The Flavor Matrix: The Art and Science of Pairing Common Ingredients to Create Extraordinary Dishes

I purchased this book for a project we are creating around food. So far I have found it to be quite helpful in understanding and determining which foods work well together and for idea inspiration. It has actually boosted my own culinary creativity in the kitchen and given me many ideas. Once you understand how flavours work together then cooking will become so much easier and fun.

as a chef i am alwys looking for new books this was a gift for someone and it is brilliant

I'm really quite torn reviewing this book. It is flawed in many ways, but the recipes in the book are original and truly fantastic. The flaws are pretty self-evident. Firstly, Imperial measurements only and (even worse!) solid ingredients measured by volume -- catering to an American-only audience is frustrating, but not altogether unsurprising from American authors. Less forgivable is the tendency for the book to contradict (or ignore) its pairing suggestions with its own recipes. It dilutes the message of the book and means I didn't really *learn* anything. All that said -- there's absolutely no denying that the recipes in this book are an absolute hit. - Sesame seed and avocado salad, fig vinegar and cocoa/chilli-rubbed beef? Incredibly easy mid-week meal. - Chocolate mousse with crisp beet meringue? A huge hit at Christmas this year. - Coffee-cured salmon? A new favourite with my wife. - Sweet pea, pork and coconut tacos? A Taco Tuesday regular. ...as well as a whole bunch more that have been successful and have demonstrated interesting, unusual food pairings. So, want a book specifically on the *art and science of pairing ingredients*? Skip this one. Want an interesting recipe book with some original and unexpected recipes? Definitely shortlist! Overall, I'd love to see the authors created an updated second edition with modern, international measurements and much closer attention to the pairings and recipes.

The kindle edition has pages cut off, you can't read the text on half the pages. The colour/text is illegible in a lot of places, amazon shouldn't be selling this faulty product.

The book is full of charts showing the associations between pairs of flavours. Unfortunately the author's text, commenting on flavour-pairings ignores or flatly contradicts the chart data. Consequently it is useless, except as a colorful coffee-table book.

While this could be really fascinating, the author explains in detail how to use his flavour matrix, and then for each ingredient lists "best pairings" that don't particularly conform to the information in the matrix, suggesting there is a better, hidden way to determine pairings that maybe we should be informed about in the book.

Seems like an excellent reference book. My one star refers to the Kindle edition. The book has not been formatted to read electronically. You have to zoom in and scroll across to read. In parts the text is in a coloured font on a decorative backround and is impossible to decipher, even zoomed in. The flavour charts loose the impact when zoomed as it is impossible to see all the necessary information at the one time. It is such a pity that the facility to view reviews by format is not available any more, if it was, I could have saved myself the hardship of returning. Yes, buy the book, but in print format.

I find it hard to read the Ebook as the texts badly written works are cut off in pictures. Clashes with colours. Even at 400% it's unreadable.

It's good

🤍

James Briscione y Brooke Parkhurst nos invitan a explorar los secretos detrás de las combinaciones de sabores que transforman platos comunes en extraordinarios. Este libro no es solo una guía culinaria, sino una ventana al fascinante mundo donde la ciencia y el arte de la cocina se encuentran. El corazón del libro es la matriz de sabores, una herramienta innovadora que desglosa ingredientes comunes según sus perfiles aromáticos y de sabor. A través de esta matriz, Briscione nos muestra cómo entender y aplicar principios científicos puede abrir nuevas posibilidades creativas en la cocina. Desde combinaciones clásicas hasta mezclas inesperadas, cada página ofrece una nueva perspectiva sobre cómo los ingredientes interactúan entre sí para crear experiencias gustativas únicas. Además de su enfoque científico, el libro está lleno de recetas prácticas y técnicas culinarias que ayudan a los lectores a llevar los conceptos teóricos a la práctica en su propia cocina. Briscione, con su experiencia como chef y educador culinario, presenta el contenido de manera accesible y entretenida, haciendo que la ciencia detrás de la gastronomía sea emocionante y comprensible para todos. Este libro no solo educa, sino que también despierta la creatividad y la curiosidad.

I am so absolutely obsessed with this book. If you’re looking for recipe inspiration or a creative foundation, this is it. I love that Briscione explains each ingredient and gives not only go-to pairings but also surprise pairings. All of this research is based on findings from IBM’s Watson supercomputer, which I’m so excited to be reading. Great book for food science nerds with a heavy emphasis on the science. Oh, and the pictures/charts are incredible too. Thank you, James! Let me emphasize that this is an inspiration book!! If Briscione gave you all the recipes, this book wouldn’t be as much fun, and would also be about 1000 pages long. I absolutely loved the sample recipe after each flavor - didn’t give too much away. I also loved the organization of this book - alphabetical order with ingredient names in the bottom right corner of the page! Made it really easy to find the ingredient I was toying with. One suggested edit: it would have been great to have the olive diagram from page 179 on page 11 so I wouldn’t have to flip back and forth while referred to on page 10. Another suggested edit: I wish the concentric rings in the flavor matrices were colored (or even a grey gradient) so I could see if a flavor is a stronger/weaker pairing than other flavor.

Very good book for cooking. Gives you lots of ideas for trying new flavours and mixing ingredients.