It’s unusual to find a new cookbook that offers you a new way of looking at food. Julia Child did it with Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Mark Bittman did it with How to Cook Everything. J. Kenji Lopez-Alt did it with The Food Lab. Samin Nosrat did it with Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat. And now Nik Sharma is doing it with The Flavor Equation.
The Flavor Equation is part Indian cookbook, part science textbook. But it is also all heart. While Sharma talks about the chemical makeup of the aromas of food, he knows that what is really important is that it is aroma that tells us that a food has gone bad. Aroma is one of the things that connects us to the foods of our childhood, the foods we grew to love, and it is aroma that draws us to the kitchen because whatever is cooking smells so good.
He talks about the way pectin changes the color of a food, because the way a dish looks can draw us in. He offers up information on textures, because the mouthfeel of a food can increase or decrease our enjoyment of eating. And he looks at the effect of taste on emotions and the effect of emotions on taste, because he understands that our memories are key to our enjoyment of a plate of food. These are all part of the flavor equation.
Some of the science sections get a little intense. Either you’re really into that and you want to dig into those sections and understand all the chemistry. Or you’re uninterested or intimidated by the science, and that’s okay too. You don’t have to understand or care about all the science to know that these recipes are infused with flavor, texture, interest, and heart. But if you want to be that food nerd, Sharma offers up charts and data and resources to help you answer your every question about the science of food.
The recipes themselves are divided into 7 sections: Brightness, Bitterness, Saltiness, Sweetness, Savoriness, Fieriness, and Richness. Each of these chapters adds another layer of flavor, and gives home cooks more tools to add to their cooking to boost flavor and enjoyment. Brightness includes recipes like Roasted Butternut Squash + Pomegranate Molasses Soup, Spareribs in Malt Vinegar + Mashed Potatoes, and Lemon-Lime Mintade. Bitterness offers up Shaved Brussels Sprouts Salad, Sweet Potato Honey Beer Pie, and Chocolate Miso Bread Pudding.
Saltiness has recipes for Couscous with Sesame-Roasted Carrots and Feta, Lamb Chops with Scallion Mint Salsa, and Spiced Fruit Salad. Sweetness includes Honey + Turmeric Chicken with Pineapples, Masala Cheddar Cornbread, and Peppermint Marshmallows. Savoriness has Chicken Hakka Noodles, Shepherd’s Pie with Kheema + Chourico, and Coffee-Spiced Steak with Burnt Kachumber Salad. Fieriness includes recipes for Chicken Lollipops, Potato Pancakes, and Gingerbread Cake with Date Syrup Bourbon Sauce. And Richness has Crab Tikka Masala Dip, Roasted Eggplant Raita, and Chicken Coconut Curry.
With recipes for starters through desserts, even for snacks and drinks, The Flavor Equation brings a host of Indian and Indo-Chinese recipes to modern cooks. And the photography in this book is phenomenal. Sharma is a food stylist as well as cook, recipe creator, and blogger, so the pictures bring these dishes to life. And there are even some tips for improving your food photos too.
The Flavor Equation is one of those cookbooks that will not only teach you new recipes, it will teach you a whole new way to think about cooking. This is a book that will live on my cookbook shelf for many years, so that I can go back to it over and over, learning from it and cooking food that creates new memories for me and my family. This one is a keeper!
Egalleys for The Flavor Equation were provided by Chronicle Books through NetGalley, with many thanks.
