The best books on Taste

liuzhou · October 11, 2018

Interesting

kayb · October 11, 2018

Fascinating.

Rico · July 14, 2019

I just bought the Fat Duck cookbook and The Perfect Meal based on this - has anyone else out there read any of these? Any of the others worth looking into, in your opinion?

teonzo · July 14, 2019

The Fat Duck Cookbook is a must read, tons of great content there. The Perfect Meal is very good too.

Some other titles I know about:

Bredie + Petersen - "Flavour Science: Recent Advances and Trends"

Never read.

Chartier François - "Taste Buds and Molecules"

He is a Canadian sommelier who cooperated with elBulli. This book was originally printed in French ("Papilles et Molecules: La Science Aromatique des Aliments et des Vins"), then translated in English (not a great translation) and in Spanish ("Papilas y moléculas: La ciencia aromática de los alimentos y el vino"). It's a sort of scientific explanation on how flavour works, not as advanced as other titles in this list.

Chartier François - "L'essentiel de Chartier : L'ABC des harmonies aromatiques à table et en cuisine"

Original version is in French, then it was translated in Spanish ("La cocina aromática: Toda la ciencia de los aromas para cocinar en casa"), no English version as far as I know. It's a bit similar to "The Flavor Bible": the author considers some ingredients, for each one he gives a table of suggested pairings, then some descriptions and suggested dishes. Much less ingredients here than on the "The Flavor Bible" so get that one first.

Choi + Han - "How Flavor Works: The Science of Taste and Aroma"

Great book with scientific explanations on how we perceive flavors.

Kunz + Kaminsky - "The Elements of Taste"

Kunz was the chef of what was considered the best restaurant in New York at that time. This is an attempt to explain how to build a dish. Far from a definitive guide (I think that's an impossible task), not the best on this list, but it deserves a read, you can find it used for really cheap.

Mouritsen + Styrbaek - "Umami: Unlocking the Secrets of the Fifth Taste"

Very good book on umami.

Mouritsen + Styrbaek - "Mouthfeel: How Texture Makes Taste"

Great book on what the title says.

Page + Dornenburg - "Culinary Artistry"

As far as I know this was the first book to give tables for suggested pairings. It has some good text too.

Page + Dornenburg - "The Flavor Bible"

This is made almost entirely of pairing tables. See it as a guide and not as a bible: there are various famous pairings missing; there are some inconsistencies (on ingredient A they suggest B, on ingredient B they don't suggest A); some things have no sense (pairings for "summer" or for "Italian food"). Even with all these faults I would say it's a must buy.

Page Karen - "The Vegetarian Flavor Bible"

Same as "The Flavor Bible", this one has only ingredients used in vegetarian cuisine. It's not based on the previous book, so you will get different content.

Page Karen - "Kitchen Creativity"

A weak attempt on finding a formula for creativity. Such a task has no sense in my opinion: creativity means going out of the schemes, if you write a scheme for creativity then it stops being so. The original content by the author is average at best, the excerpts from chefs' interviews are worth reading. I'd say the weakest book on this list.

Patterson + Aftel - "The Art of Flavor: Practices and Principles for Creating Delicious Food"

Great book on the intersection between cookery and perfumery.

Piqueras-Fiszman + Spence - "Multisensory Flavor Perception: From Fundamental Neuroscience Through to the Marketplace"

Never read. One of the 2 authors is the same of "The Perfect Meal".

Prescott John - "Taste Matters: Why We Like the Foods We Do"

Never read.

Shallenberger R. S. - "Taste Chemistry"

Never read.

Shepherd Gordon - "Neurogastronomy: How the Brain Creates Flavor and Why It Matters"

Never read.

Shepherd Gordon - "Neuroenology: How the Brain Creates the Taste of Wine"

Never read.