Unique, beautifully written, and ceaselessly imaginative, The Flavor Thesaurus is a cookbook like no other. Its author, award-winning food writer Niki Segnit, believes that recipes are a helpful starting point for new dishes but not an end in themselves. Following the instructions in a recipe is like parroting pre-formed sentences from a phrasebook–a fun exercise to try out occasionally, but one that leaves little room for creativity or backstory. So she has created this new kind of food book–inspired by her overreliance on recipes–which offers an abundance of creative combinations and ideas based on ingredients’ distinctive flavors.
Inspired by her over-reliance on recipes, Niki Segnit created “The Flavor Thesaurus”–a stunningly written, beautiful, and imaginative new kind of food book. This is not a cookbook that teaches you how to make things; this is a feast of ideas to make you think differently about food–from the simplest ingredients to the most complex. Each entry is numbered and indexed with cross-references to help you find what you need quickly so that you can get cooking.
The Flavor Thesaurus is a unique, beautifully written, and ceaselessly imaginative food book–inspired, as author Niki Segnit explains, by her over-reliance on recipes. “Following the instructions in a recipe,” she writes, “is like parroting pre-formed sentences from a phrasebook.” The Flavour Thesaurus aims to turn you into an artist, liberating you from your reliance on recipes: how to treat ingredients with respect (instead of merely as vehicles for creating similar results every time) and how to lovingly enhance them using age-old techniques.
About The Flavour Thesaurus Book
Unique, beautifully written, and ceaselessly imaginative, “The Flavor Thesaurus” is an entirely 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. On the other hand, forming an understanding of how flavors work together is like learning the language: it allows you to express yourself freely, improvise, and cook a dish the way you want to.”
“The Flavor Thesaurus “is the curious 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 & Grassy,” “Berry & 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 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 reading at night.”
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, and all writers have their vocabulary. And now, in this beautiful, entertaining, and exhaustively researched book, cooks have their collection of essential knowledge: “The Flavor Thesaurus.”