From Lagos to the Indian Ocean: The Best African Cookbook

No single cookbook can cover a whole continent, and the good ones admit it. So “African cookbook” really means a choice: a survey across regions, or one place taught well. Either way you meet ingredients and dishes that many American kitchens have never handled.

This guide gives eight books from named authors and established publishers, mostly written in the last few years. We say which rest on a named review and which on the publisher’s details, and we note where stock kept out a title you might expect.

Julia’s earns a commission on purchases made through links on this page, at no cost to you. Recommendations are based on what a restaurant kitchen looks for in a cookbook, the Amazon listing, publisher and author information and published reviews, which we name where we use them.

Quick verdict: the best African cookbook to start with

The other five cover grandmothers from the Indian Ocean coast, a Kenyan-Nigerian-California kitchen, Ghana, Ethiopian Jewish cooking and North Africa.

Five African cookbooks side by side

Five of the eight, one for each kind of cook. All eight are described in full below.

Cover images from Amazon. Page counts and formats are from the Amazon listings for the editions linked. Recipe counts are from the publisher’s copy. My Everyday Lagos was sold by a third-party seller when we checked.

Our picks for the best African cookbook, book by book

All eight were in stock, in print and new when we checked. Seven were sold by Amazon. My Everyday Lagos came from a third-party seller, as its entry explains. We have not cooked from these books; where we describe a strength, we say whose view it is.

How to choose an African cookbook for your kitchen

Start with the food you already know you like, then think about what you can buy.

• Which part of the continent? Thiam, Komolafe and Adjepong cover the west. Hassan covers the Indian Ocean coast. Koehler covers the north. Barhany covers Ethiopia and beyond.
• Can you find the ingredients? PW warns that some of Adjepong’s are hard to find. Moju’s publisher stresses common pantry staples. Komolafe explains unfamiliar ones.
• What cookware do you own? A heavy pot handles most stews and rice dishes. See our best Dutch oven guide, and a mortar and pestle helps with spice pastes.
• Reading or cooking? In Bibi’s Kitchen and Gursha are as much about lives as recipes. Simply West African gets to dinner faster.

How we chose these African cookbooks

We searched Amazon’s book listings first and kept print editions from named authors at established publishers, plain in stock with a new lead offer. We left out every title already on our other book pages, including Toni Tipton-Martin’s Jubilee on our Southern page. Author, year, format and page count come from the Amazon listing. Recipe counts and descriptions come from the publisher’s copy, as carried by booksellers, unless we credit someone else.

Here is what stands behind each pick. My Everyday Lagos, Ghana to the World and The North African Cookbook have Publishers Weekly reviews we read ourselves. The Contemporary African Kitchen, Simply West African, In Bibi’s Kitchen, AfriCali and Gursha have praise we read only as quoted by the publisher.

Stock ruled out two names you might look for. Marcus Samuelsson’s The Soul of a New Cuisine and Zoe Adjonyoh’s Zoe’s Ghana Kitchen were low in stock when we checked.

African cookbook questions, answered

What is the best West African cooking book?

Simply West African for easy dinners, My Everyday Lagos for depth on Nigeria and Ghana to the World for Ghana.

Which book covers the whole continent?

The Contemporary African Kitchen comes closest, with five regions and 33 contributors, but no single book really covers it.

Which has a good jollof rice recipe?

Jollof is named in the descriptions of My Everyday Lagos, Ghana to the World and AfriCali. We have not cooked them, so we cannot rank them.

Is there a good Ethiopian cookbook here?

Gursha covers Ethiopian Jewish cuisine in particular. It is not a general primer, and the Ethiopian books we looked at from smaller presses did not make this list.

How does this connect to Southern cooking?

PW notes that Adjepong traces dishes across the diaspora back to West Africa. Our best Southern cookbook guide and best Caribbean cookbook guide pick up that story.

Which African cookbook should you buy first?

Buy The Contemporary African Kitchen if you want to see the range. Choose Simply West African to start cooking tonight and My Everyday Lagos to go deep. For the American side of this story, see our best Southern cookbook guide.

And if you would rather have someone else do the cooking tonight, see the menu or call to order.