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1. The Big Sur Bakery Cookbook: A Year in the Life of a Restaurant by Michelle Wojtowicz, Phillip Wojtowicz, and Michael Gilson tells the compelling story of a restaurant tucked behind a gas station off California's legendary Highway 1.  The restaurant with soul and lots of history highlights the food and grandeur of the California coast.

2. The Barcelona Cookbook: A Celebration of Food, Wine, and Life by Andy Pforzheimer and Sasa Mahr-batuz offers 200 pages worth of killer recipes and inviting color photographs. The authors have 6 award-winning Barcelona Wine Bar and Restaurants in Connecticut.  Now you can throw a party at home using this cookbook as a guide.

3. Heard it Through the Grapevine: The Things You Should Know to Enjoy Wine by Matt Skinner, is a guide for anyone who enjoys drinking wine but panics when they find themselves standing in a wine aisle, faced with a vast expanse of bottles.  Jamie Oliver says, “I have learnt more about wine from Matt than anyone else.”

4. Short-Cut Vegan: Great Taste in No Time, by award-winning cookbook author Lorna J. Sass, shows how to prepare 100 dishes full of amazing flavor and great nutrition without spending hours in the kitchen. Vegans rejoice!  Lorna, a Sally’s Place contributor, is a specialist in vegan cooking and a winner of the James Beard Award in the healthy focus category.

5. The New American Olive Oil: Profiles of Artisan Producers and 75 Recipes, by Fran Gage, profiles 15 American producers and highlights olive oil's merits to demonstrate the difference it makes in food and to emphasize that American oils can be as good as those from Europe. The 75 recipes include crusty snacks (crackers, flatbreads, bruschette), savory sauces (pestos, vinaigrettes, mayonnaises), and scintillating fish, meat, and poultry main courses. For daring taste buds, there’s a sideboard of desserts—cakes, cookies, even ice cream—that include olive oil as a main ingredient.

6. Modern Spice: Inspired Indian Flavors for the Contemporary Kitchen, by Monica Bhide (The Everything Indian Cookbook and The Spice is Right: Easy Indian Cooking for Today), provides a personal look at modern Indian cooking, showcasing new versions of her native cuisine that pay homage to tradition but also acknowledge the everyday lifestyle of India today.

7. Gourmet Getaways: 50 Top Spots to Cook and Learn by Joe David, details fifty of America’s top recreational cooking programs for budding chefs to kitchen divas.  The book includes recipes, food philosophies of the chefs running these programs and detailed profiles of each school, from weekend programs to weeklong courses.

8. Ready, Steady, Spaghetti: Cooking For Kids And With Kids by Lucy Broadhurst, includes 130 kid-friendly recipes from starters to not-too-serious main dishes. Sections include: Little Food, Dinner Time, Eat Your Greens, Sticky Treats, Let's Party, and more.

9. American Cheeses: The Best Regional, Artisan, and Farmhouse Cheeses, Who Makes Them, and Where to Find Them, by Clark Wolf, gives us an in-depth look at the art and craft of cheese across the United States, and documents in words and beautiful black-and-white photographs the story of the talented and committed women and men who create this dairy ambrosia.

10. Fish Without a Doubt: The Cook's Essential Companion by Rick Moonen and Roy Finamore helps us eat well and eat smart.  Rick Moonen helped pioneer the idea that seafood lovers can help the ocean by choosing sustainably produced seafood. Rick is the chef-owner of RM Seafood in Las Vegas and a founding member of the Seafood Choices Alliance.