Along with pretty pumpkins and crisp juicy apples, cookbooks are among the most anticipated crops of the fall season. In autumn, publishers release new cookbooks (still the biggest-selling book category) for shoppers hungry to buy holiday gifts.

        This year's cookbook harvest promises to be bountiful, with new books on ethnic cuisines, vegetables and vegetarianism, chocolate and desserts and celebrity and television chefs.

        Here are highlights of the fall cookbook season.

Tube chefs

        Prime Time Emeril(Morrow; $30): More “TV dinners” from the hottest chef of them all, Emeril Lagasse. The book is more entertaining than the chef's prime-time NBC sitcom, Emeril (airs 8 p.m. Tuesday). But what isn't?

        Jacques Pepin Celebrates (Knopf; $40): The master French chef offers recipes and techniques for making dishes featured in his new PBS television series of the same name.

        The Naked Chef Takes Off (Hyperion; $34.95): Young British chef Jamie Oliver has a hit Food Network show (Naked Chef), and was named “sexiest chef of the year” by People magazine. This, his second cookbook, is filled with fresh imaginative food and seasoned with practicality. Watch your back, Emeril.

Just desserts

        Chocolate Desserts By Pierre Herme(Little, Brown; $40;) by Pierre Herme and Dorie Greenspan: French pastry chef teams again with American writer to produce a book that will cause cravings: Chocolate and Lemon Madeleines, Warm Chocolate and Raspberry Tart and White Chocolate and Rhubarb Charlotte.

        In the Sweet Kitchen: The Definitive Baker's Companion (Artisan; $35) by Canadian Regan Daly. This comprehensive dessert book, named the International Association of Culinary Professional's Cookbook of the Year in 2001, is finally published in the United States.

        Chocolate from the Cake Mix Doctor (Workman; $26.95; October release) by Anne Byrn. The former Nashville food editor sold more than 700,000 copies of the Cake Mix Doctor. Now, she's trying the same formula blending the decadence of chocolate with convenience of cake mixes.

Cooking simply

        The Minimalist Cooks Dinner at Home (Broadway; $26) by Mark Bittman. The New York Times food columnist follows his successful The Minimalist Cooks Dinner with this book, which presents more than 100 main course recipes, side dishes, wine suggestions and “keys for success.”

        Comfort Food Fast(Firefly; $24.95; October) by Anne Gardon. Recipes for simple, one-pot meals satisfy the hunger for foods that soothe.

        The 150 Best Slow Cooker Recipes(Robert Rose; $22.95; November) by Judith Finlayson. Crock Pots are back — or maybe they never went away — and this book promises the “best of the best” recipes.

Ethnic cuisines

        Lemongrass and Lime: New Vietnamese Cooking (Ten Speed; $29.95; October) by Mark Read. Using classic Southeast Asian flavors and ingredients, this London chef fashions a modern Vietnamese cuisine: Pho-Bo Noodle Soup, Spiced Crab Cakes with Galangal Sauce, Grilled Salmon with Coconut Curry and more.

        Zarela's Veracruz: Cooking and Culture in Mexico's Tropical Melting Pot (Houghton-Mifflin; $35) by Zarela Martinez. This New York restaurant owner presents the diverse cuisine of Mexico's largest state.

        Lidia's Italian-American Kitchen (Knopf; $35; November) by Lidia Bastianich. Italian is still the most popular ethnic cuisine, and this chef-restaurant owner and PBS cooking show host is back with another book.

Vegetable cookery

        Mediterranean Vegetables (Harvard Common Press; $29.95) by Clifford Wright. The James Beard Award-winning author presents an encyclopedic but readable approach to the vegetables of France, Italy, Middle East and North Africa, with tips on growing, buying, storing and cooking.

        Moosewood Restaurant New Classics(Clarkson-Potter;$25.95; November). Perhaps the most popular vegetarian cookbooks carry the name of this Ithaca, N.Y., restaurant, and after 25 years of cooking together, the Moosewood Collective presents a collection of 350 reliable recipes.

        Soy and Your Health(Perseus; $16; December) by Jeanette Parsons Egan. The hot vegetable-based food is soy, and this paperback will present the latest research on its health benefits, plus 125 recipes.

Eclectic themes

        Blue Plate Specials & Blue Ribbon Chefs (Lebhar-Friedman; $24.95) by Jane and Michael Stern. The traveling husband-and-wife Gourmet columnists bring us the flavors (edible and otherwise) of the roadside restaurants, cafes and joints from Smalltown, America — Conway, Texas, to Valdosta, Ga.

        The Culinary Institute of America Book of Soups (Lebhar-Friedman; $35). The faculty of the country's most prestigious culinary school provides soup-making basics with photos, step-by-step illustrations and recipes — Shiitake Mushroom and Yukon Gold Potato Soup with Bacon, Thai Hot and Sour Soup, Corn Chowder with Chiles and Monterey Jack and more than 125 others.

        Macaroni and Cheese: 52 Recipes, From Simple to Sublime (Villard; $15.95; October) by Joan Schwartz. Famous chefs Bobby Flay and Rick Bayless are among those who contribute recipes for this comfortable American classic.

Books cooks can't part with
       

A new crop of cookbooks
Books cooks can't part with
Smart mouth
Take Lyons Grille fare home for dinner
You won't believe this recipe's butter-free
CAC pieces more mental exercise than art
Character's death revealed more about Bartlet
Emmy show may be held at military base
'West Wing' spokeswoman can talk the talk
Body & mind
Get to it