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 Flavor expands tools and concepts using a flavor '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 let you fine-tune a dish.
"A brainy, deep-dive exploration into how flavors and aromas form." --
Food & Wine,
"Best New Cookbooks from Food & Wine Chefs" "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 Flavor 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." --
Harold McGee "Daniel Patterson and Mandy Aftel have written a sophisticated and totally harmonious guide to understanding flavor 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." --
Alice Waters "I learned a lot about my own cooking habits in
The Art of Flavor. 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." --
Jacques Pepin, chef, cookbook author, and PBS cooking series host "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."
--René Redzepi
"This book will change the way you understand flavor and will give you the tools to be courageous in the kitchen.
The Art of Flavor had my head spinning with fascination and inspiration." --
Sean Brock, author of Heritage "[Y]ou can put down the book when you get hungry and cook some pretty spectacular, very flavorful food." --
Los Angeles Times, 10 Best Cookbooks of 2017 "[P]erfumer Mandy Aftel and another Bay Area chef, Daniel Patterson, provide next-level guidance on how to compose dishes by understanding the layering and burying of flavors and fragrances." --
Esquire
"Patterson and Aftel's book emphasizes intuition, improvisation, and intimate attentiveness...And they also understand that a good recipe is the embodiment of the perspectives and experiences and tastes and, yes, errors and consistent successes of a good cook. Even better, they remind us that a recipe is something to be adapted rather than aped." --
LitHub "
The Art of Flavor is a treasure. It is so much more than just another recipe book--not only is it filled with enticing recipes, it is an ode to the understanding of flavor and will empower you to cook with a new freedom, confidence, and enjoyment."
--Rose Levy Beranbaum, RealBakingWithRose.com
"Friendly and accessible...Cooks at every level of experience are likely to find fresh clarity and new insights." --
Shelf Awareness "Patterson and Aftel offer a complexly articulated but original approach to understanding how to cook with a chef's intuition for delicious results." --
Booklist
"From the suppressive power of salt to the best way to cook steaks while preparing multiple other dishes, this zesty book offers some useful tip on every page. A welcome complement to the likes of Brillat-Savarin and Harold McGee and worthy of a place in any cooking enthusiast's library." --
Kirkus Reviews
