The Flavour Thesaurus

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Jancis Robinson (6 April 2011). "André Simon Awards 2010 winners". jancisrobinson.com . Retrieved 23 February 2017. Galaxy National Book Awards". readingagency.org.uk. The Reading Agency. 6 February 2011 . Retrieved 23 February 2017. I ran across this book at the new coffee shop in my town, and I was so taken with it that I asked the coffee shop owner if I could borrow it! Yes, I am now asking to take home books I run across at coffee shops. And then I had to buy my own copy. PDF / EPUB File Name: The_Flavor_Thesaurus__A_Compendium_of_Pair_-_Niki_Segnit.pdf, The_Flavor_Thesaurus__A_Compendium_of_Pair_-_Niki_Segnit.epub

With her debut cookbook, The Flavor Thesaurus, Niki Segnit taught readers that no matter whether an ingredient is “grassy” like dill, cucumber, or peas, or “floral fruity” like figs, roses, or blueberries, flavors can be created in wildly imaginative ways. Now, she again draws from her “phenomenal body of work” (Yotam Ottolenghi) to produce a new treasury of pairings-this time with plant-led ingredients. Unique, beautifully written and ceaselessly imaginative, “The Flavor Thesaurus” is a completely new kind of food book–inspired, as author Niki Segnit explains, by her over-reliance on recipes. “Following the instructions in a recipe is like parroting pre-formed sentences from a phrasebook. Forming an understanding of how flavors work together, on the other hand, is like learning the language: it allows you to express yourself freely, to improvise, to cook a dish the way you want to cook it.”“The Flavor Thesaurus “is the inquisitive cook’s guide to acquiring that understanding–to learning the language of flavor. Breaking the vast universe of ingredients down to 99 essential flavors, Segnit suggests classic and less well-known pairings for each, grouping almost 1,000 entries into flavor families like “Green and Grassy,”“Berry and Bush” and “Creamy Fruity.” But “The Flavor Thesaurus” is much more than just a reference book, seasoning the mix of culinary science, culture and expert knowledge with the author’s own insights and opinions, all presented in her witty, engaging and highly readable style. As appealing to the novice cook as to the experienced professional, “The Flavor Thesaurus “will not only immeasurably improve your cooking–it’s the sort of book that might keep you up at night reading.”” Cooking is an art, like writing or painting, and great cooks are artists. And although the ultimate source of creativity remains elusive, all painters have their color wheel, all writers their vocabulary. And now, in the form of this beautiful, entertaining and exhaustively researched book, cooks have their own collection of essential knowledge: “The Flavor Thesaurus.” The Flavour Thesaurus: Pairings, Recipes and Ideas for the Creative Cook by Niki Segnit – eBook Details Fungal fraud aside, there’s nothing wrong with synthetic truffle oil, which can work wonders pepping up mashed potato, cauliflower, cabbage or macaroni and cheese, and will certainly give you an idea of what truffle tastes like if you’ve never had the real thing. In the same way that reading the study guide for Anna Karenina, rather than the actual novel, will give you an idea of the book." I'm going to put my notes here. And probably do up a blog post. Needless to say, this is the type of book that I would tend to buy to help me generate ideas. In Pork & Broccoli, her descriptions could convince even the most staunch broccoli hater to give it another go.

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The plant-led follow-up to The Flavor Thesaurus, "a rich and witty and erudite collection" ( Epicurious), featuring 92 essential ingredients and hundreds of flavor combinations. Lezard, Nicholas (17 July 2010). "Books: The Flavour Thesaurus: Pairings, Recipes and Ideas for the Creative Cook by Niki Segnit". The Guardian . Retrieved 23 February 2017.

In addition to the UK and US editions, The Flavour Thesaurus has been translated into fourteen languages, including French, Russian and Japanese. This book is way more entertaining than I expected. I had done a few brief “flip-throughs” before I obtained my own copy noting the lists of flavor pairings and thinking of all the new combinations I’d learn to love. Since I assumed this would be a pretty straightforward reference book (I mean common, thesaurus in the title, a British author, a seemingly complex diagram/color wheel on steroids on the inner front cover, an intro quote with the following words “Sauternes,” “foie gras,” “steak-frites,” rouille”…), I read through the intro before I went exploring. And whatdoyaknow. She’s witty! Funny! She admits to her own misgivings and like me questions, “Had I ever really learned to cook? Or was I just reasonably adept at following instructions?” – Questions I constantly ask myself. The idea of this book is “out-of-the-box” both in its concept and how it leaves you thinking. Sections are organized in “flavor categories” like Meaty, Cheesy, Sulfurous, Citrusy, Fruity, Woodland, etc. Flavor combinations are then listed in short paragraph form which could either contain a simple recipe (more guidance, than literal – see below), a witty anecdote, or an amusing aside. Take the commentary on Chocolate and Strawberry for example: Now featuring a new foreword by Bee Wilson and a fold-out poster of the flavour wheel, The Flavour Thesaurus is a highly useful, and covetable, reference book for cooking - it will keep you up at night reading. Sorry. I really wanted something that would guide me to understand patterns, create new templates, visualize & predict what's likely to work or not. But the author and I do not organize ideas in complementary ways, and we taste and eat very differently. I could not study the 'color wheel' as I could not process/ understand it, and I am not motivated to read all the fine print stories interspersed with the lists of pairings. It really is most akin to an American Heritage dictionary, in that it's mostly lists, with the odd illustration, chart, or usage note (but in the cookbook, those additions are just text). She references The Sopranos in Peanut & Vanilla while arguing the importance of giving someone Fluff when they ask for it.After all the combinations you think you know, the ones you've never even considered will blow your mind … Eggplants take you to chocolate, which takes you to miso, which takes you to seaweed, which takes you to a recipe in another book or a restaurant dish you have to hunt down straight away. The curiosity is infectious, the possibilities inspiring on this ingredient-led voyage.” --Yotam Ottolenghi in The New York Times Magazine , on how he uses More Flavors for recipe development The books I value most are those I return to again and again. Such has been the case with The Flavour Thesaurus' NIGEL SLATER

An eclectic combination of dictionary, recipe book, travelogue and memoir ... A deceptively simple little masterpiece' SUNDAY TIMES The Flavor Thesaurus: A Compendium of Pairings, Recipes, and Ideas for the Creative Cook". kcls.bibliocommons.com . Retrieved 23 February 2017. Any aspiring culinary student will find this an invaluable reference work, and home cooks may find equal inspiration in Segnit's creative ruminations. Leung, Wency (23 November 2010). "A growing genre of cookbooks skips recipes and focuses on science". The Globe and Mail . Retrieved 23 February 2017. Light on step-by-step instructions and filled with food history and tidbits of science However, the absolute worst and reason I stopped reading was CHOCOLATE AND STRAWBERRY. Obviously I dont care about individual taste preferences. I'm fine with her decision not to include zucchini, as it seems she doesnt enjoy it. She should have felt comfortable doing the same with chocolate and strawberry. What she does instead, is rant in an ugly manner about how chocolate covered strawberries are the food fed by 'businessmen to call girls in hotel rooms'.A couple of examples: the section called CHOCOLATE AND COCONUT features the author going on about her cigarette addiction. There is no connection. She goes through her addiction journey, childhood memories and the tasting notes of tobacco. I am genuinely unsure if this is a misplaced CHOCOLATE AND TOBACCO entry or if the author is making a connection to the 'addictive' flavor combo. Coconut is tossed in once or twice, enough to make it truly ambiguous.