The Flavor Bible: The Essential Guide to Culinary Creativity, Based on the Wisdom of America's Most Imaginative Chefs Hardcover – Big Book, September 16, 2008

First I have to say... don't buy reference books for your Kindle. Ever. There may be exceptions, but i would not look for them. Kindle simply is not a format that lends itself to research reading or reference; not saying it's impossible, but, generally, it doesn't work well.Now that you've been duly warned, please, don't buy and then rate book *content* because they translate poorly into Kindle *format* unless that is it's primary binding. It's not fair to other readers to drive down the rating on a text's usefulness or interest based on one format. Amazon, of course, should separate them out, or give shoppers the option.The first thing I EVER read about Kindle is, don't buy anything you would normally be "leafing" through, using an index, depending on diagrams or graphics etc. (not the case here) or where formatting is otherwise an issue (e.g. tables). Maybe some years down the road it will improve, and I don't use a Kindle Fire, but I stick to this advice and it serves me well.Now as far as The Flavor Bible goes: If you are anything but a recipe-guided cook--for instance, if you are staring into your cupboards or fridge and wondering what will work with what--and like me, you are too inexperienced or genetically underendowed with smell and taste to figure it out on your own - you WANT this book. you NEED this book. This book is the most useful and most used in my kitchen.IMO, aside from basic culinary skills - how to to cook certain cuts of meat, or how to use a steamer, or how to make sauce, or how many courses to serve ,or what order your menu should proceed through, or how to butcher meat - whatever - this is the only book you will ever need.If you don't have basic culinary skills, you can find everything you need to know on the internet. i went from how to cook different meats, to how to make sauces, and up from there, using sites like about dot com. I'm no chef - i'm a basic cook - but my food is GOOD. Since I don't have a well-developed palate, this book is a life-saver. and of course, once you start learning, you can start jumping around. Now i *know* - am i in the mood for a cream based dish? pineapple? potato? thyme? curry? chicken? pork? and what am i going to do with these leftovers? wow - i can plan a week and have EVERYTHING work together!The hardback version is well bound, easily referenced, and contains literally thousands of cross-references and often suggestions on how to combine dishes and seasonings as well, based on a main ingredient, in a way you will never find on the internet.And it's not just about seasoning--you can look up literally almost any seasoning OR basic ingredient and find a long list of compatible ingredients/flavors, in alphabetical order, with advice to let you know what goes the very best, what goes well, and what works but may not be ideal. AND an index. So you can look up a meat, or a vegetable, or a seasoning, or most any ingredient, and get a long list of what you can safely combine (within reason).and of course the hardback props open well. it's a quality bind on a quality text that you can keep forever.

I love this book!! A must for anyone who loves to cook. Helps to bring new creativity to my cooking. Get it!!

Lovely

Wow! I'm an experienced home cook with a large global repertoire that came from a global career and having lived in 3 countries other than the US. This book is going go take my cooking to the next level! The "flavor affinities" and the "dishes" section will give me the confidence to emulate some of the best. Just buy the book if you are interested in food and cooking at a!!.

I love that this isn't a recipe book that tells me what to do moment by moment. Instead, it's a reference book that helps me to add flavor to my own dishes, flavor that differs from my own tried and trues. I love to cook and have been doing so for more years than I care to admit to. I don't always want a recipe to tell me what to do. Sometimes I just want to make something of my own creation. This book really helps with that. I've only had it a few days but it's already been quite useful. It lists flavors that different "experts" (doesn't say who the experts are unless I've missed it) use for particular ingredients. And it lists them in different type according to how many experts recommend that particular flavor combination. Bold type, all capitals, with an asterisk is use for the tried and true flavor combos. Small type, regular print (not bold) is for the least recommended but still mentioned by one or more. Those are the extremes, there are others in between.For instance, there are two pages on Asparagus, covering both regular and white. It begins with the season it's generally available (spring), the weight of the flavor (light-medium), the volume of the flavor (moderate) and the techniques (blanch, boil, deep-fry, pan roast, stir fry). Then it offers a list of the nuts, herbs and spices, other vegetables, cheeses, eggs, sauces, oils, salts, creams, stocks, etc. that work well with Asparagus. It then gives you Flavor Affinities, which are groups of flavorings that work well together such as asparagus + ham + morel mushrooms + Parmesan Cheese. It then offers some dishes from chefs in which Asparagus is featured such as Ricotta Gnocchi with Asparagus, Morels and Pine nuts from Dan Barber, Blue Hill at Stone Barns (Pocantico Hills, NY). Last, it gives a recommendation on how to make asparagus soup from Daniel Humm of NYs Eleven Madison Park: You need a lot of asparagus flavor. You need acidity. You need sweetness that will come from the asparagus. You need the right amount of salt. You need just the right amount of spice, so that it doesn't actually taste spicy. We use a lot of cayenne, but you would never know it is there; it is just an accent. You need fresh lime juice to finish. Then he discusses the balance of flavors in soup and how to manage that with this soup (sweat the asparagus). Instead of a recipe, you get a how to on making your own soup your way. The whole book has tips from chefs just like that.I'm going to love this part on "Chocolate/Cocoa-in general" Stuff that works well with chocolate! Experimenting time!!I hope I've given you an idea of what this excellent book can do for you.