][1]In a short space of time, this blogger is going to down tools and dive into a large bucket of mince pies. Until then, here’s my one suggestion should you still need a last minute Christmas present for the foodie in your life.
It’s a book called The Flavour Thesaurus. It’s written by Niki Segnit, a woman who has spent the last twenty years working in food and drink marketing for some of the world’s biggest brands.
She is not a celebrity chef; she has never run a professional kitchen and, as far as I am aware, she hasn’t even appeared on MasterChef. Nonetheless, her book is more useful than a dozen of Jamie’s because it doesn’t so much give recipes as explain why certain flavours work well together.
Understand that and you understand why certain dishes work and why others don’t. In a sense, reading this book should be the first step for anyone who wants to move beyond slavishly following recipes. Unlike many a celeb cook book, it doesn’t assume that you are an idiot or a novice in the kitchen.
As Segnit puts it: ‘I’ve assumed you know that you usually need to add salt to savoury dishes, taste and adjust them before you serve, turn off the cooker when you are finished and fish out any ingredients that might choke your loved ones.’
You could use it as a recipe book but it is so well researched and wittily written that you could also just sit down with a glass of wine and read it straight through.
Essentially, the book looks at 99 flavours, tells you why they taste they way they do and what pairs well with them.
I think it’s very funny. This is her opening salvo for discussing why chocolate and almond go well together:
‘What does parental guilt taste like? Chocolate and almond, the ingredients in the Toblerone your Dad grabbed at the airport instead of a pair of maracas or a genuine bear’s paw.’
That’s it for me. See you on the other side and have a Merry Christmas.