White Spot regulars seek the familiar. Habitués of C Restaurant can handle the experimental. It’s not rocket science, but it is an infallible formula for picking the right cookbooks to wrap up this season. Friends, for instance, who like teetering on culinary precipices will go nuts over Happy in the Kitchen: The Craft of Cooking, The Art of Eating by Michel Richard (Artisan, $60), a truly frightening book for beginners but catnip to home cooks who know that Adrià and Blumenthal are not a downtown law firm. This is the kind of cooking in which fiddly techniques (the colour photographs help) play as significant a role as carefully chosen ingredients. Washington chef Richard is a devotee of trompe l’oeil effects like cuttlefish “fettuccine”, chopped tomato made to look like steak tartare, and the “virtual” eggs created from puréed yellow tomato and mozzarella that he uses to top off a dazzling tuna Napoleon. (He calls it “a Niçoise salad rearranged for a neat freak”.) Chicken faux gras—gotta try that one; also his chocolate grapes and chocolate popcorn.

Forget about buying Vij’s cookbook to give his legions of curry heads. They already have it (Douglas & McIntyre, $60), but they probably don’t own Madhur Jaffrey’s beguiling autobiography, Climbing the Mango Trees: A Memoir of a Childhood in India (Alfred A. Knopf, $33). Redolent of mangoes, heat, and feasts, and enriched with family snapshots and recipes for the dishes she grew up with, the story follows her childhood up until the time, as a young woman, she left to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. Here’s hoping the next volume is already in the works. (Though she told the Straight in October that would never happen, we live in hope…)

If one of the Quattro restaurants is your cousin’s fave dining spot, treat her to Biba’s Italy: Favorite Recipes From the Splendid Cities (Artisan, $39.95). Essays by Biba Caggiano whisking you off to Rome, Florence, Bologna, Milan, and Venice preface instructions for authentic deep-flavoured dishes like Dante’s Vegetable Risotto, Zampone Sausage With Braised Lentils, and osso buco. Warming stuff.

Friends who yo-yo between the salad bar and Death by Chocolate could benefit from the low-key coercion in Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think by Brian Wansink (Bantam Books, $33). In its own way, this is one of the most effective diet books ever written. Wansink is a professor of marketing and nutritional science. Citing numerous studies, he reveals why almost all of us eat more than we should. He spills the beans on how we’re tricked by the size of a plate or container, the numbers on labels, and even décor.

Fans of Milestone’s, Earls, Cactus Club—anywhere that takes a global approach to its menu—will find endless inspiration in The Bon Appétit Cookbook by Barbara Fairchild (John Wiley & Sons, $41.99). With 1,200 recipes and 816 pages, it’s a behemoth of a book and a very useful one. This is a terrific gift for enthusiastic beginners, and here’s the sneaky thing: the sticker price includes a year’s subscription to the monthly Bon Appétit magazine. A single copy normally costs $5.50. What were they thinking? Snaffle this free gift for yourself. If you don’t tell, I won’t.

Encourage latent kitchen tendencies in kids who rejected Ronald McDonald from birth with New Yorker Rozanne Gold’s splendid Kids Cook 1-2-3 (Bloomsbury, $21.95), which continues Gold’s highly successful franchise based on using no more than a trio of ingredients. Cumin-and-garlic-scented Burger-on-a-Stick, Crazy Leg Drumsticks that get their kicks from pesto and Parmesan, inventive ideas like freezing cocktail sauce to make a smart sorbet for shrimp—don’t be surprised if the time-strapped parents of the little giftee leaf through the book too.

Aficionados of Les Amis du Fromage need The Definitive Guide to Canadian Artisanal and Fine Cheese by Gurth Pretty (Whitecap Books, $29.95), a coast-to-coast look at producers and their hundreds of variants on mould-affected milk. Devotees of Terra Breads or Mix the Bakery can discover what to do with crumb and crust in Toronto baker Linda Haynes’s More From Ace Bakery: Recipes For and With Bread (Whitecap Books, $28.95). Yes, there are instructions for making challah, Cheddar-chive biscuits, and flax bread with honey and oats, but to be honest, this is more of an all-encompassing cookbook. That’s no putdown, because the recipes sound incredibly tasty: Gingered Fennel and Apple Slaw With Buttermilk Dressing, Red Pepper and Corn Soup, Madeira-infused pâté with port-soaked apricots—enticing or what? And all royalties go to organizations that help women and children in crisis.