toast and rice to curries, noodles, and sweets, with guidance for adapting the approach.

Norman Musa introduces Malaysian home cooking through recipes for satay, curries, laksa, coconut rice, and other dishes. The collection presents a range of flavors and textures with ingredients and instructions intended to make the food approachable at home.

Meera Sodha gathers 120 vegan and vegetarian recipes inspired by cooking across Asia. Designed for everyday meals, the collection draws on cuisines from India to Japan, combining varied flavors with practical methods and accessible ingredients.

Gok Wan shares Chinese home cooking inspired by his family, from dim sum and street food to simple suppers and dishes for gatherings. Recipes come with guidance on ingredients and equipment, making familiar flavors approachable in an everyday kitchen.

Priya Krishna celebrates her mother Ritu’s inventive Indian-American cooking through recipes and family stories. Dishes combine childhood Indian flavors with American favorites and influences from travel, offering practical home cooking that reflects the family’s life between culinary traditions.

David Chang and Peter Meehan combine recipes from the Momofuku restaurants with accounts of Chang's unexpected rise as a chef. Ramen, pork buns, and other signature dishes illustrate the ideas, ingredients, and mishaps behind the restaurants.

Mandy Yin shares Malaysian recipes drawn from her mother’s cooking and her London restaurant. The collection includes laksa, curries, rice dishes, snacks, and sweets, combining family food traditions with dishes developed in a professional kitchen.

Punyaratabandhu presents one hundred Thai recipes drawn from family cooking, street stalls and restaurant favorites. Guidance on ingredients, equipment and basic preparations accompanies one-plate meals, rice accompaniments and sweets, adapting the dishes for home cooks.

Yuki Gomi teaches home sushi preparation through step-by-step guidance on rice, selecting and preparing fish, and rolling techniques. Recipes cover traditional forms and variations such as vegetarian and handball sushi, with accompanying dishes and practical advice for the home kitchen.

Fuchsia Dunlop revisits Sichuan cooking through recipes for dishes such as mapo tofu, twice-cooked pork, and gong bao chicken. Ingredient guidance, regional history, and accounts of her travels illuminate the flavors and traditions behind the food.

Emily and Amy Chung share Burmese recipes shaped by their family cooking and supper clubs. Chapters cover snacks, salads, curries, rice, noodles, and sweets, with dishes designed for combining into shared meals at home with family or friends.

Atsuko Ikeda introduces Japanese home cooking through recipes for main dishes, sharing plates, and desserts. Guidance on dashi, rice, seasoning, meal balance, and presentation accompanies familiar foods such as teriyaki, gyoza, and tempura, along with family favorites and modern variations.

Lara Lee explores Indonesian cooking through family recipes, regional dishes, and stories from island life. Instructions cover foods such as nasi goreng, rendang, satay, and pandan cake, with special attention to sambals and accessible ways to prepare their distinctive flavors.

The Dishoom team shares restaurant recipes alongside a day-long journey through Bombay’s food and neighborhoods. Dishes such as black daal, bacon naan rolls, and biryani join chai and cocktails, while stories and photographs explain the city’s influence on the restaurant.