With restaurants across the Portland area closed, diners across the city have been ordering take-out from some of their favorite spots; still, with more and more restaurant owners choosing to close completely, many diners are simply going without. Portlanders looking to bring little piece of the city’s culinary scene home can support both Powell’s Books and restaurant owners by buying a cookbook. Here’s our list of cookbooks from local chefs and producers to stay busy.

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Meals and Savory Food

Around the Fire: Recipes for Inspired Grilling and Seasonal Feasting from Ox Restaurant

This grilling cookbook, from chefs Greg Denton and Gabi Quiñónez Denton of Northeast Portland’s Ox, is geared toward more advanced home chefs looking to take their backyard barbecue game to the next level. Many of the recipes in the book, including Ox’s famed clam chowder with smoked beef marrow bones, will likely require several trips to the grocery store, but the book itself is worth a buy to study up in time for summer grilling season. Shake up a Dirty Agnes in the meantime.
Buy: Powell’s | Bookshop | Amazon

Heartlandia: Heritage Recipes from The Country Cat

Though Country Cat’s Montavilla home closed last summer, its recipes live on in this vivid and easily approachable cookbook from chefs Adam and Jackie Sappington. From Midwest-inspired breakfast classics to desserts, and everything in between (we’re looking at you, biscuits and fried chicken), this cookbook gives comfort food a bright, new spin.
Buy: Powell’s | Amazon

Hello! My Name Is Tasty: Global Diner Favorites from Portland’s Tasty Restaurants

Any Portland brunch fan would be remiss to not order a copy of John Gorham’s cookbook dedicated to favorites from his Tasty empire. Plus, social distancing allows home cooks to up their overall breakfast game, with recipes like shakshuka or lemon ricotta pancakes.
Buy: Powell’s | Bookshop | Amazon

Kachka: A Return to Russian Cooking

Kachka’s attached pantry store Kachka Lavka remains open (hellooo, frozen pelmeni), but those looking to recreate a meal at this Russian stalwart will need more than a bowl of dumplings to scratch that itch. Enter from stage left: this cookbook, filled with stories and recipes for crunchy pickles, sinus-clearing infused vodkas and traditional homestyle dishes to fill out the spread.
Buy: Powell’s | Bookshop | Amazon

Taste & Technique: Recipes to Elevate Your Home Cooking

James Beard Award-winning chef Naomi Pomeroy, whose Northeast Portland Beast helped put Portland’s food scene on the map, helps home cooks take things to the next level with this book of tips, tricks, and nearly 140 recipes. Each recipe comes paired with lessons to help increase an understanding of professional skills, which means readers will come out of this period of social distancing a better cook.
Buy: Powell’s | Bookshop | Amazon

Toro Bravo: Stories. Recipes. No Bull.

This cookbook digs deep into the earnest past of one of Portland’s most beloved restaurants and its owner, John Gorham. Toro Bravo covers Gorham’s story from childhood to the opening of the restaurant, complete with 95 recipes for readers to follow along at home.
Buy: Powell’s | Bookshop | Amazon

Le Pigeon: Cooking at the Dirty Bird

An oldie, but goodie, the Le Pigeon cookbook gets inside the brain of one of the country’s best chefs. Gabe Rucker’s inaugural cookbook is packed with offal-laden recipes and wild combos only found at this Portland stalwart. Some may have trouble tracking down the foie for the legendary profiteroles, however.
Buy: Powell’s | Bookshop | Amazon

Olympia Provisions: Cured Meats and Tales from an American Charcuterie

From fresh sausages to cured salamis, this fount of knowledge brings in-depth techniques and recipes for cured meats, recipes from the restaurants and more from Oregon’s first USDA-certified salumeria.
Buy: Powell’s | Bookshop | Amazon

The Paley’s Place Cookbook

Enjoy a simple, elegant meal through the words and insight of Vitaly and Kimberly Paley, whose namesake Northwest Portland restaurant has been beloved for decades. In The Paley’s Place Cookbook, the namesake couple provides the building blocks for everything from simple snacks and meals to showstopping centerpiece dishes.
Buy: Powell’s | Amazon

Six Seasons: A New Way With Vegetables

Ava Gene’s chef Joshua McFadden gives readers a whole new way to look at vegetables in this expansive cookbook celebrating the best the earth has to offer throughout the year. With 225 recipes spanning every season, it’ll be easy to tackle the latest CSA box.
Buy: Powell’s | Bookshop | Amazon

Pok Pok: Food and Stories from the Streets, Homes and Roadside Restaurants of Thailand, Pok Pok Noodles: Recipes from Thailand and Beyond, and Pok Pok: The Drinking Food of Thailand

Andy Ricker’s trifecta of cookbooks brings readers inside the fold of his Thai empire in Portland. The inaugural, eponymous book shares the secrets behind those fish sauce wings and grilled pork collar with spicy dipping sauce, while the second helps home cooks master a collection of Thai noodle dishes. In his latest work, Ricker brings together a roster of snacks and dishes best paired with drinks and good friends.
Buy Pok Pok: Powell’s | Bookshop | Amazon
Buy Pok Pok Noodles: Powell’s | Bookshop | Amazon
Buy Pok Pok: The Drinking Food of Thailand: Powell’s | Bookshop | Amazon

Pasta By Hand: A Collection of Italy’s Regional Hand-Shaped Pasta

Here’s one to do with the kids: Portland chef Jenn Louis brings together more than 65 pasta and dumpling recipes and techniques, no machines or fancy equipment required. From gnocchi and gnudi to orecchiette and pinci, this book is packed with cooking projects for long stays inside.
Buy: Powell’s | Bookshop | Amazon

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Pastry, Baking, and Desserts

Flour Water Salt Yeast: The Fundamentals of Artisan Bread and Pizza and Elements of Pizza: Unlocking the Secrets to World Class Pies at Home

With so many people filling their time at home with baking projects, now is as good a time as any to grab bread maestro Ken Forkish’s award-winning opus, “Flour Water Salt Yeast.” Even beginner bread makers will find recipes concise and straightforward in this monumental work. Pizza fanatics should also look to the sequel, “Elements of Pizza,” which gives an inside look into the mechanics of making every style of pie from the crust up.
Buy Flour Water Salt Yeast: Powell’s | Bookshop | Amazon
Buy Elements of Pizza: Powell’s | Bookshop | Amazon

Baking Gold: How to Bake (Almost) Everything with 3 Doughs, 2 Batters, and 1 Magic Mix and Candy Is Magic

Candy wizard Jami Curl (Quin, Saint Cupcake) recently released a brand new baking book to pair with her truly magical candy book. “Baking Gold,” which debuted in February, takes the simplicity of a handful of doughs and batters and repurposes them into 75 treats, including ginger-molasses cookies, caramel sticky buns and vanilla celebration cake.
Buy Baking Gold: Powell’s | Bookshop | Amazon
Buy Candy Is Magic: Powell’s | Bookshop | Amazon

The Grand Central Baking Book

Another baking guide, the Grand Central Baking Book helps home bakers recreate more than 100 of Pacific Northwest bakery Grand Central’s most beloved staples and favorites. Piper Davis, the daughter of Grand Central’s founder who now is the company’s cuisine manager, divulges (almost?) all the family secrets, including a guide to those jam-filled buttermilk biscuits.
Buy: Powell’s | Bookshop | Amazon

Salt & Straw Ice Cream Cookbook

This new ice cream guide gives Portlanders the chance to replicate the classics from one of Portland’s preeminent ice cream shops. With dozens of recipes — each using easy-to-find ingredients and simple steps — a scoop of freckled Woodblock chocolate ice cream has never been closer.
Buy: Powell’s | Bookshop | Amazon

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Drinks and Drink-Related Cooking

The Bar Book: Elements of Cocktail Technique

Drinkers missing their usual spot at Clyde Common can learn tricks of the trade from the man himself, Jeffrey Morgenthaler. One of Portland’s preeminent bartenders, Morgenthaler provides drink and cocktail accoutrement recipes alongside time-tested tips honed after years behind the bar.
Buy: Powell’s | Bookshop | Amazon

Wine Food

Bar Norman’s Dana Frank and cookbook author Andrea Slonecker pour 75 recipes into this fun and approachable book, everything from brunch to feasts inspired by the affordable wines that pair with them best. Grab a copy, uncork that red and get cooking.
Buy: Powell’s | Bookshop | Amazon

Cocktails on Tap

Bartender Jacob Grier gives the inside track on combining two of Portland’s most famous exports: beer and cocktails. Crafty beef aficionados can make buzzy, beer-fueled cocktails that range from the classics redux to creative new creations.
Buy: Powell’s | Bookshop | Amazon