It's The Anniversary Of The Bible!
No, not that bible -- The Flavor Bible -- by my talented friends Karen A. Page and Andrew Dornenburg. Here's a bit from a piece in Publishers Weekly by Lynn Andriani about why the book just celebrated its one-year anniversary on Amazon's "Cooking, Food & Wine" top 100 bestseller list:
The Flavor Bible teaches readers to cook without recipes, inspired by tried-and-true compatible flavors. Authors Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg, a husband-and-wife team who have written a string of books chefs love, think of the book as "a thesaurus of flavors that work well together." The book explains, for instance, that tropical fruit goes with lime juice, lime zest and rum; quail is well-matched with thyme and vinegar; and that one of Swedish cuisine's main flavors is dill (and that you should avoid garlic and piquancy when making Swedish dishes). It's a smart, useful book that won a 2009 James Beard Award and has garnered praise from publications ranging from O to the Chicago Tribune to the popular food blog 101 Cookbooks. Little, Brown published The Flavor Bible a year ago this week--and went into its fourth printing this summer, marking 65,000 copies in print. Page says The Flavor Bible is hers and Dornenburg's fastest selling book ever.
(and that you should avoid garlic and piquancy when making Swedish dishes).
Avoid garlic in Swedish dishes? That's like avoiding pasta in a Chinese dinner. There's no place for it at any time. The year I lived in Sweden I ran across people who simply couldn't stomach anything with any garlic in it. Strange, but then they are strange people.
Jim at September 14, 2009 12:37 PM
Cute, though.
Amy Alkon at September 14, 2009 1:34 PM
This sounds like a cool book. I'm a good scratch cook and rarely use recipes anymore, but I've gleaned a lot of flavor combos that work from the days when I was more recipe-bound. I bet I could still learn a lot from this. Thanks for posting.
Whatever at September 14, 2009 6:37 PM
This sounds like the kinda book that is dangerous in the wrong hands...
Not everyone should be encouraged to experiment - just like not everyone knows how to coordinate their outfits.
Ben-David at September 15, 2009 2:37 AM
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