06/05/2017
In their second collaboration (after Aroma: The Magic of Essential Oils in Foods and Fragrance), Patterson, a Bay Area chef and restaurateur, and Aftel, a perfumer, reunite to explore the elusive concept of flavor. The authors reference experts from Apicius (first-century author of a Roman cookbook) to Harold McGee (who currently writes about the science of food) as they explain the process of heightening and balancing tastes and explore the chemistry behind culinary pairings and techniques. Though the writing is solid, the book as a whole is a lofty exercise. Thankfully, the intellectual analysis is broken up by more than 70 recipes illustrating the authors’ ideas. In contrast to the sophisticated concepts, the recipes are rather simple: salted cucumbers are made just as the name of the recipe implies. A recipe for red lentils simmered in cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, cumin, and cayenne pepper doesn’t break new ground, even as it illustrates how “heat intensifies spices.” Other dishes push the boundaries more intently: carrots (which have a “grounding” flavor profile) are roasted on a bed of coffee beans (“uplifting and sharp”); mushrooms are fermented in the style of sauerkraut. This cookbook will be fascinating to anyone interested in the science of cooking, but not always helpful to those who need to get dinner on the table. (Aug.)
The Art of Flavor: Practices and Principles for Creating Delicious Food
Narrated by John Lescault
Daniel PattersonUnabridged — 4 hours, 44 minutes
The Art of Flavor: Practices and Principles for Creating Delicious Food
Narrated by John Lescault
Daniel PattersonUnabridged — 4 hours, 44 minutes
Audiobook (Digital)
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Overview
Two masters of composition-a chef and a perfumer-present a revolutionary new approach to creating delicious, original food.
In a world awash in cooking shows, food blogs, and recipes, the art of flavor has been surprisingly neglected. The multibillion-dollar flavor industry practices 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 state 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 listeners how to make the most of nature's palette via mind-opening and palate-expanding tools and principles: the four basic rules for creating flavor; a flavor “compass” that points the way to transformative combinations of aromatic ingredients; learning to deploy cooking methods for maximum effect; and mastering the seven “dials” that let you fine-tune a dish.
With more than sixty recipes that demonstrate each concept and put it into practice, The Art of Flavor is food for the imagination that will help cooks at any level to become flavor virtuosos in their own right.
Editorial Reviews
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
06/15/2017
Most cookbooks focus on the techniques of cooking, with little attention given to the subtle art of creating flavor. In this collaboration, Michelin-starred chef Patterson (Coi: Stories and Recipes) and artisan perfumer Aftel (Fragrant: The Secret Life of Scent) introduce the concept of the latter. They aim to help cooks develop their creativity and ability to respond to the available ingredients, as well as how to adapt recipes to bring out the best taste. The authors explain how to think about ingredients, encouraging cooks to use a contrasting flavor when working with similar ingredients or a unifying one when working with multiple ingredients. They also recommend different herbs, spices, citruses, and flowers to formulate complex tastes, along with suggestions for which foods are best suited to which flavors. Recipes are included with each example. VERDICT How to create flavor is a challenging concept to convey in words, and this work is quite text-heavy; however, adventurous cooks who are interested in trying something new will find some unique ideas and recipes.—Melissa Stoeger, Deerfield P.L., IL
Narrator John Lescault’s voice is well matched to the task at hand as Daniel Patterson, a Michelin chef and restaurateur, Mandy Aftel, a renowned perfumer, take a deep dive into the concept of flavor, including its aroma components. The writing is articulate, considered, and balanced, but the effort as a whole is a rather pompous and dry treatise. Lescault’s narration is as dry and unadorned as the text itself. His genteel, brisk, and clear delivery cannot redeem the thoughtful but yawn-inducing history and discussion of flavor’s components and its delicate balancing act. There are points of interest along the way, but for the long haul this is not an enticing listening experience. W.A.G. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine
2017-06-13
A James Beard Award-winning chef teams up with a perfume alchemist to reveal how food gets its flavor and how that flavor can be improved.Good food isn't just a matter of taste; apart from the visual component, the presentation on the plate, it's also a matter of the nose." Write Patterson (Coi: Stories and Recipes, 2013, etc.) and Aftel (Fragrant: The Secret Life of Scent, 2014, etc.), "that's why experienced cooks spend as much time smelling as they do tasting." The authors go on to suggest that one component of being an experienced cook is to have logged enough time at the stove that recipes become suggestions rather than blueprints: a recipe can't take into account the quality or condition of its ingredients, but "a good cook can adapt...and produce something delicious." Another component is knowing how to complement an ingredient with flavoring to bring out its best. For example, a nondescript butternut squash comes to life with some ginger, an apple, some vegetable stock, and especially some butter ("fat fixes flavor"). The authors propose a set of common-sensical rules, one of which reads, in its entirety, "contrasting ingredients need a unifying flavor." Cooked cauliflower lacks punch but comes alive with some dry-roasted cumin. But dry-roasted cumin doesn't pair well with butter until the butter is browned, when "rich and meaty aromatics are created, much like when you brown meat, and the browned butter stands up well to the strong spice." Patterson and Aftel don't shy from heavy-duty science and densely packed concepts, invoking terms such as "cinnemaldehyde" and "flavor memory," the latter of which they gloss as "the sensory database of experiences that you're constantly compiling." 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.
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940169910797 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Blackstone Audio, Inc. |
| Publication date: | 08/01/2017 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
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A Brief, Biased History of Flavor
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "The Art of Flavor"
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Copyright © 2017 Daniel Patterson.
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