Independent booksellers and chains alike reported strong holiday gains last week. While cookbooks generally did not make headlines—the bestsellers for the big six publishers were mostly hardcover fiction and memoir—cookbooks did well for many retailers this holiday season. The Essential New York Times Cookbook by Amanda Hesser (Norton), Barefoot Contessa How Easy Is That? by Ina Garten (Clarkson Potter), and Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) were mentioned most frequently, but plenty of other cookbooks made publishers and booksellers happy this holiday.

It seems many consumers were not deterred by some cookbooks’ $40 price tag, including Essential NYT and Around My French Table, which were big hits across the board. Jay Peterson, manager of Magers & Quinn Booksellers in Minneapolis, specifically mentioned those two books and noted his surprise their $40 price point was not an issue for many shoppers. And a $50 volume, One Big Table by Molly O’Neill (S&S), was a strong seller for online cookbook store Jessica’s Biscuit, said the company’s David Strymish.

Indeed, Jessica’s Biscuit had a successful holiday, said Strymish. “I think we were pretty good compared with last year,” he said, even though “last year there were unbelievable books but this year there weren’t quite as many.” Leading the charts at Jessica’s Biscuit were Around My French Table, Barefoot Contessa, Essential NYT, Flour by Joanne Chang (Chronicle), Falling Off the Bone by Jean Anderson (Wiley), The Gourmet Cookie Book (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), Noma by René Redzepi (Phaidon), and Tartine Bread by Chad Robertson (Chronicle).

Two cookbooks from 2009--Ad Hoc at Home by Thomas Keller (Artisan) and The Pioneer Woman Cooks by Ree Drummond (Morrow)--did surprisingly well this holiday. Ad Hoc “was huge” at Jessica’s Biscuit, Strymish said. “It kept going all season.” Omnivore Books on Food in San Francisco also sold many copies of the $50 book. Pioneer Woman was a surprise hit at Amazon, said senior editor Mari Malcolm. The book, which was released in October 2009, became Amazon’s second bestselling cookbook in all of 2010. It was a huge customer favorite on the site, with more than 400 five-star reviews.

Amazon’s top five bestselling cookbooks over the holidays were Barefoot Contessa, Essential NYT, Rachael Ray’s Look + Cook by Rachael Ray (Clarkson Potter), Pioneer Woman, and Around My French Table.

This was the third Christmas for Omnivore Books, and owner Celia Sack said, “My store blew it out!” Sales were almost double what they were last year. Omnivore tends to favor specialized cookbooks over books by Food Network stars, and as is usual for the shop, local and British authors topped the charts this holiday. Its bestsellers were Ad Hoc at Home; Noma; Nigel Slater's Tender Vol. I: Vegetables and Vol. II: Fruit (both U.K. imports from Fourth Estate); The Keys to Good Cooking by Harold McGee (Penguin Press); Ottolenghi: The Cookbook and Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi (from U.K. publisher Ebury); two books from names associated with Chez Panisse in nearby Berkeley: The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters (Clarkson Potter) and Heart of the Artichoke by David Tanis (Artisan); Chewy Gooey Crispy by Alice Medrich (Artisan); and Tartine Bread by Chad Robertson (Chronicle), owner of Tartine Bakery in San Francisco.

At McIntyre's Books in Pittsboro, NC, cookbook sales from October through December were up 44% over last year. Owner Keebe Fitch attributed the bump to the section’s new location in the store and its expanded size, and an increase in the number of recent cookbook-related events at the store. Regional titles were a hit at the store this holiday, including Southern Pies by Nancie McDermott (Chronicle) and The Southern Foodways Alliance Community Cookbook, edited by Sara Roahen and John T. Edge (Univ. of Georgia). McIntyre’s held an event for SFACC last fall and sales continued strongly for a month after. “People were coming in and picking it up in multiple quantities,” Fitch said. Also popular were Falling Off the Bone and 85 Inspirational Chefs and Chefs at Home, the latter two titles from Relais & Chateaux, the luxury hotel network that Fearrington, the hotel near McIntyre’s, is part of. Essential NYT and Barefoot Contessa were also big sellers. Fitch said she was surprised she sold as many copies of Barefoot as she did, since it had become a loss leader at Costco and Amazon was preselling it months before we McIntyre’s had it in store. But “we sold about twice as many as I would have expected,” Fitch said.

--with reporting by Claire Kirch