10 Awesome Korean Cookbooks and Recipe Books

Are you looking for some new recipes to try? Or maybe you just want to learn how to cook something delicious from scratch?
In this post, I’m going to introduce you to 10 awesome Korean cookbooks that will help you master the art of making kimchi, bulgogi, bibimbap, and many other amazing dishes.
These books are perfect for beginners who want to get started with Korean food, as well as advanced cooks who want to expand their repertoire.
Maangchi’s Big Book Of Korean Cooking: From Everyday Meals to Celebration Cuisine

Even though Korean restaurants are getting more and more popular, there hasn’t been a definitive book on Korean food until now. This book, Maangchi’s Big Book of Korean Cooking, is an expansive and in-depth exploration of a culture that is deeply rooted in its love of food.
Some of the crowd-pleasing dishes that Maangchi has learned to make over the years and put in her cookbook are Korean BBQ, fried chicken, bulgogi, and bibimbap.
It goes where no other Korean cookbook has gone before, from the vegan meals of Buddhist mountain monasteries to the innovative snacks of street vendors to the beautiful and nutritious lunch boxes that Korean women pack for their children. Maangchi has changed and improved traditional foods, but they still taste the same as they did before.
Maangchi’s stunning full-color images show the cook exactly what to buy in terms of Korean ingredients; they walk them through each stage of the preparation process and provide tantalizing up-close views of each finished dish.
Cook Korean!: A Comic Book with Recipes
![Cook Korean!: A Comic Book with Recipes [A Cookbook]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51UyIV-Wf6L.jpg)
This entertaining and user-friendly graphic novel/cookbook is the perfect way to get started in the kitchen with Korean dishes. More than sixty classic (and some not-so-classic) recipes are brought to life through the colorful and funny comics of Robin Ha, which range in length from one to three pages.
This fun and detailed cookbook explains how to make a wide range of Korean dishes, from simple kimchi (mak kimchi) and soy garlic beef over rice (bulgogi dupbap) to gimbap (seaweed rice buns) and more. Cook Korean! is great for both novice and experienced cooks due to its warm and welcoming tone.
This cookbook gives a personal look at the food, with stories and cultural information from Ha sprinkled throughout each chapter.
Seoul Food Korean Cookbook: Korean Cooking from Kimchi and Bibimbap to Fried Chicken and Bingsoo

Naomi Imatome-Yun, a food writer, spent her childhood in the American suburbs learning to cook traditional Korean dishes from her grandmother. For the past 15 years, she has been sharing these recipes and teaching others how to make Korean food at home.
There are 135 detailed recipes for Korean barbecue, kimchi, and more in Seoul Food Korean Cooking. Try making your own version of sliced barbecued beef (bulgogi) or the spicy stir-fried rice cakes (tteokbokki) you fell in love with on your vacation to Korea.
The home cook will find helpful lists of kitchen utensils, pantry items, and ingredients specific to Korean cuisine, as well as photographs and links to online retailers, in this guidebook.
From the most classic dishes in Korean cuisine to more contemporary ones like Seoul-Style fusion, you will learn how to make them all to your taste.
Korean American: Food That Tastes Like Home

Eric Kim, a staff writer for the New York Times, is the son of Korean immigrants. He spent his childhood in Atlanta.
Eric’s first cookbook is full of traditional Korean dishes, as well as essays, stories, and beautiful photos taken by Jenny Huang.
Some of Eric’s best dishes, like Gochugaru Shrimp and Grits, Salt-and-Pepper Pork Chops with Vinegared Scallions, and Smashed Potatoes with Roasted-Seaweed Sour Cream Dip, show how good he is at adding Korean pantry staples to familiar American dishes.
You’ll appreciate the delicious and versatile recipes in this cookbook, and you’ll find that the personal stories he puts into the text add warmth and depth to the dishes he presents that you won’t find in other cookbooks.
Koreatown: A Cookbook

To say this is a “travel to Asia” cookbook would be an understatement. Koreatown is an ode to the roughness and charm of Korean cuisine in America, and it is a riot of taste. Deuki Hong and Matt Rodbard use stories, interviews, and more than a hundred mouth-watering, easy-to-make dishes to show why lunchtime feasts and late-night chef hangouts are synonymous with Koreatowns all over the country.
Korean food is fermented, spicy, sweet, flavorful, and rich with umami, and it’s about to explode in popularity in the United States. However, most Korean cookbooks have only presented an idealized version of Korean culture.
The cuisines of Korean American communities across the United States, from Los Angeles to New York City and Atlanta to Chicago, are what Koreatown is all about.
You can go with Rodbard and Hong as they explore these communities and share stories and recipes for everything from popular Korean barbecue dishes like bulgogi and kalbi to less well-known but deeply satisfying dishes like stews, soups, noodles, salads, drinks, and the many kimchis of the Korean American table.
My Korea: Traditional Flavors, Modern Recipes

The first Korean restaurant to get a Michelin star was Danji, which is owned by Hooni Kim. This shows how good the food is there. When combined with his expertise in traditional Korean cooking methods, his experience in top-tier French and Japanese kitchens yields dishes that are truly one of a kind in their flavor profile.
His first cookbook, My Korea, finally gives domestic cooks access to the holy trinity of Korean condiments: doenjang, ganjang, and gochujang. His kimchis, made with just the freshest ingredients, add just the right amount of salty, sour, and spicy heat to any dish.
A skilled chef wrote this cookbook to show how tasty Korean food can be. It has detailed notes on techniques, where to find ingredients, and beautiful photos from all over Korea.
Korean Home Cooking: Classic and Modern Recipes

Sohui Kim’s Korean Home Cooking is Sohui Kim’s collection of her family’s recipes and her own observations on what makes Korean food truly Korean.
Sohui is famous for her sohnmat, which means “taste of the hand” in Korean and refers to her skill and ease in making dishes that taste great. Kimchi, crisp mung bean pancakes, seaweed soup, spicy chicken stew, and japchae noodles, along with more traditional fare like soondae (blood sausage) and yuk hwe, are just a few of the dishes included in Korean Home Cooking (beef tartare).
You can make delicious Korean dishes in your own kitchen with the help of Sohui’s instructions, stories about her family, and pictures from her trips to Korea.
Our Korean Kitchen

As Korean cuisine becomes the world’s most talked-about trend, Our Korean Kitchen will serve as your motivational guide to preparing this flavorful and nutritious cuisine at home.
For the recipes that follow, Jordan, a critically regarded chef and food writer, and his Korean wife, Rejina, offer a cultural background on Korean food to set the scene for the recipes that follow. This extensive cookbook covers the ingredients and skills necessary to create traditional Korean food.
This is the only Korean cookbook you’ll ever need; it has everything you need to know, from how to fill a Korean pantry to comprehensive menu ideas to dishes for every meal and craving. You can find recipes for a wide variety of delectable dishes, such as Bibimbap, Kimchi fried rice, crispy chili rice cakes, chicken dumpling soup, seafood, and much more.
Korean Barbecue at Home: 50 Traditional Recipes to Entertain Family and Friends

If you’re looking for a new kind of barbecue, you’ll find it at a Korean barbecue. This important tradition is celebrated by getting together with family and friends to eat meats and vegetables that have been grilled.
This guide gives you everything you need to throw a great Korean BBQ party. It has clear instructions, 50 tasty recipes, and six full meals. You can learn about the origins of Korean BBQ, the ingredients, and the tools you’ll need to prepare and serve a barbecue feast.
You can make full, crowd-pleasing meals with the help of the recipes in this book, which range from appetizers to main courses and include everything from dipping sauces to banchan (side dishes) to drinks and sweets.
Using this BBQ cookbook as a guide, it will be easy for you to make authentic Korean food at home.
Learning Korean: Recipes for Home Cooking

Amazing, delicious home cooking comes from Korea. Eating mostly vegetables will be easy once you find out that kimchi and white rice go well together. Peter Serpico, a chef and a dad, shares his secrets for making and savoring Italian food.
New York City restaurants were where Serpico first gained notoriety; later, he focused on Korean cuisine. He fell in love with the flavors and techniques of his native country after his first bites of marinated short ribs and black bean noodles.
His first cookbook is an attempt to bring restaurant-quality Korean food to the home. And while his typical noodle and rice cake dinners draw from grandma with smart twists for the modern, busy parent, Serpico’s Instant Kimchi delivers the funk of fermented cabbage home in record speed. Grilling aficionados can’t get enough of the Korean-style roast chicken and sweet and spicy grilled cauliflower.
Over the course of 100 recipes, Serpico talks about his food philosophy, how he learned to cook, and how his family is connected to food.