Top Cookbooks for Fathers

A happy father cooking with his children.
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Men seem to have either a love for or an aversion against cooking. Whether your dad is a gourmet cook or a dad who breaks out in a cold sweat when asked to cook, you will find a cookbook that will be perfect for him.

01
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Don't Fill Up On the Antipasto

Don’t Fill Up on the Antipasto - Cookbooks for Men
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Tony Danza, actor and television personality, and his son Marc ​have written an incredible cookbook for men who love Italian food. And the book is far more than just recipes. You will also meet the whole Danza family and learn the family stories behind the amazingly good recipes. This is a cookbook that any Italian dad will love and any dad will appreciate.

02
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See Dad Cook

See Dad Cook - Cookbooks for Men
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See Dad Cook is full of 125 quick and easy recipes for busy dads. With a focus on the simple, the recipes are delicious and use relatively few ingredients. With dishes from simple salads to sauerkraut to muffins, you will find these ​straightforward and easy recipes a real help for dads with little time to cook.

03
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Eating In

Eating In - Cookbooks for Men
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Described by one reader as "better dating through cooking," Eating In is a book with ideas and recipes to impress the woman in your life. That might be your wife and the mother of your children, or it might be a date or a woman at work. But the idea here is to be able to cook in for an evening at home with your special someone. The book not only has recipes but also is illustrated with comic strips that are entertaining and a tad irreverent. And the dishes are all wonderful and even your family will love them.

04
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Single Man's Guide to Easy Meals

Single Man’s Guide to Easy Meals - Cookbooks for Men
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Written by a man and aimed specifically at men, the Single Man’s Guide to Easy Meals offers excellent recipes and cooking tips to help any man learn to cook on his own. Each recipe also features a shopping list so you can quickly and easily prepare a week’s worth of recipes and go shopping for all you need at one time. And there is even a section of the book called Things That Go with Beer. All in all, it is a book that a single dad will enjoy and will help make meal shopping and preparation easy.

05
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Take Five - A Man's Cookbook

Take Five - A Man’s Cookbook
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If you love to cook but want a simple approach, Take Five will be a great find for you. The recipes are easy and most use about ten common ingredients. But the food is excellent - one friend says that you must try the asparagus chicken!

06
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Sam the Cooking Guy: Just a Bunch of Recipes

Sam the Cooking Guy: Just a Bunch of Recipes
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Sam Zien hosts Sam the Cooking Guy on the Discovery Channel, and this book of over 125 recipes includes most of his favorites from the show. The television show specializes in family meals and in making cooking fun - both important things for dads who need to (or want to) cook for the clan. The meals are really good, and the preparation is deceptively simple

07
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A Man, A Can, A Plan: 50 Great Guy Meals

A Man, A Can, A Plan: 50 Great Guy Meals
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There is a whole series of books with the "Man, Can, Plan" theme, and it all started with an article a few years ago in Men’s Health magazine. The recipes in this volume use common ingredients found in most kitchens. The book is fun and engaging and provides help for even the most recalcitrant cooking (or non-cooking) dad. If any dad is nervous about setting foot in the kitchen, this cookbook will make it easy to change his attitude.

08
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A Guy's Guide to Great Eating

A Guy’s Guide to Great Eating - Cookbooks for Men
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Don Mauer’s book, A Guy’s Guide to Great Eating, is all about eating well while eating healthy foods. Don is also the author of the classic Lean and Lovin’ It. Every recipe in this book has less than 25% of its calories from fat but still tastes great. From pancakes to burgers and from chili to potatoes, the recipes in this book will delight the father who finds himself needing a low-fat diet. But he will enjoy cooking the food and eating it with the family, knowing that he is respecting a better nutritional approach.

09
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The Stag Cookbook

The Stag Book - Cookbooks for Men
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If you are into true celebrity cookbooks, this is the ultimate.  The contributors are men like Harry Houdini, Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.  The recipes are great and they would be amazing conversation pieces at dinner. 

10
of 10

Zuni Cafe Cookbook

Zuni Cafe Cookbook - Cookbooks for Men
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This may not be a book with really easy recipes, but the food is truly extraordinary. The Zuni Café in San Francisco is known literally around the world, and Zuni’s owner Judy Rodgers shares in this book her cooking tips and her famous recipes. She is an extraordinary writer and makes the culinary arts come alive for any reader who wants to cook better. A word of caution, though: some of the ingredients are going to be hard to find, but if you have time and access to unique spices and ingredients, and some good basic skills, this is an amazing cookbook for any father.