Best Vietnamese Cookbooks

Important Note: When you buy through our links, we may earn a commission. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Content, pricing, offers and availability are subject to change at any time - more info.

While some Vietnamese cookbooks emphasize the cultural elements of the food, others place a greater emphasis on the specifics of the recipes. Whichever one it is, Vietnamese cooking books are a must-have for a multi-cultural kitchen. Vietnamese cuisine is, after all, among the most delicious in all of Asia, and it is unquestionably enjoyed worldwide.

The 10 Best Vietnamese Cookbooks

Vietnamese cooking is becoming increasingly popular, and more people are attempting to make it at home. There are now a ton of excellent cookbooks written by Vietnamese authors and chefs from around the globe, each with their viewpoint on Vietnamese cuisine. Let’s look at some of the best Vietnamese cookbooks below;

Vietnamese Home Cooking

  • Total Recipes: 82
  • Total Pages: 256
  • Recipes Preview: Beef Bavetta with tomatoes and thick-cut potatoes; Daikon rice cake with spicy soy; Lemongrass pork
  • The Best Recipe We Want To Try: Lacquered Quail with Sichuan cucumber pickles

Vietnamese Home Cooking’s main focus is on how to prepare Vietnamese cuisine. To inspire you to prepare Vietnamese food, Chef Charles Phan uses his distinctive experience in fusing western and eastern cooking methods. Before digging into the dishes, you’ll learn the basics of cooking Vietnamese cuisine. 

For a genuine Vietnamese taste, Charles Phan offers ideas on the spices, ingredients, and how to balance the textures and flavors. He also merges his Vietnamese and Chinese roots to create Vietnamese cuisine with a Chinese flavor.

This Vietnamese cookbook’s primary chapters are arranged according to various cooking methods. This group is special, and it helped us understand how Vietnamese cuisine is prepared. Several dishes are mentioned under each cooking method that is prepared using that method.

The Food Of Vietnam

  • Total Recipes: 84
  • Total Pages: 368
  • Recipes Preview: Green papaya salad with prawns & pork; Steamed mudfish with pork & noodles; Beef tossed with wild Betel leaf & lemongrass
  • The Best Recipe We Want To Try: Cooked Pork Belly

Take a tour of the country’s cuisine with The Food of Vietnam. Luke Nguyen travels from the southern city of Saigon to the northern city of Hanoi. In each region, he offers in-depth information about the city, cultural highlights, and anecdotes from his travels.

Luke’s experiences and the people he meets in each destination inspire his dishes. The mouthwatering photos of the meals wet our appetites and give us a good idea about what to expect from Vietnamese cuisine.

You feel like you’re there when you see photos of Vietnamese cities and people. You’ll learn about the origins of the ingredients and how to use them to make the ultimate Vietnamese dishes.

Simply Pho

  • Total Recipes: 75
  • Total Pages: 192
  • Recipes Preview: Thai Tom Yum noodle soup; Crispy pho pillows with salmon; Pho salad with Char Siu 
  • The Best Recipe We Want To Try: Sugarcane prawns

Pho, one of Vietnam’s most popular dishes, has become a global hit. If you want to create authentic Vietnamese Pho at home, look no further than this book. Helen Le’s Simply Pho cookbook teaches you how to make authentic pho noodle soup.

You can make fresh pho noodles with beef or chicken; you will learn how to create both types of Pho. Helen’s recipes include a variety of Vietnamese meals, including Pho. Spring rolls and other appetizers and entrees, Vietnamese sandwiches, condiments, drinks, and treats are all included in this Vietnamese cookbook.

It’s no surprise that Helen Le’s easy-to-follow YouTube tutorials have inspired this cookbook. You may make these mouthwatering delicacies at home with the help of aesthetically appealing images and straightforward instructions. Her extensive understanding of central Vietnamese cuisine is one of Helen’s many strengths as a food writer.

Eat Real Vietnamese Food

  • Total Recipes: 104
  • Total Pages: 256
  • Recipes Preview: Banh Bao (steamed pork buns); Shrimp & sweet potato fitters; Crab pate
  • The Best Recipe We Want To Try: Imperial rolls

The author writes other award-winning cookbooks of Eat Real Vietnamese Food, but this one stands out for its innovative use of modern technologies. This is the only Vietnamese cookbook with a free iPhone app that includes preloaded ingredient lists for the recipes.

There have been many influences on Vietnamese cuisine throughout the country’s long history. This cookbook preserves the cuisine of the 1950s for home chefs interested in learning about a particular era in Vietnamese culinary history.

Vietnamese cuisine was heavily influenced by French culture when these recipes were drawn from Lien Nguyen’s mother’s extensive collection. Authentic and illustrated in color, the book’s recipes are sure to please. The cookbook offers step-by-step instructions and historical context for each meal.

An experienced Vietnamese cook who wants to delve deeper into the country’s culinary traditions would benefit from this comprehensive and aesthetically attractive cookbook. 

Calling the final product a “cookbook” would be a misnomer given the level of detail included, which elevates it above the usual recipe collection and gives it a magnificent depth that enables newcomers and enthusiasts of Vietnamese cuisine to explore the country’s flavors, textures, cultural influences, and preparation techniques,

Hometown Flavors

  • Total Recipes: 50
  • Total Pages: 133
  • Recipes Preview: Lemongrass chili chicken; Spring rolls; Vietnamese coffee ice cream; Coconut tart 
  • The Best Recipe We Want To Try: Vietnamese chicken curry

Vi’s ten years of teaching culinary lessons and preserving her family’s recipes have culminated in her cookbook, Hometown Flavors. You can learn about Vietnamese cuisine by reading this book, which includes everything from Banh mi and Pho to the Perilla Mojito, a Vietnamese-inspired cocktail.

Because of the Spanish-Indian spice trade, Vietnamese cuisine has included new spices. With Vi’s cookbook, you’ll be able to immerse yourself in both Vietnamese culture and cuisine.

To make it simpler for readers to appreciate the complexity of Vietnamese food, all recipes are very simple. People will be impressed by her descriptions of each method and the way she breaks down the instructions and ingredients.

The Banh Mi Handbook

  • Total Recipes: 50
  • Total Pages: 132
  • Recipes Preview: Garlic pepper pork tenderloin banh mi; Grilled lemongrass pork banh mi; Spicy wok-seared shrimp banh mi
  • The Best Recipe We Want To Try: Hanoi grilled chicken banh mi

Banh Mi, which originated in Saigon, is now a well-known Vietnamese dish served worldwide. Andrea Nguyen’s goal in writing The Banh Mi Handbook is to provide you with all the knowledge you’ll need to learn Banh Mi.

You’ll learn everything about the Banh Mi sandwich, from the necessary ingredients to the numerous Banh Mi varieties you can prepare. Additionally, the author includes anecdotes and advice on picking the best bread for a sandwich, as well as stories about his own family.

After cooking a Banh Mi sandwich, you’ll never look at sandwiches the same way again. This cookbook is especially for those who want to study the ins and outs of banh mi.

The Little Viet Kitchen

  • Total Recipes: 100
  • Total Pages: 240
  • Recipes Preview: Pickled carrot & Daikon; Soy-braised shiitake mushrooms; Pho spice rub
  • The Best Recipe We Want To Try: Pickled mustard cabbage

Born in the rural town of South Vietnam, Thuy was raised there by her mother and grandmother. When she was younger, she was surrounded by street food and fresh produce, which shaped her food ethic and the culinary innovations she came up with in the street markets.

Over 100 original and delectable Vietnamese recipes are included in the Little Viet Kitchen cookbook, named after her famous Vietnamese restaurant in London. Thuy only uses organic ingredients to prepare her Vietnamese dishes, and she demonstrates their natural flavors. 

With the help of each recipe’s recollections and skills, Thuy delivers a new take on Vietnamese classics and family favorites. The cookbook features stunning photographs by David Loftus, stylized by Thuy’s accompanying each recipe; this book transports readers to Vietnam.

Vietnamese Food Any Day

  • Total Recipes: 80
  • Total Pages: 240
  • Recipes Preview: Chile Garlic Chicken Wings; No-Churn Vietnamese Coffee Ice Cream; Vibrant Turmeric Coconut Rice
  • The Best Recipe We Want To Try: Honey-Glazed Pork Riblets

Andrea Nguyen’s most recent cookbook, Vietnamese Food Any Day, was selected by NPR as one of the finest cookbooks. This cookbook shows you how to prepare Vietnamese dishes with ingredients from any grocery shop. The recipes are divided into chapters covering everything from snacks to sweets, including the fundamental staples of Vietnamese cuisine.

To help you get closer to the genuine Vietnamese flavors, it includes a list of essential ingredients and purchasing advice and suggestions. Most of the recipes are straightforward enough for any home cook to prepare. 

Vietnamese Food Any Day demystifies ingredients and cooking methods so anybody can prepare delicious, authentic Vietnamese cuisine at home, from novice to experienced chefs. 

Authentic Vietnamese Cooking

  • Total Recipes: 100
  • Total Pages: 256
  • Recipes Preview: Beef au Vin; Egg-glazed eggplant fritters; Asparagus & crabmeat soup
  • The Best Recipe We Want To Try: Caramelized braised pork belly

If you’re looking for traditional dishes from a certain country’s cuisine, your best bet is to look at what locals eat. Corinne Trang, a culinary writer and consultant does the same thing in her book Authentic Vietnamese Cooking, which takes you inside the family table to discover the joys of regional Vietnamese cooking.

Trang was born and raised in a multi-cultural household with a French mother and a Cambodian-born Chinese father who lived in Phnom Penh, New York, and Paris. She presents more than 100 authentic Vietnamese recipes for the home chef. The sophisticated center, the simple north, and the Spicy South of Vietnam are all well-represented in this cookbook. 

Recipes for family gatherings and special events include noodle dishes, soups, marinades, sauces, flavored oils, etc. Anyone can make famous Vietnamese meals using step-by-step instructions provided in this book that the author has translated from the country’s rich flavors.

Vietnamese Market Cookbook

  • Total Recipes: 21
  • Total Pages: 248
  • Recipes Preview: Carp steamed in beer; Beef grilled in La Lot Leaves; Bo Xao (stir-fried beef)
  • The Best Recipe We Want To Try: Azuki in sticky coconut rice

Vietnamese cuisine has five flavors: bitter, salty, sour, sweet, and spicy. However, despite its powerful flavor and abundance of these characteristics, the dishes in this cookbook are light and quick to prepare, thanks to the simple materials and straightforward techniques.

They sought to convey this message to the hungry crowds when they started a banh mi booth in London, authors Van Tran and Anh Vu. The two sisters decided to start their own banh mi business in an international city that shockingly lacked the flavors of their childhoods in Hanoi as London. 

They created the Vietnamese Market Cookbook as their business grew. In this book, you’ll discover that the dishes use simpler ingredients than you might expect but still pack a powerful flavor punch thanks to fresh herbs and vegetables and traditional Vietnamese condiments like fish sauce.

Readers will find new and familiar favorites that will transport them to the streets of Ho Chi Minh City in South Vietnam.


Recent Recipes