‘Tis the season for best-of-the-year lists. The cookbook lists are a fascinating cornucopia of obvious choices, more obscure picks, and happy surprises. We took a look at the selections from editors at Amazon, Eat Me Daily, the Denver Post, Epicurious, the New York Times, NPR, Serious Eats, and, of course, PW—and analyzed the results. Read on for a breakdown of which books appear most frequently, which publishers have the most books on the lists, and a few titles you’ve probably never heard of—but should have.

First, the obvious: Momofuku by David Chang and Peter Meehan (Clarkson Potter) gets the nod for most frequently mentioned, landing on five lists; runner-up is Ad Hoc at Home by Thomas Keller with Dave Cruz (Artisan), which is on four lists. Beyond the gimmes, The Craft of Baking by Karen DeMasco and Mindy Fox (Clarkson Potter), How to Roast a Lamb by Michael Psilakis (Little, Brown), Lidia Cooks from the Heart of Italy by Lidia Bastianich (Knopf), My New Orleans by John Besh and Dorothy Kalins (Andrews McMeel), and Rose’s Heavenly Cakes by Rose Levy Beranbaum (Wiley) each got nods on multiple “best of” lists.

And while Random House’s Clarkson Potter imprint ran away with the lion’s share of the books with nine cookbooks mentioned a total of 18 times, a few non-New York houses also made strong showings, particularly Ten Speed (okay, they’re now owned by Random), Chronicle and Andrews McMeel. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Knopf also each had more than one book land on the lists.

As for the rogues, the Denver Post picked hometown fave Elana Amsterdam’s The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook (Celestial Arts), the New York Times loves Hisako Ogita’s I Love Macarons (Chronicle), and Eat Me Daily is enamored by French chemist Hervé This’s Building a Meal (Columbia Univ.).

Amazon:

  1. Momofuku by David Chang and Peter Meehan (Clarkson Potter)

  2. Ad Hoc at Home by Thomas Keller with Dave Cruz (Artisan)

  3. My New Orleans by John Besh and Dorothy Kalins (Andrews McMeel)

  4. Rustic Fruit Desserts by Julie Richardson (Ten Speed)

  5. My Bread by Jim Lahey (Norton)

  6. Baking by James Peterson (Ten Speed)

  7. Well-Preserved by Eugenia Bone (Clarkson Potter)

  8. Rose’s Heavenly Cakes by Rose Levy Beranbaum (Wiley)

  9. New Classic Dinners by Mark Peel (Wiley)

The Denver Post:

  1. The Pleasures of Cooking for One by Judith Jones (Knopf)

  2. Salt to Taste by Marco Canora (Rodale)

  3. So Easy by Ellie Krieger (Wiley)

  4. The Fat Duck Cookbook by Heston Blumenthal (Bloomsbury)

  5. Lidia Cooks From the Heart of Italy by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich (Knopf)

  6. The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook by Elana Amsterdam (Celestial Arts)

  7. Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking by Eileen Yin-Fei Lo (Chronicle)

  8. French Feasts by Stéphane Reynaud (Stewart Tabori & Chang)

  9. Everyday Harumi by Harumi Kurihara (Octopus Books)

  10. The Pioneer Woman Cooks by Ree Drummond (Morrow)

  11. Venezia by Tessa Kiros (Andrews McMeel Publishing)

  12. Momofuku by David Chang and Peter Meehan (Clarkson Potter)

Eat Me Daily:

  1. Momofuku by David Chang and Peter Meehan (Clarkson Potter)

  2. Ad Hoc at Home by Thomas Keller with Dave Cruz (Artisan)

  3. Sex, Death, and Oysters by Robb Walsh (Counterpoint)

  4. Building a Meal by Hervé This (Columbia Univ.)

  5. The Blackberry Farm Cookbook by Sam Beall (Clarkson Potter)

  6. Cooking Dirty by Jason Sheehan (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)

  7. Vefa’s Kitchen by Vefa Alexiadou (Phaidon)

  8. Seven Fires by Francis Mallman and Peter Kaminsky (Artisan)

Epicurious:

  1. New American Table by Marcus Samuelsson (Wiley)

  2. How to Roast a Lamb by Michael Psilakis (Little, Brown)

  3. The Craft of Baking by Karen DeMasco & Mindy Fox (Clarkson Potter)

  4. Ad Hoc at Home by Thomas Keller with Dave Cruz (Artisan)

  5. The Conscious Cook by Tal Ronnen (Morrow)

  6. My Nepenthe by Romney Steele (Andrews McMeel)

  7. Lidia Cooks from the Heart of Italy by Lidia Bastianich (Knopf)

The New York Times (billed as a gift-giving guide, not “best” of 2009):

  1. The Blackberry Farm Cookbook by Sam Beall (Clarkson Potter)

  2. My New Orleans by John Besh and Dorothy Kalins (Andrews McMeel)

  3. Momofuku by David Chang and Peter Meehan (Clarkson Potter)

  4. The Craft of Baking by Karen DeMasco (Clarkson Potter)

  5. The Pioneer Woman Cooks by Ree Drummond (Morrow)

  6. Larousse Gastronomique (Clarkson Potter)

  7. Simple Fresh Southern by the Lee Brothers (Clarkson Potter)

  8. I Love Macarons by Hisako Ogita (Chronicle)

  9. How to Roast a Lamb by Michael Psilakis (Little, Brown)

NPR:

  1. The Pleasures of Cooking for One by Judith Jones (Knopf)

  2. Asian Dumplings by Andrea Nguyen (Ten Speed)

  3. Clean Food by Terry Walters (Sterling)

  4. Gourmet Today by Ruth Reichl (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

  5. Stir by Barbara Lynch (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

  6. Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking by Eileen Yin-Fei Lo (Chronicle)

  7. Savory Baking by Mary Cech (Chronicle)

  8. Peter Reinhart’s Artisan Breads Every Day by Peter Reinhart (Ten Speed)

  9. The Craft of Baking by Karen DeMasco and Mindy Fox (Clarkson Potter)

  10. Rose’s Heavenly Cakes by Rose Levy Beranbaum (Wiley)

Publishers Weekly:
Note: the following five food-related books were on PW’s list of 2009’s best overall books:
Ad Hoc at Home by Thomas Keller with Dave Cruz (Artisan)
Born Round by Frank Bruni (Penguin Press)
Gourmet Today by Ruth Reichl (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Lidia Cooks from the Heart of Italy by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and Tanya Bastianich Manuali (Knopf)
Momofuku by David Chang and Peter Meehan (Clarkson Potter)

  1. Almost Meatless by Joy Manning Joy Manning and Tara Mataraza Desmond (Ten Speed)

  2. Lobel’s Meat Bible by Stanley Lobel, Evan Lobel, Mark Lobel and David Lobel (Chronicle)

  3. How to Roast a Lamb by Michael Psilakis and Barbara Kafka (Little, Brown)

  4. My New Orleans by John Besh (Andrews McMeel)

  5. The New Portuguese Table by David Leite and Nuno Correia (Clarkson Potter)

  6. Peter Reinhart’s Artisan Breads Every Day by Peter Reinhart (Ten Speed)

  7. Ratio by Michael Ruhlman (Scribner)

  8. Rose’s Heavenly Cakes by Rose Levy Beranbaum (Wiley)

  9. Salt to Taste by Marco Canora with Catherine Young (Rodale)

  10. Stir by Barbara Lynch (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

Serious Eats:

  1. 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer (Workman)

  2. Well-Preserved by Eugenia Bone (Clarkson Potter)

  3. Real Cajun by Donald Link (Clarkson Potter)

  4. Canal House Cooking, Vol. 1 by Christopher Hirsheimer and Melissa Hamilton (Canal House)

  5. Endangered Recipes by Lari Robling (Stewart, Tabori & Chang)

  6. Japanese Hot Pots by Tadashi Ono (Ten Speed)

  7. The Pioneer Woman Cooks by Ree Drummond (Morrow)

  8. L.A.'s Original Farmers Market Cookbook by JoAnn Cianciulli (Chronicle)

  9. How to Roast a Lamb by Michael Psilakis (Little, Brown)

  10. The Craft of Baking by Karen DeMasco (Clarkson Potter)

This story originally appeared in Cooking the Books, PW's e-newsletter for cookbooks.