The fresh crop of cookbooks that bursts forth each spring is as dependable as the cherry blossoms. While this season's bounty is the usual mixed bouquet, many share a common thread: the search for roots, and an emphasis on cooking with the seasons. In the case of Brit chef Heston Blumenthal, it's authenticity of ingredients, recipes, and techniques that propels him on an Air Miles–earning tour in In Search of Perfection (Bloomsbury, $45). His goal: to track down the elements of some classic British dishes (pretty depressing that one is spaghetti bolognese). Searching for the ne plus ultra in roasting chicken, he gets friendly with the blue-legged AOC birds of Bresse. For pizza, he's off to the tomato fields of Italy. Bangers and mash, steak, fish and chips–he digs deep to find the best, and it's an enthralling, well-written journey with precisely described recipes and lush photos. However, his dessert choices are quirky to say the least. As an expat, I'll buy treacle tart as a classic, but I doubt many will go to the immense effort required to re-create that naffest of puds, Black Forest gâteau, which calls for a paint gun to simulate a wood-effect base. Google "blumenthal black forest gateau" to read a first-person, blow-by-blow account by someone who actually made it.

Chefs and Their Hair is a book still waiting to be written. Blumenthal's shaved dome is in stark contrast to the sun-streaked locks of stud muffin Curtis Stone, author of Cooking With Curtis (Whitecap Books, $29.95). Stone divides his time between Sydney and London, and shows influence of both. Old World opulence and New World freshness combine in dishes like Tartare of Hand-Dived Sea Scallops With Tomato Essence and (although he does say you can leave it out) Oscietra Caviar, or Crispy Pork Belly With Confit of Garlic and a Honey Glaze. Mmmn. Photography is of the "in your mouth" close-up school. The book is organized by seasonal ingredients, which means right now you should be wallowing in asparagus, prawns, lamb, and rhubarb. Fine by me.

Next, the roots of nutrition. When you see kale, kamut, kidney stones, and kitchen organization heaped one on top of another in a cookbook index, sensual pleasure is not the first thought that leaps to mind. Yet, satisfyingly tasty, budget-conscious, and Canadianly multiculti, the recipes in Simply Great Food (Robert Rose, $27.95) exemplify how most of us want to eat. Nutty Tofu and Green Vegetable Stir-Fry one night, the Korean barbecued beef known as Bulgogi the next, a Mediterranean Lentil and Rice Salad in the fridge for emergencies–all very good. But, sigh, because this is coauthored by three dietitians–Patricia Chuey, Eileen Campbell, and Mary Sue Waisman–under the auspices of the Dietitians of Canada, you do get mired in starchy dietitianspeak. "Make quality food choices"–c'mon. Why not just say, "Choose good food." Cut straight to the recipes and skip the text, which reads as though written by a computer.

For the total opposite, settle down with cheese, bread, a big glass of red, and Tasting Tuscany: Exploring and Eating Off the Beaten Track (Bantam Books, $21.95). In 10 seductive itineraries, long-time resident Beth Elon drives you along winding roads, sits you down in rural trattorias, and feeds you specialities of each region, the honest, uncomplicated fare that stems from using fresh, local ingredients. Maybe you own a dozen Italian cookbooks, but do you know how to make a soup of spring vegetables from the town of Lucca; a medieval pork roast with juniper berries and pomegranates; and chicken stew with wild mushrooms? Do the armchair eating now, and plot a trip for October when days are still warm and growers are bringing olives to the frantoio to be crushed into oil.

Long before organics became trendy, John Bishop and his chef Dennis Green would meet with Fraser Valley farmers Gary and Naty King while the ground was still frosty to determine what vegetables the farm would grow for the restaurant. You get a real sense of the green-gold cycle of the edible year in Fresh: Seasonal Recipes Made With Local Foods (Douglas and McIntyre, $34.95) as Bishop, Green, and pastry chef Dawne Gourley set out successive seasons of recipes interwoven with Gary King's stories of farm life.

Grilled spot prawns with rice-noodle salad and sesame-lime vinaigrette, spring salmon roasted in corn husks, steamed asparagus with orange butter sauce, roasted-tomato soup with sage-and-apple biscuits–tell me if there's one dish there you wouldn't love to eat. And this joyous book has dozens more. Bishop's insights on sustainability in the kitchen are written with his usual quiet modesty as he suggests "small actions", but "if we all get involved I think we can make a noticeable difference to the world we leave our kids."