Book Review

Elizabeth Field gets elemental with matters of taste

"The Elements of Taste"
by Gray Kunz and Peter Kaminsky
Little, Brown and Company, $40

I wish I'd had two weeks to cook out of this elegant, beautifully designed hard-cover. Its authors set forth a methodology for home cooks to analyse and ultimately understand flavours the way an expert chef would when creating vibrant, complex dishes. It's a lofty goal, not achievable overnight.

Kunz, a top-rated Manhattan chef of Swiss-Irish parentage, who was raised in Singapore, is known for his refined "fusion" cuisine _ i.e., tamarind-glazed flank steak with mango jicama salsa; ham hocks and spareribs in cherry beer. He and Kaminsky, a food writer and critic for New York magazine, arrange the great spectrum of culinary tastes, aromas and textures into 14 categories. (The model for this approach in the wine world is component tasting.)

Sweet, salty and picante (peppery) tastes "push" other flavours forward. Vinted, bulby (onion and leek family), spiced aromatic, floral herbal, and funky (a nicer word for "stinky", as in Camembert) tastes "pull," or highlight, other flavours. Sharp/bitter flavour "punctuates" other tastes on the palate. And typical "main-course" ingredients have been re-classified as "taste platforms" - garden, meaty, oceanic and starchy.

Sounds complicated?

It is.

After poring over the 23-page textbook-like introduction, I prepared one of the book's 130 recipes, which are arranged logically according to the above classification. Summer Squash with Tomato and Cheddar in Chardonnay, Lemon Thyme Emulsion involved three mini-dishes - the delicate floral emulsion, hearty stuffed courgettes, and a tangy tomato-based vinaigrette. None of the preparations were hard, but the lovely finished dish took time.

Fortunately, there's a Chef's Larder section featuring 43 versatile, make-ahead side elements (a pink lentil, turmeric and green peppercorn breading mixture sounds particularly exciting), which might be a good place for a reader to start. Kunz readily admits that these elemental broths, glazes, spice mixtures, sauces, pickles, etc, are staples of top professional kitchens.

So, if you're seeking a definitive chef's book that will definitely expand your knowledge of the nuances of flavour, this is it. You just may not have time to do the work.

Buy this book by clicking here

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