To illustrate what we mean by complexity, let’s refer to the chart at right: Types of aromatic complexity. Firefly Books Expand your search by looking up the grid for one of the suggested pairings, and start building aromatic bridges between different ingredients. The Art & Science of Foodpairing. Firefly Books Contrasting textures The Foodpairing(R) directory - 10 pairings per food, 10 per cooking method, 10,000 combinations in total. Foodpairing(R) - What it is, how it works, methodology; the database; how to create a well-balanced recipe. The omnivore's dilemma - Including the conflict between playing safe and boredom, and the search for variety and novelty; learned food association; acquired tastes. Aroma - Including the importance of aroma to our flavor experience; how we change aromas by cooking; how ingredients create different or similar results; building your aroma library. Smell - Including how people smell and perceive aromas; why smell is essential to the eating experience. The Foodpairing(R) directory - 10 pairings per food, 10 per cooking method, 10,000 combinations in total. The book also covers key food characteristics, aroma profiles, classic dishes, contemporary combinations, scientific explanations, special features and contributions from some of the world's greatest chefs for the top 150 ingredients, and much more. Smell - Including how people smell and perceive aromas; why smell is essential to the eating experience.

Summary: This is good if you are very into food and mixing together random stuff. For those that do this naturally, it's a nice reiteration, but not earth shattering. For those that can only use a recipe, this may be quite a bit more insightful as to why there are those that don't need one. There are five - or six, depending on who you ask - basic tastes: salty, sweet, sour, bitter, umami, and fat. "Over three-quarters of the aroma molecules in garlic are sulphurous vegetal notes that smell like garlic and onions; some of these compounds are unique to garlic and are not found in other vegetables. Slicing or crushing a clove of garlic triggers chemical reactions that cause new sulphurous aroma molecules to form. Every bite of food contains hundreds if not thousands of volatile compounds, which I will refer to as aromatic compounds. And as that name suggests, it is the smell of these compounds that dictates flavor." The length and/or height of each wavy band of color indicates the concentration of an aroma type present. When you are learning to work with aromas, start with no more than five ingredients—this makes it easier to maintain balance as you refine your pairings. In addition to your choice of ingredients and the personal or cultural preferences of your diners, optimizing complexity is determined by the following elements: the total number of different aroma molecules present in a recipe; the type of aroma types and descriptors each ingredient contributes to a dish, and whether they share any similarities; in addition to which taste molecules are also present. The more distinguishable elements stand out in your dish, the more complex it becomes.

The major reason I removed a star is that I don't think it goes into texture as much as it should other than to say it's important. I think there's not as great an understanding of texture mixes. Also, I didn't find the recipes (upon reading them) by the AI to be earth shattering. Interesting for sure, but I just think the better skill is to take what's left in your pantry and make that taste good. I think this book has a lot of interesting information but as a professional Food Scientist who specializes in the sensory properties of food, I wish the author had gone about this differently.The wheel consists of two separate rings: the inner ring displays the fourteen different aroma types, and the broken outer ring indicates the concentrations of available aroma descriptors. Foodpairing(R) - What it is, how it works, methodology; the database; how to create a well-balanced recipe. As an instructor at one of the world’s top culinary schools, James Briscione thought he knew how to mix and match ingredients. Then he met IBM Watson. Working with the supercomputer to turn big data into delicious recipes, Briscione realized that he (like most chefs) knew next to nothing about why different foods taste good together. That epiphany launched him on a quest to understand the molecular basis of flavor—and it led, in time, to The Flavor Matrix .