The Flavor Bible: The Essential Guide to Culinary Creativity, Based on the Wisdom of America's Most Imaginative Chefs

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The Flavor Bible: The Essential Guide to Culinary Creativity, Based on the Wisdom of America's Most Imaginative Chefs

4.3 of 5 stars 4.30 · rating details · 2,129 ratings · 132 reviews

Winner of the 2009 James Beard Book Award for Best Book: Reference and Scholarship

Great cooking goes beyond following a recipe--it's knowing how to season ingredients to coax the greatest possible flavor from them. Drawing on dozens of leading chefs' combined experience in top restaurants across the country, Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg present the definitive guide to...more

Hardcover, 392 pages

Published September 16th 2008 by Little, Brown and Company (first published September 13th 2008)

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Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book by Better Homes and Gardens

The New Best Recipe by Cook's Illustrated

Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child

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32nd out of 696 books — 663 voters

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James Beard Award Cookbooks

94th out of 100 books — 14 voters

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Jan 13, 2009 Matthew Gatheringwater rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: cookbooks

This is not a cookbook, and that's a good thing.

There are no recipes, only lists and descriptions of compatible flavors, along with reflections from a handful of well-known and trendy chefs. Apparently geared to the professional cook (unless sous-vide has become a home cooking technique), it can still offer inspiration to the adventurous home cook. It has, in any case, inspired me to put fresh thyme and honey on my grapefruit.

The lists are not consistent. What is listed as a classic pairing und...more

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Apr 08, 2013 Sorenconard rated it 5 of 5 stars

After checking this book out multiple times at the library I finally own it. A must have for anyone that wants to take their cooking to the next level. No recipes, very little on technique, just page after page after page of flavor listing charts and brief ideas from chefs that like to use the ingredient.

If you are a home cook who is tired of "line cooking" recipes from cook books, or started changing/tweeking recipes to reflect your style but want to do more this will be a priceless book for y...more

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Sep 30, 2012 Bruce rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: nouveau cuisine fans, cooks without inspiration or internet connections

A curious culinary compendium for cooks keen to cop comely combinations of comestibles, the book is basically a big alphabetized list of ingredients, with everything from achiote seeds (p. 37) to zucchini blossoms (p. 374). A typical entry (p. 199) looks like this:

LEMONS, PRESERVED
Taste: sour
Weight: light-medium
Volume: moderate-loud

cinnamon
cloves
lamb
MOROCCAN CUISINE
nigella seeds
saffron

Oh, and featured chef Brad Farmerie (Public, NYC) is quoted enthusiastically as favoring their use. Readers are...more A curious culinary compendium for cooks keen to cop comely combinations of comestibles, the book is basically a big alphabetized list of ingredients, with everything from achiote seeds (p. 37) to zucchini blossoms (p. 374). A typical entry (p. 199) looks like this:

LEMONS, PRESERVED
Taste: sour
Weight: light-medium
Volume: moderate-loud

cinnamon
cloves
lamb
MOROCCAN CUISINE
nigella seeds
saffron

Oh, and featured chef Brad Farmerie (Public, NYC) is quoted enthusiastically as favoring their use. Readers are supposed to use the book like a thesaurus, only words shown in ALL-CAPS or boldfaced (or boldfaced and all-caps) are those cited more frequently by those chefs the authors interviewed. There's no attempt to be rigorously consistent. For example, skip back a couple of pages to the entry on LEMONS, and you get an entry for "Season" (year-round) in addition to taste, weight, and volume, along with a list of associations that goes on for three full columns.

There are no recipes here; the compilers are merely trying to inspire already-competent cooks to new creativity. A recipe would only cramp their audience's style. So the lists themselves are far from definitive and in any case leave plenty of room for debate. We're told in no uncertain terms to avoid mixing cranberries in eggs (which otherwise would seem to combine well with very nearly everything). I suppose if ever I should happen to find myself hosting the authors, I really must remember not to serve them anything quite so gauche as a cranberry nog. Not even in autumn.

Now I'm a guy who likes to read cookbooks occasionally (I found Sauces, The Nero Wolfe Cookbook, and The Cookery of England to all be terrific cover-to-cover and for different reasons), but this one is really designed for browsing. It's beautifully designed, from the standpoint of rich color photography (albeit with heavy repetition), but cries out for a strong editor.

Few of the selected chefs' comments came across as all that insightful. Some representative selections:

We wanted to trick the customer into thinking that they were going to eat a hot pancake topped with… syrup…. We bring out a metal plate that looks hot [but is frozen and steaming from being immersed in nitrogen].… Ninety-nine percent of the people who were served this dish swore they were getting a hot flapjack, and it was only when they tasted it that they learned it was cold. – Homaru Cantu (Moto, Chicago) (p. 15)

To make our "Philly Cheesesteak," we start with the bread. We put pita dough through a pasta machine so that it gets really thin, but puffs way up when you cook it…. So you have bread, cheese, beef, and onion, just like a Philly cheesesteak. We add the truffles just to push it over the top. – Katsuya Fukushima (minibar, Washington, DC) (p. 16)

I like very little lavender with quail for its savory aroma, but the key phrase is "very little" – or else it's like eating a piece of soap! – Sharon Hage, York Street (Dallas) (p. 196)

The authors themselves are no better. There's the unnecessary use of air quotes at page x:

We believe cooking will continue to evolve, and not only as a means of "doing" (i.e., putting dinner on the table, or "problem-solving" by "following a recipe").

This is immediately followed by a cringe-inducing summation on the following page, "We hope this book makes you happy – literally." At page 217, the entry on "MENU" offers up a musical metaphor using improperly-grouped, inelegantly drawn sets of notes with wrongward-facing stems that better communicates the musical illiteracy of its authors than anything meaningful about food preparation or service. The volume is liberally seasoned with banal gems such as this one from p. 21:

When you are working with fresh fruit, the fruit has to be the guide. If you eat a piece of fresh fruit by itself, it is a dessert. So you want the dessert, in the end, to taste better than the fruit itself.

All of which is to say that this reference work would probably come off better as a searchable online database than a shelf-stacker. It's a conversation piece at best; a poor read, overdressed with superfluous prose, and too unwieldy to prop open for real-time cooking consultation.

While you won't find common molecular flavor fantasias like "cola" (cinnamon & vanilla) here, what can I say? The sweet-potato/maple syrup/crushed pecan combo was nice, the banana rolled in dried parsley, not so much. This book is – at least theoretically – inspirational. It got me talking with my daughter about unusual, fun flavor combinations, and she suggested serving up a slice of plain cheesecake accented with dark-chocolate-dipped rosemary needles. I looked it up. Rosemary and chocolate aren't paired here. In fact, at p. 125 illustrious pastry chef Emily Lucchetti (Farallon, San Francisco) actually wags a finger, "I'm not a fan of herbs with dessert," but my daughter's combo sounds just dynamite to me. With no offense intended to the purveyors of haute cuisine, I think I'm better off trusting to the sensibilities of a 12 year old.
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Feb 23, 2012 ♥Xeni♥ rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: ebook, cooking, non-fiction, reference, herbs

This is a pretty awesome "cookbook". I say cookbook in quotes, because it's not really that. It's more like a how-to book on becoming a great chef (from level good). Detailed information on which herbs and spices and ingredients and all what you need for cooking go well together (or super excellent together or not at all!)

Based on both experience from some of America's top chef's as well as molecular biology research, this book is definitely a first of the sort that I've ever found. As someone w...more

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Aug 24, 2011 Erica rated it 1 of 5 stars

I don't understand why so many people like this book. I found it to be both confusing and unnecessary. Anyone with a nose and a set of tastebuds can figure out that asparagus tastes nice with butter or that maple syrup goes with French toast or that LETTUCE works well with BACON, BREAD, and TOMATOES (this is blatantly obvious to anyone who has ever eaten a SALAD). And any person who has encountered horseradish can tell you that its flavor is quite strong (or, as the Flavor Bible calls it, "very...more

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Jul 24, 2011 Jessica rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: tastes-like-chicken, finger-lickin-books

In these days of high food and gas prices, I do not part with my dollars easily. Every time I pull out my wallet, it is only after much thought and some time spent foraging for cheaper alternatives, or else a realization that the coveted item is just that -a want instead of a need.

Books are high on that list on 'wants'. It took me many years to come to this conclusion, but after re-discovering the joys of my public library, I have now firmly placed owned books on my luxury list.

Here's a confess...more In these days of high food and gas prices, I do not part with my dollars easily. Every time I pull out my wallet, it is only after much thought and some time spent foraging for cheaper alternatives, or else a realization that the coveted item is just that -a want instead of a need.

Books are high on that list on 'wants'. It took me many years to come to this conclusion, but after re-discovering the joys of my public library, I have now firmly placed owned books on my luxury list.

Here's a confession:
I paid 35 dollars for this book.

Understand: this is huge. I could just stop my review there. That, along with the grimacing pain it takes for me to give a whole fifth star attests to just how I feel about this book. Understand that 5 stars, to me, consists of books that changed my life; it is a category of books with the likes of Grapes of Wrath and Watership Down.

Yup.

Just so you know - this is not a cookbook. This is a reference book for people who know what tastes good, but have trouble articulating why. This book explains what makes a balanced taste (between acid, fat, salt, and sweetness), the importance of mouthfeel (temperature, texture, piquancy, and astringency), the role of smell, and the interplay of all these things with the visual, emotional, mental, and spiritual aspects of a meal.

It explains why basil tastes good with tomatoes, why corn is good with butter (is *anything* not improved by butter??), why ham goes with cheese.

After the explanations, the bulk of the book is indeed a dictionary of flavor affinities. It provides an alphabetized list of hundreds of ingredients along with the other ingredients that complement them best (it sometimes also lists those ingredients that are most awful to combine). It also classifies the ingredients to the 4 tastes (sweet, salty, sour, bitter).

How did this book change my life? Well, I've donated all (ok, most) of my cookbooks. Now I just look in my pantry, pick the item I want to base my meal on, and use this book to help me bring out that ingredient. I no longer trust recipes, but trust my tongue instead. I think about the flavors I am tasting and combining, and I understand the science and techniques that make me think something tastes good. I now can verbalize why coriander goes so well with fish when there's no lemon in the fridge(coriander is perceived by the sour tastebuds), and why cloves can replace allspice in pumpkin pie (they're both sweet and loud enough to be heard over the pumkin).

So, yeah. Good book to have in the kitchen. Probably will be the last 'cookbook' I get rid of.(less)

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Jan 30, 2011 Bryn rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: cookbooks

I usually don't do cookbooks, even for baking--I learn the rules and go with the flow. When I first started out, this resulted in an equal amount of kitchen disasters ("Huh, I didn't know this was supposed to catch on fire") and kitchen masterpieces ("OHGOD, DID I WRITE THIS DOWN?! PLEASE TELL ME I WROTE THIS DOWN!") As soon as I saw The Flavor Bible, I knew it had to be mine. A cookbook that doesn't have any recipes, just information about food and what goes well with what? Yes. Please yes. Thi...more I usually don't do cookbooks, even for baking--I learn the rules and go with the flow. When I first started out, this resulted in an equal amount of kitchen disasters ("Huh, I didn't know this was supposed to catch on fire") and kitchen masterpieces ("OHGOD, DID I WRITE THIS DOWN?! PLEASE TELL ME I WROTE THIS DOWN!") As soon as I saw The Flavor Bible, I knew it had to be mine. A cookbook that doesn't have any recipes, just information about food and what goes well with what? Yes. Please yes. This simple, beautifully designed, easy-to-navigate, unconventional cookbook has led me to feeling like I actually know my way around my kitchen, instead of stumbling around in the dark like a poorly trained monkey, and it's definitely raised the ratio of my kitchen masterpiece-to-disaster levels. Of course, I still stumble on my own, but any young cook should stumble a bit before learning everything.

This book may be perfect for me, and other aspiring creative cooks who honestly enjoy food, cooking, and are willing to put the time into the kitchen--but it is certainly not perfect for everyone. The working parent who barely has time to run the kids to school, and grocery shop, and this and that and where did my time go? Probably looking for a more straightforward cookbook. A brand new cook who needs a little bit of hand-holding before feeling comfortable in the kitchen? You might want something more traditional, too. This book is brilliant, but it does throw you into the deep end of the pool assuming you both know how to swim and love swimming already. If I had been given this as a gift a year ago, it would likely be gathering dust in my parents' basement.

I have one itty bitty complaint about this book, as well, as strange as it may seem with my overwhelming praise. This book has opened my world up to flavor... but there are still some techniques I need to learn, and some things I don't know quite how to do. I know nothing can be PERFECT, but a small note on how to best prepare an ingredient, and a section on common cooking techniques, would be extremely helpful. Perhaps I should keep my eyes open for another basic cooking techniques book to compliment this one; my kitchen book collection would feel quite complete, after finding something like that. All in all, I adore this book, and it barely goes a day without me peeking inside for some quick inspiration. (less)

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Nov 04, 2010 Crystie rated it 5 of 5 stars

I spend a lot of time with this book. A lot of basic things, like soup or quiche, don't require a recipe. But knowledge of which herbs go with which vegetables, meats, and other herbs is always important.

"The Flavor Bible" alphabetically lists most ingredients with any sort of flavor (vegetables, meats, vinegars, herbs, spices). Under each ingredient is a list of everything that tastes good with that particular item, according to creative chefs across America. Complementary items that go very w...more I spend a lot of time with this book. A lot of basic things, like soup or quiche, don't require a recipe. But knowledge of which herbs go with which vegetables, meats, and other herbs is always important.

"The Flavor Bible" alphabetically lists most ingredients with any sort of flavor (vegetables, meats, vinegars, herbs, spices). Under each ingredient is a list of everything that tastes good with that particular item, according to creative chefs across America. Complementary items that go very well are in bold, and items that make an excellent pairing are in caps and bold. So under "cherries" we learn that allspice, fennel, and vodka are good options; caramel, cognac, and duck are really good options; and almonds, vanilla, and wine are excellent options.

I've used this book many times to pull together disparate ingredients successfully. There was the cherry and zucchini cobbler with cream cheese, or the time I wanted an all meat chili with more notes than "meat" and "hot." I also learned that bacon and basil can pull many random casseroles or soups together -- if you can find what other 2-4 flavors (e.g. thyme, parsley, balsamic vinegar) will finish rounding out the harmony.

A couple times I got overly excited and decided to do a custom curry type blend with 10 different spices that would harmonize perfectly together and with a bunch of vegetables. A bit overwhelming. I checked a few recipes to get an idea of how much cumin versus cinnamon, fenugreek, or brown mustard seeds. And found that I cannot do a cross-reference comparison of 4-6 vegetables to 10+ spices and their ratios in my head.

Also note that the right ingredients won't necessarily cover up a lack in technique. For example, if I threw in fenugreek seeds at the end not knowing that seeds go in solo at the beginning until they pop, then I might think the seeds are to blame for the somewhat unpleasant taste and texture.

So now I pick a couple things in my pot that I really like, do some cross-referencing to enhance those particulars, then pick a few more enhancers that are fairly common to everything in the pot (probably garlic, tomatoes, thyme, parsley, or lemon). And I leave complex spices blends to recipes.

This book is wonderful. I love it. It's mostly geared for creative American cooking, so you won't find new ways to use lemongrass or millet. But you will find tidbits from chefs about their favorite flavor combinations and how they use the ingredients. This book is a great addition if you like to experiment.

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Apr 12, 2010 Keith rated it 5 of 5 stars

I have longed for just this book for years! You wouldn't believe how excited I was when I saw it. If I could only keep one book it my kitchen, this would be the one.

This is not a cookbook. Not really. It's more like a flavor encyclopedia: Look up a spice, herb, vegetable, or even season or type of ethnic cuisine, and you will find a list of complimentary flavors, plus a few cooking techniques. Look up black beans, and it will suggest a lengthy list of pairings, with emphasis on the stronger opti...more

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Sep 10, 2009 Wendi rated it 5 of 5 stars

Perfect for : Personal Use, Gift for someone who loves to cook

In a nutshell: This is an awesome book! It is full of such a wealth of information to aid in the kitchen. I can't tell you the number of times that I wanted to take plain chicken and use the herbs and spices that I had at my fingertips to create a mouth-watering meal. . . but no matter what I did, it didn't turn out as planned. With this book, I can do that. It doesn't tell me to put precise ingredients together to create the perfect...more

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Mar 28, 2009 penny rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to penny by: caseyf

Shelves: cooking, library-nypl

It started with a tweet from casey and off I went. A hold request was placed and it came into my local library branch a short time later. I've been pouring over this book since and stressing over where I'll put it when I buy a copy for myself (We really do not have the space right now. It's a major problem we're working to solve.) Over the twenty or so years I've been cooking, I've learned to grow and use my spice collection to enhance what I'm making, but I am still learning how best to use and...more It started with a tweet from casey and off I went. A hold request was placed and it came into my local library branch a short time later. I've been pouring over this book since and stressing over where I'll put it when I buy a copy for myself (We really do not have the space right now. It's a major problem we're working to solve.) Over the twenty or so years I've been cooking, I've learned to grow and use my spice collection to enhance what I'm making, but I am still learning how best to use and pair the foods I want to put together into a nice coherent meal instead of one-pot wonder.

This volume helps me with all of that. Interspersed throughout are beautiful and tantalizing photographs of food and example dishes (no recipes) from menus of famous restaurants and quotes from renowned chefs. That's what makes it special.

This is not a cookbook. It is not for you if you want to be told "when making mac & cheese use should use X tablespoons of milk + Y of this cheese + Z of that and a PDQ of these spices, oh and while you're at it boil A cups of water with a dash of salt for B minutes with C amount of elbow macaroni". You will be disappointed. If however, you visit the Green Market and bring home a variety of what caught your eye that day and are wondering how much of it might be put together into a meal, you can then flip through and be reminded that brussel sprouts go well with apple cider (good thing you picked up some), or that cheddar cheese likes apples, pears, black pepper... and mustard, something you always forget.

While the format is beneficial for those, like me, who love to browse the library (or bookstore) shelves and make random but related picks of interest, the cross-referencing and layout would benefit a bit of revision to make it easier to use (I think much of the joy of this would be lost if it only available in a database, though Big Oven could benefit from adding similar information to their product.) I know that if I was working with a copy that lived permanently on my shelves as opposed to a library copy it would immediately be covered in post-its, index tabs, index cards, and various notes and scribbles (not to mention stray drippings) along with the beginnings of a personalized index.

I believe this is a wonderful book for those who stand in the kitchen and look around and wonder "how could I put this all together"?(less)

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Apr 10, 2010 Samantha rated it 5 of 5 stars

One of the most useful books in my kitchen!

A book for the culinary tinkerer: Perfect for anyone who loves to cook and experiment in the kitchen without having to rely on recipes or cookbooks.

The flavor bible is organized so you can look up any ingredients, say, for example "asparagus" and find complimentary ingredients, cooking techniques, and flavor combinations. This is both great for cooking seasonally such as when you have a turnip from your farm box and you don't know what to do with it, o...more

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Oct 28, 2009 Emelia Hawk rated it 5 of 5 stars

Since I received this book for Christmas last year I have rarely resorted to actual recipes in cookbooks. Instead I go to my pantry and/or freezer and find ingredients that go together or compliment each other. It would be the "cookbook" It is one of two cookbooks I would have to choose between if I was told I could only have one. (The other one is a very old out of print basic cookbook,seen over Meryl Streep's shoulder in the movie THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY, that gives you the basics of sta...more

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Jan 15, 2010 Matthew rated it 4 of 5 stars

I knew before I got into this that it was a reference book (it won the James Beard award in "Reference" for 2009) so there's not a lot of prose/investigation analysis to read. The first part does talk about this book's place in the compendium of books by the authors. In addition, there is a set of interview snippets from a number of chefs that serve to illustrate the points about "flavor" that the authors are promoting/making.

The best part of the book, however, is the reference guide which occup...more

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Jul 20, 2011 Angela rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: not-as-good-as-i-hoped, food

I was a little disappointed by this book. It seems like a great idea, and I enjoyed flipping through it, but I've had it checked out for 9 days now from the library, and every time I thought of an ingredient and went to look it up, I was underwhelmed with the results. Perhaps if I had a bigger grocery budget or could get a wider variety of grocery items locally (I live in a small town), I would have more use for this, but so much seemed obvious (celery goes with cream; cream of celery soup, you...more

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Mar 21, 2011 Saille rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: cookbook, non-fiction

If you're like me, and you like to experiment with food and flavors, this is the Must-Have book for you. Not truly a cookbook, but your kitchen should not be without this one. The book is nothing more than lists of ingredients that are known or suggested by top chefs to work well together. Got a something in the fridge and not sure what to throw with it? Look it up and get some ideas.

I specifically used this this past summer during jam season to create new (to me) flavor pairings with my favorit...more

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Dec 15, 2011 Jason rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: cooking, non-fiction

Another permanent addition to my collection. Rather than a cookbook, this is a "food dictionary" organized by ingredient, with well-known chefs weighing in on complimentary food pairings. With little discussion of cooking techniques or recipes, this book will most inspire those who have some comfort in the kitchen. It is a great inspiration when trying to highlight a specific ingredient, or simply finding something new to do with your over-abundance of garden-fresh fresh. (Have you considered mi...more

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Jan 03, 2010 Kendra rated it 4 of 5 stars

Got this book for the chef in the family. It's an interesting concept. Not a cookbook with recipes, but a cookbook with flavor ideas. Look up a food and it suggests other foods or spices, etc, that go well with it. i.e. under "rum" you'll find banana, brown sugar, caribbean cuisine, etc. The list includes whole foods, spices, sweeteners, cuisines, even seasons. I think it will be used often in our household because we like to buy foods we've never heard of and this will help us figure out what t...more

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Sep 28, 2009 kirk rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: food-and-cooking-books

If I only had four reference books in my kitchen, they'd be:

1. Timing Is Everything
2. The Food Substitutions Bible
3. Some kind of exhaustive field guide to the grocery store which I haven't yet identified.

and

4. The Flavor Bible. A good Sunday afternoon involves a lot of sunshine and a long stretch of time on the sofa leafing through this book. In short, it collects lists of flavors that go well together.

Chef Michael Laiskonis says, "I like the combination of rosemary with pineapple." As it turn...more

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Oct 02, 2009 Evanston Public Library added it

Karen Page, along with her fellow chef and husband, Andrew Dornenburg, have gathered the collective experiences of dozens of professional food people to produce a wonderful book. Their main objective is to describe an ingredient and its complementary flavors; likewise, disastrous combinations receive a heads-up!

Much more information is added through the use of sidebars, photos, and anecdotes.Anyone with a passing interest in cooking or food could enjoy The Flavor Bible, but it has enough content...more

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Mar 09, 2010 Stephanie Marie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Karen Page and Andrew Dornenberg are the coolest foodies and this tome is a crucial, must-have addition to any aspiring culinary artist. According to the couple, The Flavor Bible was inspired by an early meal Andrew cooked for Karen when he was a young chef. When they dug into their polenta with goat cheese and cilantro, they were completely disgusted. Who would know that those ingredients were horribly matched? Thanks to eight years of research by this duo, no chef will ever make this mistake a...more

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Jun 11, 2010 Erin rated it 5 of 5 stars

I ADORE this book. no more being stumped by an ingredient, or looking for a whole recipe. If you use recipes as more of a jumping-off point, this will get you confidantly out in deeper waters.
It's as if someone cross referenced a bunch of recommendations and recipes to tell you what works with what. Or like a good cook giving you a hint when your'e stuck. I can take stock of the fridge, pick something, and scan it's entry for another ingredient i have and then stride into the kitchen to combine...more

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Jun 01, 2009 Liz rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone who loves to cook

I love this book! I'm terrible at planning meals in advance and then making a shopping list based on that. This book is perfect for someone like me who likes to find or create recipes based on what you have on hand.

Since I joined a community supported agriculture (CSA) farm, I now get a plethora of produce based on what is in season. I use this book to look up veggies I'm not used to cooking with, such as bok choy or swiss chard, and then based on what other foods go well with that ingredient, I...more

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Jan 10, 2011 Mindy rated it 5 of 5 stars

So I didn't read this word for word because the last half is like a reference tool, but it's an awesome resource for figuring out what flavors go well together. I love the interviews with the chefs in the beginning - gives a little insight to the methods behind their genius dishes. The affinities part of the book is going to be really helpful, especially for using up those random ingredients that you only had one recipe for... I'm looking forward to actually BUYING this one and adding it to my c...more

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Mar 25, 2010 Heather rated it 5 of 5 stars

Here, authors Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg of The Flavor Bible consulted over 25 renowned chefs to guide readers in creating flavorful dishes with almost any ingredient based on characteristics such as taste, function, weight and more. Not a cookbook, this is a guide to creating delicious, signature dishes of your own by educating your mind and palette.

An example? Recommended flavor pairings for something as random as maple syrup include but are not limited to bananas, blueberries, pears, p...more

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Aug 31, 2009 Darby rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009, food, informative, wishlist, favorites

A description from Barnes & Noble's website:

"Great cooking goes beyond following a recipe--it's knowing how to season ingredients to coax the greatest possible flavor from them. Drawing on dozens of leading chefs' combined experience in top restaurants across the country, Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg present the definitive guide to creating "deliciousness" in any dish. Thousands of ingredient entries, organized alphabetically and cross-referenced, provide a treasure trove of spectacular

...more A description from Barnes & Noble's website:

"Great cooking goes beyond following a recipe--it's knowing how to season ingredients to coax the greatest possible flavor from them. Drawing on dozens of leading chefs' combined experience in top restaurants across the country, Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg present the definitive guide to creating "deliciousness" in any dish. Thousands of ingredient entries, organized alphabetically and cross-referenced, provide a treasure trove of spectacular flavor combinations. Readers will learn to work more intuitively and effectively with ingredients; experiment with temperature and texture; excite the nose and palate with herbs, spices, and other seasonings; and balance the sensual, emotional, and spiritual elements of an extraordinary meal. Seasoned with tips, anecdotes, and signature dishes from America's most imaginative chefs, THE FLAVOR BIBLEis an essential reference for every kitchen."

I am really really wanting to have this book. Just as I said about the other book by these authors I read - it is AMAZING! It isn't a cookbook but it is an essential reference for the kitchen and every cook. I learned things about seasoning that I would have never thought of if not picking up this book. It will make it easier for anyone to adjust any recipe to fit what you have on hand. I feel it it will help one be more creative and inventive when cooking. It will just make you into a better cooked. I know that there is so much more I would learn from it by having it in the kitchen.

A quote from the first chapter in the book....that I think summed up the book well...

"Flavor is a 'language' that anyone who love pleasures of the palate will find to be well worth mastering. Once you master the language of flavor, you can use it to communicate -- and become a better cook."

The book has 3 sections but really the third section takes up most of the book. The first section is on learning to recognize the language of food. The taste, aroma, how it feels and that x-factor. And then the second sections is maximizing the flavor by communicating the language of food. And then the final section is like the What to Drink with What You Eat book where it is basically lists. It gives lists of herbs, spices, fruit, vegetables, meat, vinegar, oils, alcohols and so on - and then each list has details under it. Such as if you look up artichokes it tells you when they are in season, the weight, the volume and the technique to use with them. (It goes into the weight and volume more also in earlier sections.) And then under it lists every seasoning that goes with artichokes, cuisines that goes them and flavor affinities. Plus with some ingredients there is a little sidebar box that says "Dishes" and it has chefs from around the world tell how a dish they make with that ingredient. Such as the one for artichokes says, "Fettuccine with house-made pancetta, artichokes, lemon and hot chilis -- Mario Batali, Babbo (New York)" and under Skirt Steak there is one that says, "Skirt steak marinated in seville oranges and limes --Maricel Presilla, Zafra (Hoboken, New Jersey)."

I know I won't be able to say enough good things about this book. I just feel it covers so much and gave me such amazing inspiration in the kitchen. And has helped me be a better cook. I checked it out from the library but know I would love to have it in the kitchen all the time! (less)

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Feb 15, 2009 Wrighty rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: everyone

When I first heard of this book I thought it would be filled with recipes but this is all about flavor and how to enhance it. Until recently, dishes were based on geography and what was available near you. Now that ingredients are available all over the world they are based on flavor. This book was eight years in the making and is meant to inspire greater, more innovative creations. This guide to hundreds of different ingredients along with different seasonings, herbs and spices will allow you t...more

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May 19, 2009 Bobbie Crawford-McCoy rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Anyone who cooks...this is a reference guide, not a cookbook.

Shelves: books-that-i-own, all-reviews, cookbook-reviews, non-fiction-reviews

The Flavor Bible
Written By: Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg
Photographs By: Barry Salzman
Published By: Little, Brown and Company an Imprint of Hachette Book Group, 2008, First Edition, 392 pages, hardcover
ISBN 978-0316118408

This reverence guide is versatile, detailed and it has been exhaustively researched. With many basic ingredients, basic cooking ideas and simple dishes listed alphabetically, this guide is a wonderful resource for anyone who wants to cook regardless of experience or lack ther...more

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Aug 23, 2009 Marian rated it 5 of 5 stars

Excellent book for all my friends who say they "cook from the hip" and don't use recipes. This is a book that explores flavor affinities. For example, If you had some pork sausages, you could make them taste like many different cuisines. They could be Spanish or German or Italian or Korean based on the accompanying flavor notes. I really enjoyed how you could look up an ingredient and be inspired by all the flavors suggested. Not a cook book more of a chef's book. Got to buy it for myself.

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Aug 10, 2011 Rachel rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book is one of the most helpful tools in my kitchen. It lists food alphabetically and each entry has a number of flavor suggestions. For instance: FRENCH TOAST. Maple syrup. Bananas. Sausage. Some flavor combinations are so out-there that I'd never have thought of trying them, while others are obvious. There are also little sidebars full of advice, descriptions of chef's dishes, and more. I love this book and I recommend it to any cook who likes to create recipes from scratch!

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About Karen Page

Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg have been called the brightest young author team on the culinary scene today's on NPR. Their previous books Becoming a Chef, Dining Out, and The New American Chef have all been finalists for or winners of James Beard and/or IACP Book Awards.

Their landmark book Culinary Artistry, the first- known reference on culinary composition and flavor compatibility, establishe...more

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title link	preview: The Flavor Bible: The Essential Guide to Culinary Creativity, Based on the Wisdom of America's Most Imaginative Chefs
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