The Art of Flavour: Practices and Principles for Creating Delicious Food

Description

'Mandy Aftel's latest work with Daniel Patterson is a masterpiece on the science of cooking from an olfactory and culinary perspective through the same lens. This book is a must for any chef or cook looking to find new inspirations and a deeper understanding of the way flavours work together.' Pratap Chahal (@thathungrychef), Flavour Bastard, Soho, London 'Am counting down the days till your book arrives!' Nigella Lawson Daniel Patterson, a chef, and Mandy Aftel, a perfumer, present a revolutionary new approach to creating delicious, original food. Aftel and Patterson are rock stars in their respective fields: Patterson has won two Michelin stars for his San Francisco restaurant Coi and numerous James Beard and other food awards, and his new path-breaking co-venture Loco'l is attracting national interest; Aftel has been profiled in the New York Times T Magazine and other publications and is constantly featured and quoted in magazines and blogs. In a world awash with cooking shows, food blogs and recipes, the art of flavour has been surprisingly neglected. The multibillion-dollar flavour industry practises its dark arts by manipulating synthetic ingredients, and home cooks are taught to wield the same blunt instruments: salt, acid, sugar, heat. But foods in their natural states are infinitely more nuanced than the laboratory can replicate - and offer far greater possibilities for deliciousness. Chef Daniel Patterson and natural perfumer Mandy Aftel are experts at orchestrating ingredients, and here they teach readers how to make the most of nature's palette. The Art of Flavour proceeds not by rote formula but via a series of mind-opening and palate-expanding tools and concepts: using a flavour 'compass' to find the way to transformative combinations of aromatic ingredients; pairing ingredients to make them 'bury' (control) one another and 'lock' (achieve an alchemy that transcends the sum of the parts); learning to deploy cooking methods for maximum effect; and the seven 'dials' that allow a cook to fine-tune a dish. With more than sixty recipes that allow the cook to grasp each concept and put it into practice, The Art of Flavour is food for the imagination that will help cooks at any level to become flavour virtuosos in their own right. From The Flavour Bible on, flavour has been a particular focus of recent interest, but no one has Patterson's and Aftel's unique perspective on it, their combined expertise, or their winning blend of ideas, information, recipes and cooking and perfuming lore. The Art of Flavour is a thinking person's cookbook that uses recipes to instil principles for creating delicious food at home, larded with fascin

Daniel Patterson (Author) DANIEL PATTERSON founded San Francisco's Michelin two-star Coi and several other Bay Area restaurants; most recently, he co-founded the acclaimed 'revolutionary fast food' venture Loco'l. His awards include Food & Wine's Best New Chef and a James Beard Award for Best Chef of the West. He is the author of two previous books, and his essays have appeared in the New York Times, Food & Wine, Financial Times, San Francisco Magazine and Lucky Peach. Twitter/Instagram: @DCPatterson Mandy Aftel (Author) MANDY AFTEL is an internationally known artisan perfumer and award-winning author. She has participated in many exhibitions, panels and conferences on scent and food, and regularly collaborates with chefs and mixologists. She and her work have been featured in the New York Times, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Gourmet, Bon Appetit, Food and Wine, O and Elle, on CNN, and in countless blogs. Her previous book, Fragrant: The Secret Life of Scent, was published by Riverhead in 2014. She lives in Berkeley, CA. Aftelier.com; dpgrp.co Facebook.com/AftelierPerfumes; Twitter/Instagram: @AftelierPerfume

An amazingly thorough and holistic investigation into deliciousness. It serves as a brilliant guide, pushing you to trust your senses and experiment with food, and offers a multitude of recipes to draw upon for inspiration. This fascinating book, by Michelin-starred chef Daniel Patterson and perfumer Mandy . . . helps you transform combinations of aromatic ingredients and learn methods that will help you fine-tune dishes - Choice Magazine Daniel Patterson and Mandy Aftel have written a sophisticated and totally harmonious guide to understanding flavour and taste. I admire their collaboration in this homage to the senses, as well as their practical approach to cooking with both freedom and restraint. This book will change the way you understand flavour and will give you the tools to be courageous in the kitchen. The Art of Flavour had my head spinning with fascination and inspiration. I learned a lot about my own cooking habits in The Art of Flavour. After many years as a cook, I usually choose, combine, adjust, blend and season ingredients in an impulsive, instinctive way when I cook a dish, relying on some innate knowledge I have absorbed throughout the years I've spent in the kitchen. I have discovered the Cartesian logic behind my practice. In this wonderful book, Patterson and Aftel demonstrate that cooking well is a personal, exciting process, a flow of choices that starts with an intimate engagement with the ingredients themselves. 'They make the case that this is the surest way for cooks at any level to develop their discernment and creativity. The Art of Flavour is a valuable reminder that just as the experience of eating delicious food unfolds in an individual's mouth and nose and mind, so too does the making of it. Praise for Coi: Stories and Recipes by Daniel Patterson: Patterson has written a new kind of cookbook . . . The writing, like his food, is precise, beautiful, and a bit meditative. - New Yorker Praise for Fragrant by Mandy Aftel: Aftel could be considered the scent world's Alice Waters. - New York Times