My New Favorite Cook Book

My mother in law recently gave me an amazing new cook book to add to my growing collection - "The Flavor Bible: The Essential Guide to Culinary Creativity, Based on the Wisdom of America's Most Imaginative Chefs."


The Flavor Bible is a book all about flavor; what it is and how we perceive it, balance it, complement it, and emphasize it. It's the perfect book for learning about why foods, herbs, and spices taste good and what dishes are ideally enhanced and complemented with certain flavors. It is so useful and creative, and the authors clearly did an unbelievable amount of research. My favorite part is after the column listing of complementary foods for your chosen item, they have a "flavor affinities" section with a list of combinations of ingredients that go with your chosen item. Duck, ginger, soy, honey? Yes please! Duck, apricots, cherries, basmati rice? Even better!


I had a mango that was just reaching the perfect ripeness and with a quick reference to my new book, I was able to find a fun new way to use mango in a way I haven't before - Coconut, ginger, mango and jasmine rice. It was amazing!

I love having a list of suggested flavors and products that go with what I have in the pantry or with a random find at the farmers market. It's completely different from every other cook book I have ever read and has changed the way I think about ingredients and flavors. It is definitely changing the way I cook and come up with dishes. It's time to let creativity be my guide.