The Encyclopedia of Spices and Herbs: An Essential Guide to the Flavors of the World

by Padma Lakshmi

Overview

From the Emmy-nominated host of the award-winning Top Chef, an A-to-Z compendium of spices, herbs, salts, peppers, and blends, with beautiful photography and a wealth of explanation, history, and cooking advice.

“A beautiful book by Padma Lakshmi featuring an extensive catalogue and helpful recommendations on how best to use these ingredients to create full-flavored dishes. A great resource for any chef or home cook.” — Eric Ripert

Award-winning cookbook author and television host Padma Lakshmi, inspired by her life of traveling across the globe, brings together the world’s spices and herbs in a vibrant, comprehensive alphabetical guide. This definitive culinary reference book is illustrated with rich color photographs that capture the essence of a diverse range of spices and their authentic flavors. The Encyclopedia of Spices and Herbs includes complete descriptions, histories, and cooking suggestions for ingredients from basic herbs to the most exotic seeds and chilies, as well as information on toasting spices, making teas, and infusing various oils and vinegars. And no other market epitomizes Padma’s love for spices and global cuisine than where she spent her childhood—lingering in the aisles of the iconic gourmet food store Kalustyan’s, in New York City.

Perfect for the holiday season and essential to any well-stocked kitchen or cooking enthusiast, The Encyclopedia of Spices and Herbs is an invaluable resource as well as a stunning and adventurous tour of some of the most wondrous and majestic flavors on earth.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062375230
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	10/04/2016
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	222,877
Product dimensions:	6.60(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.60(d)

About the Author

Padma Lakshmi is an Emmy-nominated producer, television host, food expert, and a New York Times bestselling author. She is the creator, host, and executive producer of the critically acclaimed Hulu series Taste the Nation and serves as host and executive producer of Bravo’s two-time Emmy-winning series Top Chef, now in its 20^th season. Lakshmi is also the author of two cookbooks, Easy Exotic and Tangy, Tart, Hot & Sweet, and the New York Times bestselling memoir Love, Loss, and What We Ate, and The Encyclopedia of Spices & Herbs. She lives in New York City with her daughter.

Editorial Reviews

09/19/2016
The variety of the earth’s herbs and spices is nearly as vast as Lakshmi’s résumé. A memoirist, actress, fashion model, jewelry designer, philanthropist, and food show host, she now adds encyclopedia author to her credits with this handy and knowledgeable look at the wide world of seasonings. Flavorings both familiar and obscure are presented alphabetically, from advieh, a Persian spice blend, to zedory, a gingerlike rhizome. Each entry includes the proper botanical name of the ingredient, a history and description (which can range in length from a few sentences to a few pages), and a brief mention of any medicinal uses. Many an unexpected and delightful tidbit of information awaits the reader: the botanical name of nutmeg is Mystica fragrans; the fruit that provides cardamom must be harvested by hand before it ripens, lest it split open and the seeds escape; saffron has been prescribed for both urinary tract disorders and asthma. The more common the spice, the more complicated it can be to fully explore. Salt is broken out into 24 different types, and pepper can come from any of four different colors of peppercorn grown primarily in India, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Filling out the work, a handful of info boxes cover topics such as the Scoville heat index and smoked sea salts, and color photos highlight the vast inventory at Kalustyan’s, a specialty food shop in Manhattan. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

From advieh to zedoary, Lakshmi stirs your sense of wanderlust...Along the way, she acts as both a tour guide and a fellow traveler on a journey through an abundant world of herbs and spices. It’s a trip as educational as it is exciting.” — Thomas Keller

“’This book takes you on an entirely new journey, which begins at advieh and ends at zedoary. Ranging far beyond the usual repertoire of familiar names, this is the perfect book for the curious cook.” — Ruth Reichl

“A beautiful book by Padma Lakshmi featuring an extensive catalogue and helpful recommendations on how best to use these ingredients to create full-flavored dishes. A great resource for any chef or home cook.” — Eric Ripert

From the Publisher

’This book takes you on an entirely new journey, which begins at advieh and ends at zedoary. Ranging far beyond the usual repertoire of familiar names, this is the perfect book for the curious cook.

Ruth Reichl

A beautiful book by Padma Lakshmi featuring an extensive catalogue and helpful recommendations on how best to use these ingredients to create full-flavored dishes. A great resource for any chef or home cook.

Eric Ripert

From advieh to zedoary, Lakshmi stirs your sense of wanderlust...Along the way, she acts as both a tour guide and a fellow traveler on a journey through an abundant world of herbs and spices. It’s a trip as educational as it is exciting.

Thomas Keller

Her words are so ever present and her descriptions so in-depth...I will carry this tome with me for a year. Everyone should have a copy of this encyclopedia in their collection.

Mario Batali

09/15/2016
Spices and herbs, according to Lakshmi, are the almost magical ingredients that mean the difference between a mundane dish and a spectacular one. Guided by her experience as a cookbook author, TV's Top Chef host, and lifelong world traveler, Lakshmi (with author and cookbook consultant Judith Sutton) has compiled "clear, precise, and brief" descriptions for common (and uncommon) herbs and spices. The listings appear alphabetically, occasionally accompanied by suggestions for use, such as brewing into tea. Along with their application in cooking, some herbs and spices have medicinal notes as well. The descriptions tell cooks what to expect for taste, and how the products should look, feel, and smell for maximum flavor, whether fresh or dried. Besides entries for more familiar fare such as cinnamon, ginger, and parsley are those for epazote, pandan leaves, and zedoary. Cooks will appreciate Lakshmi's explanations of what goes into spice blends such as Chinese five spice powder, curries, dukkah, and garam masala. Full-color photographs appear every few pages, showing spices and herbs in various states, from just-harvested to finely ground. VERDICT A lovely book with a niche audience, this work is suitable for large libraries, or for purchase as a gift for foodie friends. [See "Editors' Fall Picks," LJ 9/1/16, p. 26.]—Maggie Knapp, Trinity Valley Sch., Fort Worth, TX

Library Journal