Cook Color: A Rainbow of 100 Recipes

Eat the rainbow. Cook Color celebrates the beauty of fresh fruits, vegetables, herbs, and spices, in a collection of 100 all-natural, monochrome recipes that reveal a tantalizing world of taste, texture, and seasonal eating like you've never seen before.
 
What is the flavor of sunshine? The taste of forest green? Does the red of a pepper evoke the warmth of its spice? Cook Color reveals a whole new way of thinking about food. Author Maria Zizka introduces readers to ideas from color theory and cooking sciences, explaining how to master food styling and cooking techniques to enhance and preserve color, without any artificial additives. But cooking by color isn’t just about looks; it is an approach that draws connections between aesthetics, seasonality, and flavor. Arranged in a gradient, the recipes begin with creamy shades of white—from a coconut cod and rice bowl to a garlicky bean and cauliflower salad. Yellows evoke the bright flavors in Margarita Bars, reds bring forward fiery tastes in dishes like Mapo Ragù with Rice Cakes, and greens highlight fresh and herbal flavors with dishes like Matcha and Mint Ice Cream Sundae or Zhoug-Marinated Feta and Fava Toasts. Blues, purples, and blacks present revelations: a butterfly pea flower boa stuffed with blue oyster mushroom, a classic Italian grape focaccia turned on its head with the addition of purple ube, and elegant black tahini cookies. To tie it all together, Zizka presents a special section of Color Menus, where she teaches readers how to use food to create palettes that evoke a sense of season, theme, or even a place: a Valentine’s menu decorated with red and pink indulgences, a spring menu featuring all fresh flavors and pastel tones, a seafood-focused menu of blue and coral hues to conjure a tropical ocean vibe. Cook Color is a celebration of eating beautifully and creatively, at any moment and for any occasion.

Maria Zizka is the author of numerous award-winning cookbooks. She studied biology at UC Berkeley and food culture at UNISG in northern Italy, where she now teaches as a visiting lecturer. She was named by Forbes as one of the most influential people under 30 in the world of food and drink. Zizka lives and cooks in the Berkeley Hills with her husband and son. Her favorite color to eat is green.