Ingredient : Unveiling the Essential Elements of Food

Any good cook knows that the end result is greatly influenced by what is initially put into a dish. But not many people understand why or how the results come about. This incredibly enlightening book is not a standard cookbook; it’s not a cookbook at all. Instead, it is a guidebook, almost a textbook, that teaches you the eight fundamental ingredients and how they interact to create the wide variety of textures and flavors in our foods. The eight Ingredients are water, carbohydrates, sugars, lipids, protiens, minerals, gases, and heat. Each chapter talks about an ingredient – its characteristics, how it reacts and interacts with foods, what is important about it, and different cooking techniques based on it. While extremely informative and scientifically-based, the writing is highly accessible without condescension; surprisingly little text conveys a huge amount of information. The pages are beautifully designed to illustrate the text, with copious photos, drawings, and diagrams. Brilliantly adding to the book’s charm, each chapter is illustrated with a different artistic medium; for example, the water chapter is illustrated with watercolors, while the lipid chapter is painted in oils. This book explodes with exciting revelations for everyone from the novice to the master chef.