Your weekly Wednesday book selection: Fall recipes to keep you warm

Every Wednesday, CBC Montreal's Homerun welcomes one of its five book columnists in studio.

Trained chef and cookbook store owner Jonathan Cheung draws inspiration from seasonal ingredients, tried and true recipes and new cookbook releases.

Here are Jonathan's cookbook recommendations for the month of November.

November is a great month to stay in and fill your evenings with friends and good food. Discover great recipes that will keep you warm this fall with these new cookbooks that emphasize flavour and draw inspiration from various culinary backgrounds.

Jamie Cooks Italy

Jamie Oliver's latest cookbook, Jamie Cooks Italy brings the heart of Italian cuisine to the table.

It is a celebration of the time-honoured traditions practiced by the country's most beloved cooks: the nonnas and mammas who have been nourishing their families with beautiful and comforting food for generations.

The dishes in this book demonstrate how the essence of Italian soul food is achieved simply by using quality seasonal ingredients and preparing them with love.

Estela

In his debut cookbook Estela, chef Ignacio Mattos invites you behind the scenes into the kitchen of his Estela restaurant in New York.

An immigrant from Uruguay, Mattos is recognized for his fresh approach to cooking, where humble ingredients are transformed to build delightfully unexpected flavour into every dish.

Influenced by the cuisines of Spain, Italy, France and Brazil, the food of Estela highlights a dynamic convergence of flavours that reflects how immigration has established America's diverse culinary scene.

Attention to detail and the use of all five senses in the preparation of these recipes are characteristic of the intuitive and adventurous culinary style that Ignacio Mattos is known for.

Mattos believes that it's important to find joy and creativity when cooking and encourages you to have fun and try new things in the kitchen.

He provides strategies and techniques that will elevate your cooking and offers helpful advice with enthusiasm and humour, reminding you to enjoy the discovery and experimentation of the learning process.

Season: Big Flavors, Beautiful Food

Season is the first cookbook by Nik Sharma, creator of the popular blog A Brown Table, and author of a weekly food column for the San Francisco Chronicle.

Cooking serves as a means of communication for Sharma, who uses food as a way to share his experiences as a gay immigrant from India and tell his story of making a new start in America.

Sharma's vibrant cooking style draws on the flavours of home, combining a variety of cultural influences to create exciting food that is both new and familiar.

When his passion for food led him to experiment with photography for his blog, he chose to include himself in the photographs to create more visibility for people of colour in the culinary world.

The cookbook is beautifully photographed by Sharma. His use of dramatic lighting allows the bold colours and rich textures of the food to shine, making each dish stand out.

Season: Big Flavors, Beautiful Food is a valuable resource filled with useful tips, ingredient profiles and a wide variety of inspired recipes that will ignite your creativity.