The Art of Flavor

June 5, 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.

July 1, 2017
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.

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June 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

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2017
Patterson, an acclaimed chef, and Aftel, an artisan perfumer, take on the audacious task of building a lexicon and methodology to describe not just the nuances of flavor but the process of layering multiple flavors to construct new ones. The authors borrow from Aftel's world of scents, so that like a perfume's fragrance, a dish may be described as having base, middle, and top notes, but with emphasis according to the cook's composition. Using recipes as examples, the book maps out where herbs and spices fall on a flavor compass and presents rules of flavor that guide the combining of ingredients. And ingredients themselves, the authors point out, contain multiple flavorsthink of a Gala apple that's redolent of flowers and vanilla, or freshly ground cardamom with its elements of mint and black pepper. The book also discusses how different cooking methods (e.g., poaching vs. grilling) affect flavor and how to fine-tune a dish's flavor through the seven dials or tastes, such as salty, sweet, sour, and bitter. Overall, Patterson and Aftel offer a complexly articulated but original approach to understanding how to cook with a chef's intuition for delicious results.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)