Flavor Bible : The Essential Guide to Culinary Creativity, Based on the Wisdom of America's Most Imaginative Chefs

Widely hailed as one of the most influential cookbooks of all time, this is the timeless, classic guide to culinary creativity and flavor exploration, based on the wisdom of the world's most innovative chefs 

Eight years in the making, The Flavor Bible is a landmark book that has inspired the greatest creations of innovative cooks and chefs by serving as an indispensable guide to creativity and flavor affinities in today's kitchen.  

Cuisine is undergoing a startling historic transformation: With the advent of the global availability of ingredients, dishes are no longer based on geography but on flavor. This radical shift calls for a new approach to cooking—as well as a new genre of “cookbook” that serves not to document classic dishes via recipes, but to inspire the creation of new ones based on imaginative and harmonious flavor combinations. 

The Flavor Bible is your guide to hundreds of ingredients along with the herbs, spices, and other seasonings that will allow you to coax the greatest possible flavor and pleasure from them. This astonishing reference distills the combined experience of dozens of America's most innovative culinarians, representing such celebrated and transformative restaurants as A Voce, Blue Hill, Café Atlántico, Chanterelle, Citronelle, Gramercy Tavern, the Herbfarm, Jardinière, Jean Georges, Le Bernardin, the Modern, and the Trellis. You'll learn to: 

• Explore the roles played by the four basic tastes—salty, sour, bitter, and sweet—and how to bring them into harmony;
• Work more intuitively and effectively with ingredients by discovering which flavors have the strongest affinities for one another;
• Brighten flavors through the use of acids—from vinegars to citrus juices to herbs and spices such as Makrut lime and sumac;
• Deepen or intensify flavors through layering specific ingredients and techniques;
• and balance the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual aspects of cooking and serving an extraordinary meal.

Seasoned with tips, anecdotes, and signature dishes from the country's most respected chefs and pastry chefs, The Flavor Bible is an essential book for every kitchen library. 

For more inspiration in the kitchen, look for The Vegetarian Flavor Bible and Kitchen Creativity. 

Recently cited as two of a dozen "international culinary luminaries" along with Patrick O'Connell, Alice Waters, and Tim and Nina Zagat (in Relais & Chateaux's L'Ame et L'Esprit magazine), the award-winning authors Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg have written several groundbreaking books chronicling and celebrating America's culinary revolution. What to Drink with What You Eat, Becoming a Chef, Dining Out, and The New American Chef were all winners of or finalists for Gourmand World Cookbook, IACP, and/or James Beard book awards. In March 2007, Page and Dornenburg were named weekly wine columnists for the Washington Post. Karen Page is a graduate of Northwestern and Harvard Business School. Andrew Dornenburg studied with the legendary Madeleine Kamman at the School for American Chefs and has cooked professionally in top restaurants in New York City. Their Web site is KarenAndAndrew.com.