The Flavor Bible: The Essential Guide to Culinary Creativity, Based on the Wisdom of America’s Most Imaginative Chefs
Original price was: $45.00.$19.86Current price is: $19.86.
Widely hailed as one of the most influential cookbooks of all time, this is the timeless classic guide to culinary creativity and flavor exploration, based on the wisdom of the world’s most innovative chefs
Eight years in the making, The Flavor Bible is a landmark book that has inspired the greatest creations of innovative cooks and chefs by serving as an indispensable guide to creativity and flavor affinities in today’s kitchen.
Cuisine is undergoing a startling historic transformation: With the advent of the global availability of ingredients, dishes are no longer based on geography but on flavor. This radical shift calls for a new approach to cooking — as well as a new genre of “cookbook” that serves not to document classic dishes via recipes, but to inspire the creation of new ones based on imaginative and harmonious flavor combinations.
The Flavor Bible is your guide to hundreds of ingredients along with the herbs, spices, and other seasonings that will allow you to coax the greatest possible flavor and pleasure from them. This astonishing reference distills the combined experience of dozens of America’s most innovative culinarians, representing such celebrated and transformative restaurants as A Voce, Blue Hill, Café Atlántico, Chanterelle, Citronelle, Gramercy Tavern, the Herbfarm, Jardinière, Jean Georges, Le Bernardin, the Modern, and the Trellis. You’ll learn to: explore the roles played by the four basic tastes — salty, sour, bitter, and sweet — and how to bring them into harmony; work more intuitively and effectively with ingredients by discovering which flavors have the strongest affinities for one another; brighten flavors through the use of acids — from vinegars to citrus juices to herbs and spices such as Makrut lime and sumac; deepen or intensify flavors through layering specific ingredients and techniques; and balance the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual aspects of cooking and serving an extraordinary meal. Seasoned with tips, anecdotes, and signature dishes from the country’s most respected chefs and pastry chefs, The Flavor Bible is an essential book for every kitchen library.
For more inspiration in the kitchen, look for The Vegetarian Flavor Bible andKitchen Creativity.
From the Publisher
Publisher : Little, Brown and Company; 1st edition (September 16, 2008)
Language : English
Hardcover : 392 pages
ISBN-10 : 0316118400
ISBN-13 : 978-0316118408
Item Weight : 3.15 pounds
Dimensions : 8 x 1.55 x 10.25 inches
13 reviews for The Flavor Bible: The Essential Guide to Culinary Creativity, Based on the Wisdom of America’s Most Imaginative Chefs
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Original price was: $45.00.$19.86Current price is: $19.86.
Ophelia –
if you buy ONE culinary title, make it this one
First I have to say… don’t buy reference books for your Kindle. Ever. There may be exceptions, but i would not look for them. Kindle simply is not a format that lends itself to research reading or reference; not saying it’s impossible, but, generally, it doesn’t work well.Now that you’ve been duly warned, please, don’t buy and then rate book *content* because they translate poorly into Kindle *format* unless that is it’s primary binding. It’s not fair to other readers to drive down the rating on a text’s usefulness or interest based on one format. Amazon, of course, should separate them out, or give shoppers the option.The first thing I EVER read about Kindle is, don’t buy anything you would normally be “leafing” through, using an index, depending on diagrams or graphics etc. (not the case here) or where formatting is otherwise an issue (e.g. tables). Maybe some years down the road it will improve, and I don’t use a Kindle Fire, but I stick to this advice and it serves me well.Now as far as The Flavor Bible goes: If you are anything but a recipe-guided cook–for instance, if you are staring into your cupboards or fridge and wondering what will work with what–and like me, you are too inexperienced or genetically underendowed with smell and taste to figure it out on your own – you WANT this book. you NEED this book. This book is the most useful and most used in my kitchen.IMO, aside from basic culinary skills – how to to cook certain cuts of meat, or how to use a steamer, or how to make sauce, or how many courses to serve ,or what order your menu should proceed through, or how to butcher meat – whatever – this is the only book you will ever need.If you don’t have basic culinary skills, you can find everything you need to know on the internet. i went from how to cook different meats, to how to make sauces, and up from there, using sites like about dot com. I’m no chef – i’m a basic cook – but my food is GOOD. Since I don’t have a well-developed palate, this book is a life-saver. and of course, once you start learning, you can start jumping around. Now i *know* – am i in the mood for a cream based dish? pineapple? potato? thyme? curry? chicken? pork? and what am i going to do with these leftovers? wow – i can plan a week and have EVERYTHING work together!The hardback version is well bound, easily referenced, and contains literally thousands of cross-references and often suggestions on how to combine dishes and seasonings as well, based on a main ingredient, in a way you will never find on the internet.And it’s not just about seasoning–you can look up literally almost any seasoning OR basic ingredient and find a long list of compatible ingredients/flavors, in alphabetical order, with advice to let you know what goes the very best, what goes well, and what works but may not be ideal. AND an index. So you can look up a meat, or a vegetable, or a seasoning, or most any ingredient, and get a long list of what you can safely combine (within reason).and of course the hardback props open well. it’s a quality bind on a quality text that you can keep forever.
Rockin Robin –
Best culinary book!!
I love this book!! A must for anyone who loves to cook. Helps to bring new creativity to my cooking. Get it!!
Alex –
The BEST Culinary Literature
If you are looking for recipes in this book, you will not find any. This book is meant to express the importance of cooking and its effect it has on all of us. Food isn’t just sustenance. It’s a story. It has livelihoods, dreams, and emotions attached to it. This book is more than a reference for compatible flavors; it’s meant to stir creativity and empowerment in the kitchen.
missy –
If you love to cook, this book is for you!
This is one of my favorite books – I love to cook and I’m a foodie. I am trying to become a recipe writer, so this book is invaluable in giving me plenty of ideas for food/flavor combinations. The notes from the chefs about how they use the foods/flavors is the best part. This is a perfect gift for someone who loves to cook. You won’t be able to put it down. There is a very comprehensive list of foods, spices, meats… everything!
shadow_absorber –
teaches you cooking for real
a good book for anyone that wanna be creative in the kitchen and learn to cook by learning what ingredients work good with each other.
E. Lynn –
Should be called Flavor Dictionary
When I first sank my teeth into reading this book I was very confused by the books organization and overall goal, just seemed overly complex for no reason. To the testament of the book I picked it up at 3am, I was a little sleep deprived so my brain was not functioning at full capacity. After reading Ch.1 I decided I absolutely hate the book to the point I decided to return it. In my 10+ years of purchasing things from Amazon I never returned anything. I just made the best out of my less than satisfied purchases. I hated this book so much that returning it seemed like the most vindictive way to get back at the authors for writing it and Amazon for selling it.A few days later I said let me go ahead in initiate this return process which I had no clue how to do. It had nothing to do with the getting a refund as I order so much I just did an account credit. I just didn’t want the book in my home any longer. I am in the midst of developing a spice line so when I’m working and I reach for my other resources and I see the Flavor Bible it puts me in an immediate annoyed mood. Trust me on this guys I never had any product affect me to this degree. It was as if the book was giving off bad mojo. Quickly I learned of Amazon’s brilliant and convenient return policy and retrieved my return code.I’m the type of person who does my due diligence on anything I spend my money on so I had to second guess why I purchased the book in the first place. I had reviewed and read samples of so many spice books before my purchase and Flavor Bible kept making the cut. It was not adding up. I decided with return code and book in hand about to head out to UPS, let me crack it open and give it another go. It’s when I fell in love. It was as if everything in the book represented perfect harmony and balance. It immediately clicked for me that this is a spice dictionary and that’s all it is, with examples of how to use and pair the spices just like a word dictionary. From that moment I was able to explore it and test it properly. Anything I thought of in that 5-minute span to want to get insight about I was able to find in the book due to it’s alphabetical arrangement.So why 4-stars and not 5? Technically I wanted to give it 3 1/2 but we all know its not possible. The book is awkwardly arranged. Even when you find what you are looking for you have to take care to make sure what you are reading is not referring to something else across the page. The list format is pretty much annoying because it’s like okay you have this list, no what? I’m a pretty creative mind and decent cook so the list suggestions is really all I need to get my wheels spinning. However for less experienced cooks and creative minds, its useless. Content arrangement on the pages does not naturally flow. My biggest pet peeve, NO INDEX. For a book of this size 380 pages, it’s weird not to have an index. Only a dictionary is this vast with no index. Had it been called a “Dictionary,” I would have understood from the beginning how to navigate it.I decided to keep the “Flavor Dictionary,” thinking of it in this form will keep me from wanting to slap the authors for calling it a Bible, a bible has an index. I would recommend this book to those persons with some culinary background and very creative mind. Others, you will receive NO guidance on how to use the items mentioned in the book whatsoever.
Sous vide veni vice –
Excellent and useful book
This book is full of interesting combinations of flavors and ingredients which spark my creativity in the kitchen.
Adam Carson –
Fantastic publication for the Chef who has it all
Purchased this product as a gift for our key customers the book itself is very well written and gives great insight on how to use flavors in multi types of cooking and cuisine highly recommend it
per –
It is about food, not recipies.
Ivan –
Perfect to use or can even be nice gift
RM –
Every time I have an ingredient I want to mix with something, I open this book. It’s so simple to consult. I get ideas about what to make in five minutes and the food is just delicious. Five stars!This is probably not for beginners. Real beginners, like folks who struggle to cook rice of fry eggs. For the rest — an absolute recommendation.
Malika London –
U bought this for my husband (an Executive Chef), who said The Flavour Bible is an indispensable resource. It’s a fantastic guide for anyone looking to explore and elevate their culinary creativity. The book offers detailed flavor pairings and provides endless inspiration for crafting unique dishes. Its structure is easy to navigate, allowing for quick reference on ingredients and combinations that work well together. This book has been a great addition for his culinary background, helping refine recipes and even inspire new ones. He highly recommends it for both professional chefs and passionate home cooks! Bon appétit!
F. Duffy –
It is very much an American book and it is noticable when you read it… however, as it is not a recipe book you do not face the usual problem of converting American measurements and temperatures into something a bit more UK friendly. I would encourage you to give this book a try even if an American bias is normally a bit annoying for you. This book offers combinations of more than 2 ingredients, explain how to create winning flavour combinations yourself and provide inspiration in the form of quotes from food writers or cooks. It reminds me of The Flavour Thesaurus, which is certainly a better known book where I am, but I find it to be far more educational and entertaining. It has definitely helped me become a more confident cook.