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| The Flavor Bible: The Essential Guide to Culinary Creativity, Based on the Wisdom of America's Most Imaginative Chefs | 
 enlarge | Authors: Karen Page, Andrew Dornenburg
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Category: Book
List Price: $35.00
Buy New: $20.47
You Save: $14.53 (42%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 340
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 392
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3.1
Dimensions (in): 10.1 x 7.6 x 1.7
ISBN: 0316118400
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.5
EAN: 9780316118408
ASIN: 0316118400
Publication Date: September 16, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 7 more reviews...
 Flavor, because you can't live on Bread and Water alone September 17, 2008
14 out of 14 found this review helpful
Flavor is the basis for all food, without it, the world would seem less colorful, lifeless, and bland. Food isn't just about what you can taste in your mouth but also what you feel in your heart, what you can see with your eyes, and what you smell with your nose. That's what is presented in this book.
What Culinary Artistry showcased was that food can be art. That colors structure on a plate can evoke emotions the same as any other art work. And like any art work, is in the eye of the beholder.
What to Drink with What You Eat gave us the understanding that beverages (not just wine) can be paired and should be though of as a condiment when had with food. Would you put yellow mustard on a Porter House, it goes the same for pairing any red wine with a cut of beef.
The Flavor Bible talks about, well, flavor; but more then that, it talks about what flavor is and how we perceive it, receive it, balance it and emphasize it. All coming to the climax which is a very in depth list (3/4ths of the book) of ingredient detailing its profile (weak, strong), seasonality, and every herb, spice, fruit, vegetable, meat, fish, poultry and alcoholic related item and what would go exceptionally well with it.
What's that you say, Culinary Artistry already went over that? Well you would be correct but it didn't tell you when the ingredient was in season or what is flavor profile is, did it? What it also talks about is the break down of the different cuts of meat such as beef, lamb, pork, and poultry all broken up into their respected parts and given their own listings.
So, if it is so good, why did I give it only 4 stars? The list for the most part is just an update from Culinary Artistry; most flavors companions haven't change since the days of Escoffier. I would have liked more detail in what flavors such as sweet, bitter, sour, salty, go well together and which once counteract the other. This isn't so much a book as it is a reference point and I'm okay with that.
Culinary Artistry was my best friend going through culinary school and now I have a great addition that I am sure I'll end up burning through as I did my other 2 copies of Culinary Artistry. If you are even the slightest bit interested in cooking or making good food taste better then you can't go wrong buying this book.
 Empowering Tool for Deliciousness September 19, 2008
9 out of 11 found this review helpful
Prolific culinary author duo Page and Dornenburg are at it again! Supplying truly remarkable, creative,useful tools for the chef who desires max delicisiosio for their guests.
This continues their trajectory in the earlier "Culinary Artistry" of not being prescriptive but rather equip/resource/inspire the chef who wants to approach max flavor and happiness in their gourmet outpourings. They have extended their approach to this from CA to this offering, which is some sixty pages less, but with some great additions. They axed the frequent representative recipes of the country's greatest chefs, and added some useful features. I checked and compared some of my favorite ingredients in the two books, e.g. in blackberries, they expanded it by over 35 ingredients, and omitted what I counted, 4. Additionally they intensified the imaginative pairings by looking at such as seasonality, taste, weight, volume, techniques, flavor affinitives. You'll find this great system on everything from nuts, herbs, cheeses, liquors/wines, Major cuisines, fruits, veggies, grains, pastas, etc.
This is truly the stuff that chefs who want to explore new combinations or expand old reliables will be inspired by. For instance, I truly enjoy using this also to write down my additional learned pairings, e.g. peach salsa with swordfish.
The continued chef comments on how they individually approach the idea of flavor combos is enlightening.
My only minor comment is that I would have wished that they refrained from use of "Bible." Some just would rather not see this applied to such contexts. Wonderful subtitle would have worked: Essential Guide to Culinary Creativity, or maybe better: Essential Guide to Deliciousness?
Expanding chefs will want this fine resource, and will wear out its pages as we have CA and their offering on What to Drink with What You Eat. Keep 'em coming, Karen and Andrew.
An extraordinary book! October 13, 2008
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
I recently added this book to my cookbook collection, which numbers more than 1,000 volumes (probably more like 1200 but I'm still cataloging). It has immediately become one of my favorites (and definitely my #1 favorite in English). If you are a serious cook, love to read cookbooks like novels, and view recipes as suggestions rather than as requiring strict adherence to precise measurements, then this is the book for you! (Did I say I LOVE this book?)
I make all of the desserts for my husband's restaurant. If I snag some particularly luscious fruit and want to make it into a dessert, this is the book I reach for first. I don't WANT to be told how to make a fruit sorbet. I already know how. But I love having a list of suggested flavors and products that go with what I already have. It's like having an uber-creative friend at your side saying "hey, why not try THIS?"
And if you are not an experienced cook, this book provides invaluable guidance that a recipe book never could. It is wholly different from every food book I have ever read.
The book is clever, useful, and obviously the product of prodigious research. To the authors, I send my humble gratitude. You have made my life immeasurably easier, and my dishes far more interesting than ever before.
This book is a must-read if you love to eat or love to cook. I have already bought six copies and have given two as gifts. It's THAT good.
Love Love this book September 18, 2008
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
This book is the answer to most of your combination questions.I have created my own recipes from just looking up what I have on hand (anything from a meat to veggies and the book helps you combine just the right flavors.Have already given it as gifts!Love love this book,I spend time just dreaming up new dinners for my family.
A sophistaicated basic for every chef! September 18, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
The Flavor Bible, from the award winning authors of : What to drink with what you eat, reads like a novel (with beautiful photo's) and gives every cook the ability to become a chef! I often create in my kitchen, a pinch of this and a bit of that. Some of my dishes are great and some disasters. I begged a review copy of this book and I have had no more kitchen mistakes. This is, indeed, The Flavor Bible.
I just bought 40 copies for my son's teachers, my friends and family and all the young people I know who are setting up their first home. Entertaining is much more fun when you have the confidence to create. I have a thumbs up from my teen on the change in my nightly dinners. Thank you Flavor Bible! Thank you Karen Page and Andrew Dorenburg
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