This year we are all embracing food sustainability and humane food experiences; we are going be eating flowers and we will be eating the entire vegetable, root to tip. We are eating plants of any colour, we are eating meat from animals that run free, and we are all, apparently, going to be looking very well and feeling as if we could change the world with a single tweet.

Cookbooks that reflect the 2018 trends include beauties like Celia Brooks’ SuperVeg which celebrates the power of the 25 healthiest vegetables on the planet. (Fried potato, sadly, did not make the list, but watercress is in!) Completely in vogue is Hayley McKee’s Sticky Fingers, Green Thumb which invites your imagination to travel out of the kitchen and into the garden. Here are recipes that use edible flowers with notes on how to utilise their unique flavours, prep them for baking and even grow them yourself. (Truly, it’s not that hard.)

There are cookbooks coming from our favourite bars and restaurants. These include CIBI (‘a little one’) which is a book on home-style Japanese cooking, inspired by the eponymous Melbourne café and design space created by Meg and Zenta Tanaka. Just around the corner from there lies one of my favourite Melbourne bars, Naked for Satan. This place has become a landmark destination that epitomises the distinctive Melbourne restaurant/bar scene. In this gorgeous book of the same name are recipes that call out to be shared by all of your nearest and dearest.

If you are purely looking for an overview of our country’s wonderful dining places, wait for the gorgeous edition of Flavours of Australia which includes dishes from the best restaurants, cafes, producers and hotels across all our states and territories. And let us not forget the massive influence that the Country Women’s Association has had on our culinary tastes: Tried, Tested and True: Treasured Recipes and Untold Stories from Australian Community Cookbooks is based on extensive research by Liz Harfull. She brings to light previously untold stories about community cookbooks and the people who created them.

We are heading back in time with one-pot meals that hark back to our grandparents’ era. One Knife, One Pot, One Dish: Simple French Cooking at Home by eminent chef and writer Stéphane Reynaud allows us to consider meals that have been in families for generations and are honest, sustainable, and delicious. And, as we know, in the end cooking is all about who is sitting around the table so I’m thrilled that Hetty McKinnon has a new collection coming out later in the year titled, simply, Family.

Chris Gordon is the events manager for Readings.