Whenever I give somebody a cookbook for Christmas, I cook from it first. Yes, this could be seen as giving used goods (there may be the occasional splash of soy sauce involved), but I prefer to think of it as a way of saying, “I cared enough about you to give you a book I really wanted for myself. Oh, and by the way, the turmeric chicken curry recipe on page 52 is a doozy.”

To prove my point, I’ve chosen three great Australian cookbooks published for the 2023 Christmas season that pass the “good enough to give you” test. One is the product of a specialist butcher and chef who loves cooking for friends; another is a heartfelt collection of recipes by a social enterprise built around the welfare of women; and the third is from the Sydney Opera House’s newest star performer, a chef who has made simplicity a virtue.