Thanks for the warm welcome on this chilly day! We're just back home in Manhattan after a week on the road (Milwaukee, Chicago, Washington, DC) talking about our latest labor of love (for the past eight years!): THE FLAVOR BIBLE, which was published by Little, Brown on September 16th. It's a tricky book to explain to people, as it's a "cookbook" without a single recipe. Then again, we like breaking the mold with our books! We're happy to answer questions from LibraryThing readers on any aspect of our work and/or book publishing in general.
Delicious wishes,
Karen & Andrew
P.S. Our Web site is:
www.becomingachef.com, and there's also an informative three-minute video about THE FLAVOR BIBLE on YouTube.com!
Hi there! Nice to have you in an author chat!
Could you perhaps say a little more about
The Flavor Bible? What is it all about precisely, and how does it differ from
Culinary Artistry?
I've tried to find both in bookstores around here (Europe), but it is quite difficult...
Thanks, RFB!
We think of THE FLAVOR BIBLE: The Essential Guide to Culinary Creativity, Based on the Wisdom of America's Most Imaginative Chefs as a book that is as useful to anyone who cooks as a thesaurus is to anyone who writes: It's an alphabetical reference of hundreds of ingredients -- from achiote to zucchini blossoms -- along with the herbs, spices and other seasonings that will best enhance their flavor.
This is essential information that anyone who cooks needs at their fingertips -- how to best cook a particular ingredient (recommended techniques are included, too) as well as how to best season it. We spent the past eight years researching the subject via conducting interviews with some of America's leading chefs (including Jose Andres, Michel Richard, Eric Ripert, and David Waltuck), as well as combing their post-2000 cookbooks, menus and even restaurant reviews for recommended flavor combinations. We synthesized this information into a massive database that later became the basis for the modern flavor combinations listed in THE FLAVOR BIBLE.
When researching our 1996 book CULINARY ARTISTRY, we concentrated on classic flavor combinations throughout history -- so you'll find many more old-fashioned ingredients such as lamb's tongue and partridges in here. In THE FLAVOR BIBLE, you'll find more contemporary ingredients such as fennel pollen and yuzu juice mentioned that were not on the scene a dozen years ago.
We believe both books are carried by Amazon in Europe, in case that helps!
Best wishes,
Karen & Andrew
(back to top)
