The Flavour Thesaurus
£14.90£19.00 (-22%)
Watch out for Niki’s long-anticipated follow-up, More Flavours focusing on plant-led pairings – coming in May 2023.
‘Delightful and informative … I love Niki’s style of writing – packed with knowledge and information, but conveyed with such a lightness of touch’ YOTAM OTTOLENGHI
‘The books I value most are those I return to again and again. Such has been the case with The Flavour Thesaurus’ NIGEL SLATER
‘An eclectic combination of dictionary, recipe book, travelogue and memoir … A deceptively simple little masterpiece’ SUNDAY TIMES
Ever wondered why one flavour works with another? Or lacked inspiration for what to do with a bundle of beetroot?
The Flavour Thesaurus was the first book to examine what goes with what, pair by pair and is divided into flavour themes including Meaty, Cheesy, Woodland and Floral Fruity. Within these sections it follows the form of Roget’s Thesaurus, listing 99 popular ingredients alphabetically, and for each one suggests unique flavour pairings that range from the classic to the bizarre.
You will find traditional pairings: pork & apple, lamb & apricot, cucumber & dill; contemporary favourites like chocolate & chilli and goat’s cheese & beetroot, and interesting but unlikely-sounding pairings like black pudding & chocolate, lemon & beef, blueberry & mushroom, and watermelon & oyster. There are nearly a thousand entries in all, with 200 recipes and suggestions embedded throughout the text.
Now featuring a new foreword by Bee Wilson and a fold-out poster of the flavour wheel, The Flavour Thesaurus is a highly useful, and covetable, reference book for cooking – it will keep you up at night reading.
Observer Book of the Year
Best Food Book – André Simon Food & Drinks Awards
Best First Book – Guild of Food Writers Awards
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Additional information
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing, First Edition (21 Jun. 2010) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Hardcover | 400 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 0747599777 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0747599777 |
| Dimensions | 14.2 x 3.5 x 21.7 cm |
by snowbunny
When I first ordered this book, I had decided I was at a point in my cooking “career” where I wanted to experiment more and start making up my own recipes. I was very aware, however, that I had very limited knowledge of flavour combinations. That’s when I heard of this book. I did some research, but it had only recently been published and there wasn’t a whole lot of press about it, so I decided to buy this and another, similar sounding book, the American “Flavor Bible”. On receipt of my two new books, I knew immediately which I preferred. This Flavour Thesaurus was relatively small (although thick), with no pictures and made from what felt like very low-grade paper. The Flavor Bible, in contrast, was big, glossy, with luxurious paper and filled with pictures. So, that was the one I picked up first. It was a fun read, albeit based around American chefs and restaurants that I had never heard of, but after only a few pages, the prose stopped and we ended up with nothing but table after table of flavour combinations. What a disappointment. I put it to one side and picked up The Flavour Thesaurus. Two hours later, I hadn’t managed to put it down and I had well and truly fallen in love with it. It is a truly inspirational book. The witty stories and observations for each and every combination make up for the roughness of the pages; in fact, after a while, this seems to add to the book’s charm. It is matter-of-fact, down-to-earth, rather cheeky at times; a good, honest book that doesn’t need to apply layers of gloss to sell it. The author herself gives opinions on the combinations in the book, not all of them entirely complimentary, which adds to the absolute humanity of the book. I really didn’t consider that it would be possible to read a book on this subject from cover-to-cover, but that is precisely what you can do. It reads like a collection of short stories from around the world, each one tempting you with thoughts of the flavours, so vivid at times that you can almost taste them. Alternatively, it can be picked up and used like a reference book. If you fancy a spot of goat’s cheese for lunch, consult The Flavour Thesaurus and see what you could be tempted to accompany it with. Something traditional like apricot or basil perhaps? Or why not try something different? Segnit suggests goat’s cheese and chilli. Or goat’s cheese and chocolate? Well, since everyone knows that chilli and chocolate are natural partners, why not combine all three?
by Kitty
Quite a cool concept book, thousands of flavour pairings. But in reality I’m not sure how useful it is to me… would probably be good for someone who does more baking since my tongue already knows what flavours go well together when cooking ????
by EarlybirdBookworm
This book has had stunning reviews in the national newspapers, and I decided to buy it as a present for my husband, the chef in our household. On the tube home, I had a quick flick through it out of curiosity…and I haven’t been able to part with it since.
The concept of `The Flavour Thesaurus’ is utterly, utterly genius. Segnit has taken 99 basic flavours (mint, coriander, basil, strawberry etc) and researched 980 pairings of them. The result is part recipe-book, part food memoir, part flavour compendium. (The English Language geek in me feels compelled to point out that `thesaurus’ is a misnomer – even similar flavours are NOT synonyms, jeez, though the book retains Roget’s format).
Some of these pairings are familiar, such as Bacon & Egg, whilst others (Avocado & Mango, anyone?) are not. Now and then, Segnit provides a recipe; many of these sound incredible, and despite being the most amateur of cooks, I reckon even I could manage many of them. Under Melon & Rose, for example, she merely tells you to drown a cantaloupe melon in rosewater syrup, so that it tastes like “a fruity take on gulab jamun”. Can you even read that sentence without wanting to dash to the supermarket for the ingredients?
Segnit also peppers the book with restaurant and dish recommendations – not in an insufferable shiny London lifestyle way, but in an enthusiastic, unpretentious, eating-out-with-your-mates “you really have to try this” way. If only she had supplied phone numbers so we could immediately make reservations.
The real revelation, though, is Segnit’s language. It is, quite simply, superb. Modern cookery writing seems to fall into three distinct camps: venomous snob, obsessed with tablecloths and ambience rather than the food itself; faux-geezer dahn the faux-pub; and flirty girl breathlessly enthusing over cake. With `The Flavour Thesaurus’, Segnit may well have ended the careers of many of these over-hyped morons.
For a start, her prose is endlessly entertaining. Breezy erudition sits alongside hilarious similes. She is a whizz with description: when she tells you that cloves on their own taste the same as sucking on a rusty nail, you half suspect she conducted a comparative taste test just to be sure. She incorporates references so wide-ranging that both Sybil Kapoor and Velma from Scooby Doo rate a mention. Then there are her unmissable riffs: p 148 instructs us on that “essentially unitary quantity, fishandchips”, and insists they must be served in “newsless newspaper” (never polystyrene boxes) and always eaten at a bus stop or “on the wall outside the petrol station”. Read about Instinctos and you will be snorting with laughter (and visiting Pizza Hut at the first excuse). I have now read `The Flavour Thesaurus’ from cover to cover, and still I have not finished.
I must temper my enthusiasm with a few tiny criticisms just to prove this is a genuine review. At nigh on £20 full price, it’s expensive for a book without illustrations or photographs (though note Amazon has since discounted it). It assumes a certain level of prior culinary knowledge, which was sometimes frustrating to a novice like me, though it won’t bother those with lots of cookbooks and greater competence in the kitchen. The integration of the recipes into the text – Elizabeth David and Simon Hopkinson style – can be irksome until you’ve got busy with post-it notes. The index needs further sub-division: `crab’, for example, offers 11 entries in the index, but the recipe for crab cakes is easily missed under Butternut Squash & Bacon.
But these are such minor complaints given the enormous appeal of this book. My husband hovers over it constantly, anxious for his promised present. My brother and my best friend have already asked to borrow it. `The Flavour Thesaurus’ is truly a classic in the making, and no foodie’s bookshelf is going to be complete without it.
EDITED TO ADD, the husband (Latin geek) points out that ‘thesaurus’ means treasury. Well, whatever language you’re using, this book is ACE.
UPDATE – JANUARY 2011 Recently, the aforementioned husband, brother and I went to a “book dinner” organised by a local restaurant with recipes inspired by ‘The Flavour Thesaurus’, at which the author read from her book. Niki Segnit was lovely and exactly as she comes across in the text – funny, clever, and passionate about food in a very down-to-earth way. There was much discussion and disagreement about which flavour combinations worked, but most options on the menu were utterly delicious. If you get the chance to do this, I highly recommend the experience.
UPDATE – FEBRUARY 2011 In response to comments below, my husband and I were both wrong – ‘thesaurus’ is Greek! Also, a fellow customer reviewer has expressed scepticism about the number of positive votes I’ve had for this review. I don’t know why I’ve had so many votes (though I’m very grateful for the ones I’ve received), but I haven’t been voting for myself, and I don’t have 200 friends to vote on my behalf. In response to his/her insinuations, I also want to make clear I’m not related to this or any other author, nor paid by anyone – including Amazon – to submit reviews (more’s the pity). Please also click on the link which leads to my other reviews so you can see that I regularly leave critical reviews as well as “effusive” ones. Of course other readers may disagree with my opinion of this book; but it has been a bestseller, and the author now writes for The Times, so I’m definitely not her only fan. As always, your mileage may vary.
by Fiona W
It is an actual thesaurus. No illustrations, but the most amazing descriptions of flavour pairings, with the occasional recipe. Niki Segnit’s way with words (describing scallops and black pudding as “a white-clad ingenue trembling on a filthy old man’s knee” for example) is certainly arresting and at times laugh out loud funny. I have tried her clove-infused onion and chicken sandwich (glorious) and am about to pair some home grown figs with goats cheese and prosciutto on her recommendation. A bedside table book of dreams.