Koji Alchemy: Rediscovering the Magic of Mold-based Fermentation. This item is unavailable.Koji Alchemy: Rediscovering the Magic of Mold-based Fermentation

Featured in The Independent s 7 best fermentation books 2020

This book is remarkable. David Zilber, co-author of The Noma Guide to Fermentation

Koji: the next fermentation game changer

Koji Alchemy is the first book devoted to processes, concepts, and recipes for fermenting foods with koji, the microbe behind the delicious umami flavors of soy sauce, miso, mirin, and so many of the ingredients that underpin Japanese cuisine.

Chefs Jeremy Umansky and Rich Shih leaders on the culinary power of this unique ingredient deliver a comprehensive look at modern koji use around the world. Using it to rapidly age charcuterie, cheese, and other ferments, they take the magic of koji to the next level, revolutionising the creation of fermented foods and flavour profiles for both professional and home cooks.

Koji Alchemy includes:

• A foreword by best-selling author Sandor Katz (The Art of Fermentation)
• Cutting-edge techniques on koji growing and curing
• Extensive information on equipment and setting up your kitchen
• More than 35 recipes for sauces, pastes, ferments, and alcohol

Jeremy Umansky, along with Allie La Valle-Umansky and Kenny Scott, is a chef/owner of Larder: A Curated Delicatessen & Bakery in Cleveland, Ohio, a from-scratch Eastern European deli focusing on the use and promotion of local and wild foods that was nominated by the James Beard Foundation as the Best New Restaurant in America in 2019. Umansky is as a foremost expert on koji and fermented, preserved, and foraged foods and works as a consultant on the use and creation of these foods and ingredients.

Articles written by and about Umansky's work have appeared in Food & Wine, Bon Appetit, and Saveur, among other outlets.

Rich Shih is one of the leading culinary explorers of koji and miso in the United States and an in-demand food preservation consultant, helping chefs to build their larders and leverage fermentation to decrease waste, and offering ideas with which to experiment. Shih offers both public and private workshops across the United States to share koji knowledge. In addition to working with koji and fermentation, Shih is the Exhibit Engineer for the Museum of Food and Drink (MOFAD) based in New York City. His blog, OurCookQuest, provides a welcome environment for cooks of all experience levels to learn, share knowledge, and exchange ideas.

Sandor Ellix Katz is a fermentation revivalist. A self-taught experimentalist who lives in rural Tennessee, his explorations in fermentation developed out of overlapping interests in cooking, nutrition, and gardening. This book, originally published in 2003, along with his The Art of Fermentation (2012) and the hundreds of fermentation workshops he has taught around the world, have helped to catalyze a broad revival of the fermentation arts. Newsweek called Wild Fermentation "the fermenting Bible," and The New York Times calls Sandor "one of the unlikely rock stars of the American food scene." For more information, check out his website www.wildfermentation.com.