24 Cookbook Gifts For The 12 Kinds Of Cooks In Your Life Slideshow

Ina Garten's How Easy Is That? not only presents some of her best new and old recipes, but the book also gives tips and advice for how to put together a meal and host a dinner party — the perfect starting platform for anyone who's a little shy in the kitchen. Additionally, Grain Mains by Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough is a great book to give to any beginner, as it discusses the foundations of one of the most basic and functional parts of a meal. Teach a newbie how to cook rice and they'll be able to cook just about anything (it is, after all, one of the hardest dishes to master in the culinary arts).

Why get a cookbook for someone who considers themselves a good cook? Because they will never be done with perfecting their craft, and The Modernist Cuisine at Home is the perfect gift. The book brings the science behind Nathan Myhrvold's team to the home kitchen, explaining basic and more advanced cooking techniques in a way that even James Beard would appreciate. Secrets of the Best Chefs by food-blogger Adam Roberts gives the impression that it's for a beginner (it's all about building confidence) but no one could argue that a seasoned cook wouldn't enjoy recipes from 50 renowned chefs throughout the country.

These two books are the perfect gifts for the person who believes in community feedback. Food52's second cookbook, Seasonal Recipes From Our Kitchen to Yours, presents a new collection of recipes not from Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs, but from their community of bloggers that regularly contribute to their blog. Smitten Kitchen is the work of blogger Deb Perelman, praised for her blog Smitten Kitchen, who has finally put her critically acclaimed work into print. If you have a friend who loves their food blogs, they probably know these two blogs, so they'd most like love their cookbooks.

While there are more and more gluten-free cookbooks and recipes hitting the shelves each day, Gluten-Free Baking for the Holidays by Jeanne Sauvage was one of our favorites this year because it takes the gluten out of traditional holiday treats. While not a specifically gluten-free cookbook, Roots by Diane Morgan focuses strictly on vegetables, and presents new and exciting ways to prepare them, perfect for that gluten-free someone in your life who is sick of steamed green beans.

For that person who won't settle for anything other than what's made from scratch, The Homemade Pantry by Alana Chernila will become their new encyclopedia for the kitchen. Covering more than 101 recipes for pantry items, the book caters toward the hands-on, budget-conscious cook. Modern Sauces by Martha Holmberg would be another great addition to your resourceful loved one's collection of cookbooks because it encourages making sauces at home without the need to buy additives or canned sauces from the store.

Let's face it, we all have people in our lives that are crazy about healthy eating. Critically acclaimed chef Amanda Cohen's cookbook Dirt Candy will be right up that someone's alley, because it focuses strictly on vegetarian dishes that are healthy but taste delicious, too. Now, your friend can be less annoying with their health-habits because you know they'll be making and eating something healthy and tasty. Kicking Cancer in the Kitchen by Annette Ramke and Kendall Scott is a book about what to eat when you're battling cancer, and is perfect for the person in your life who can't get enough nutritional advice and is always eager to hear more reasons why fruits and vegetables are good for them. 

Thomas Keller's Bouchon Bakery covers a wide scope of baking recipes, from traditional to innovative, that would make any pastry artist in your life happy (and, hey, Keller's also a pretty darn good baker). For those who want to take their baking to the next level, Nick Malgieri's Bread not only covers the basics of baking and bread-making, but provides several recipes that go beyond yeast and flour and transform baked goods into an entire meal.

For the person who can't stop traveling, or who can't stop eating ethnic cuisine, Morocco by Jeff Koehler gives an inside look to authentic Moroccan cooking, as he de-mystifies it for the American cook. And The Country Cooking of Greece by Diane Kochilas is as thorough as it gets when it comes to Greek cuisine, giving that wanderer in your life more than enough worldly recipes to choose from.

Also known as the people who like pretty pictures. These are the ones who probably wouldn't buy a cookbook unless it had amazing food photography to go along with it. Come In, We're Closed by Christine Carroll and Jody Eddy and Canal House Cooks Everyday by Christopher Hirsheimer and Melissa Hamilton not only feature amazing and dynamic recipes, but the food photography and design of the books take them to a whole other level.

Flavors Exposed takes celebrity chef Angelo Sosa's work from the big screen to print, featuring Latin-, Southeast Asian-, and Indian-inspired recipes, while Food & Wine's Best of the Best shares recipes from the magazine's list of best cookbooks in 2011. While your TV-celebrity-worshipping friend may judge these books by the cover at first, they'll soon learn there's more to them than just their authors. 

If you know someone who would rather buy the cow from the farmer than the chop from the butcher, Bruce Aidells' Great Meat Cookbook is the perfect gift for them — it divulges every type and range of meat cuts so that they'll no longer have to order their chops Frenched; they'll know how to do it themselves. Along the same lines, SPQR by Shelley Lindgren, Matthew Accarrino, and Kate Leahy brings the pasta-making techniques that have earned the San Francisco restaurant chain critical acclaim to the home kitchen, making it the perfect gift for that someone who likes to make their pasta dishes from scratch. 

If you have a barbecue-fanatic in your life, they've most likely dreamt of visiting Driftwood, Texas, for a taste of The Salt Lick's critically acclaimed grub (if they haven't visited already), so make their holiday dreams come true with the first-ever published cookbook from the renowned pit-stop. They'll also probably like Slow Fire by Ray Lampe, otherwise known as "Dr. BBQ," because it shows that the science behind the recipes is just as important as the ingredients by breaking down every element of the craft.