Sake: A Modern Guide

by Beau Timken, Sara Deseran, Scott E. Peterson (Photographer)

Sake is hot, hot, hot (though the best are actually served cold). It's the hippest sip at the cocktail hour and, as the sommeliers will tell you, can be a delicious accompaniment to food. This fun and informative guide demystifies an age-old wine and explains the many types of sake and how to properly taste their complex flavors. Beau Timken's foolproof TasteMatch system profiles 50 suggested sakes and provides their beer and wine flavor equivalents, creating a simple-yet-effective resource for finding a perfect match. Plus, recipes for 30 sake cocktails and 15 sake-friendly dishes make sake appropriate for any occasion (try a refreshing glass of Sake Sangria, or surprise guests by pairing sake with Fettuccine with Shiitake Mushrooms and Pancetta). There's even a section on planning and hosting a sake-tasting party to share your newfound sake expertise. A contemporary look at a traditional drink, Sake captures 1,000 years of culture and updates it for the modern lifestyle. Kanpai!

Genres: Cookbooks

120 pages, Hardcover

First published March 30, 2006

Reviews

[Nicholas Lariviere · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ended up being more along the lines of a wikipedia entry with tasting notes and recipes.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

excited to now go to his tasting at his store in S.F.

[S. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a solid coffee-table book with a surprising number of ups and downs for something that considers itself to be a guide. As a Japanese speaker with a bit more background knowledge than the average English reader, I have to assume that I wasn't the target audience for this book. It is a very informative piece, with interesting historical anecdotes, but the Japanese vocabulary selection used to help the amateur discuss sake, as well as some of the "rituals" mentioned are a little off, despite their good intentions. I suspect that there was a fair amount of research done, but mostly through English venues and sources, leading to some of the same mistakes that you might see in a book like "The Chrysanthemum and the Sword."

All that said, this guide does do exactly what it sets out to. The cocktail selection may be thoroughly lacking, but the "50 sake to try" list is rather incredible. The flavor profiles seem to match up perfectly to the comparisons, and the various recipes for food pairings all seem rather apt, though admittedly I haven't attempted enough of them to know for certain.

Worth buying to have around if you plan on drinking a fair amount of sake in the future.

[Michael K. · Rating 3 out of 5]

a bit pedestrian - you could learn most of this stuff by doing a cursory search for "sake" on the internets - but Timken and Deseran are exuberant enough to make it worthwhile. The real meat of the thing are the cocktail and recommended sake sections - pretty much gold.

[Gillian Wang · Rating 3 out of 5]

sake is the only alcoholic drink that doesn't give me the feeling of passing out so I like it. this book is a good intro for beginners who want to know more about it. unfortunately it is too brief w a huge portion dedicated to sake compatible recipes. overall, a good read.

[Gerald Kinro · Rating 2 out of 5]

Beautiful illustrations. I am more interested in the process of brewing sake than I am in drinking it. For me, this is where it fell short. I have read other books on the subject that stressed the uniqueness of sake brewing, the parallel fermentation. Authors touch on it but not enough.

[LK · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very non-intimidating, user-friendly introduction to sake. Great for sake noobs.

[Garrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Less about technical sake information, more Izakaya-esque recipes and cocktails.