Our 2025 Top Selling Cookbooks by Black Authors

Food Temptress Cookbook Store ended 2025 strong, thanks to you. This marked the second year in our Virginia Beach store and fourth for our online bookshop. We hosted four, virtual author talks and an in-store book signing. We also held a few shopping events, attended a literary festival, and participated in our first book crawl on Independent Bookstore Day. New followers discovered us on Facebook and Instagram. Several folks joined our electronic newsletter. The press showed us some love, including the Virginia Living Magazine. We partnered with The Global Food and Drink Initiative on a media campaign. Finally, the bookstore was awarded a small business grant from the City of Virginia Beach.

We also sold hundreds of cookbooks by Black authors. Here are the bestsellers from our in-store and online sales for 2025, in no particulary order.

When Southern Women Cook: History, Lore, and 300 Recipes with Contributions from 70 Women Writers by America's Test Kitchen

This publication contains a collection of greatness that’s a must-have. Stories, recipes and mouthwatering images capture the flavor of Southern cuisine by honoring the women who created it. Their contributions influence what home cooks and seasoned professionals put on their table daily, with dishes ranging from Texas barbecue to Gullah Geechee rice dishes and regional brunswick stew.

New World Sourdough: Artisan Techniques for Creative Homemade Fermented Breads by Bryan Ford

Folks love sourdough bread in our area so much, we can’t keep “New World Sourdough” on the shelves for long. Learn how to make a sourdough starter, basic breads and other baked goods. Recipes include step-by-step instructions and photographs of all of the mixing, shaping, and baking techniques to develope flavor.

Another cookbook by Ford to consider “Pan Y Dulce: The Latin American Baking Book”

Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts: Stories and Recipes from Five Generations of Black Country Cooks by Crystal Wilkinson

Wilkinson, the former Kentucky Poet Laureate, penned a national-bestselling culinary memoir that appealed to customers and met our mission of preserving food traditions. She shared the legacy of five generations of Black Appalachians through stories, family photos and nearly 40 recipes steeped in history. We loved having signed copies of “Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts” in our bookostore.

Free Spirit Cocktails: 40 Nonalcoholic Drink Recipes by Camille Wilson

Add this mocktail recipe book to your collection. It’s perfect for people participating in Dry January and those who are sober curious. “Free Spirt Cocktails” includes 40 alcohol-free recipes from classic cocktails to inventive sippers to 3-ingredient drinks for all occasions.

Cooking with 5 Ingredients from Trader Joe's: Simple Weeknight Meals Using Your Favorite In-Store Products by Tracey Korsen

This cookbook came out in 2021 but customers still love it — probably because our Virginia Beach store is four minutes away from a Trader Joe’s store. Tracey Korsen of the Tracey Joe’s blog used ingredients from there to create quick recipes with miminal prep time. She prepared caramel-filled chocolate chip cookies with gluten-free baking mix, New Orleans po’boy with frozen shrimp tempura, and a creamy soup with fire-roasted tomatoes, cheese ravioli, broth and Italian sausage. Note: Some products maybe discountined.

Sweet Potato Soul Vegan Vibes: 100 Soulful Plant-Based Recipes for Healthy Everyday Meals by Jenné Claiborne

We had the pleasure of chatting with Jenné Claiborne about this book on Facebook live in March. Watch the replay on YouTube.

The Atlanta native knows how to zhuzh up vegetables. She adds jerk seasoning to sweet potatoes, Korean gochujang sauce to corn ribs, and miso to collard green soup. Her recipes are approachable with straightforward instructions.

Claiborne also authored “Sweet Potato Soul: 100 Easy Vegan Recipes for the Southern Flavors of Smoke, Sugar, Spice, and Soul.”

When Alexander Graced the Table by Alexander Smalls and Denene Millner

We ordered this picture book for a customer along with extra copies. It was one of our best decisions of the year. Readers gobbled it up.

Children can follow Alexander’s quest to contribute a dish to Sunday dinner. It includes beautiful illustrations and concludes with a recipe for lemon icebox pie with meringue.

For reading ages 4 to 8.

American Soul: The Black History of Food in the United States - Including 40 Recipes by Anela Malik and Renae Wilson

We love the bold colors of “American Soul” sitting on our shelves but it looks better in our customers’ hands. Anela Malik, the influencer behind Feed the Malik, narrates culinary history of United States from the trans-Atlantic slave trade to modern history and highlights more than more than 30 Black chefs. Add 40 new recipes to your repertoire that includes fare such as jerk pork lumpia, chicken purloo and blackberry cobbler. The colorful illustrations will help you navigate the pages with ease.

Still We Rise: A Love Letter to the Southern Biscuit with Over 70 Sweet and Savory Recipes by Erika Council

Though “Still We Rise” was published in 2023, biscuits never go out of style in the South. Erica Council, founder and head baker of Bomb Biscuit Company in Atlanta, connects readers to stories of family, friends, and culinary icons who helped shape her love of baking, including her grandmother and legendary soul food chef Mildred “Mama Dip” Council who cooked and baked to support the civil rights movement. Erika’s recipes feature her classic Bomb Buttermilk Biscuit, Angel Biscuits, and new favorite, the Glori-Fried Chicken Biscuit Sandwich.

Juke Joints, Jazz Clubs, and Juice: A Cocktail Recipe Book: Cocktails from Two Centuries of African American Cookbooks by Toni Tipton-Martin

We love the idea of sipping history. This book includes classic and modern recipes inspired by formulas found in two centuries’ worth of Black cookbooks. Toni Tipton-Martin shows the evolution of these drinks over time and shares stories of how Black mixologists influence American cocktails.

Honorable Mention

The Vibrant Vegan: A Culinary Celebration of 50 Delectable Plant-Based Recipes by Katrina Gay

We hosted Katrina Gay, a Hampton, Virginia native, for World Vegan Month in November for a book signing that attracted both vegans and the vegan-curious to the store.

Her cookbook features 50 recipes, ranging from tofu scramble with spinach to butternut squash and sage risotto, to mango coconut chia pudding. The photos, taken by the indie author herself, capture an appeal that motivates experienced and novice cooks to create their own masterpieces. “Vibrant Vegan” also includes practical tips for selecting ingredients, cooking techniques, and meal planning.

Available in-store only. | Paperback | Pages 137 | $19.95