The year in cooking

A look back at 2023 — with recipe and story highlights.

Happy New Year, happy cook!

This newsletter was launched last year in April, so our look back at the year in cooking begins before the posts started — with stories at Cooks Without Borders the website. (Note: There are links to a whole bunch of new stories and recipes at the end, in the December section of this post!)

JANUARY

• As 2023 began, we were coming off of one of the best years for cookbook publishing in memory. Just after the new year, we reviewed The Woks of Life: Recipes to Know and Love from a Chinese American Family — the outstanding book by the wonderful Leung family. The recipe from it that I continue to crave a year later is their Shrimp in Lobster Sauce.

• A couple weeks later, our favorite weeknight pasta — with rapini and sausage — got an upgrade, along with a deep dive into its origin. [Read: Rapini to riches tale: A New York chef’s recipe inspires a fresh take on a favorite weeknight pasta]

FEBRUARY

• French food was very big last year; in February the New York Times …