' You could cook from it over a whole lifetime and still be learning ' Nigella Lawson 'A
rigorous nuts-and-bolts bible of a book' Jay Rayner Observer ' Lateral Cooking... uncovers
the very syntax of cookery' Yotam Ottolenghi 'Astonishing and totally addictive' Brian Eno
The groundbreaking book that reveals the principles underpinning all recipe creation from the
author of the bestselling The Flavour Thesaurus Do you feel you that you follow recipes
slavishly without understanding how they actually work ? Would you like to feel freer to adapt
to experiment to play with flavours? Niki Segnit author of the landmark book The Flavour
Thesaurus gives you the tools to do just that. Lateral Cooking is organised into 77
'starting-point' recipes including plenty of tips for substituting ingredients and reducing
the phenomenal variety of world cuisine down to its bare essentials - and then building it back
up again. So under 'Bread' we learn that flatbreads oatcakes buckwheat noodles chapattis
and tortillas are all variations on one theme. A few simple tweaks and you can make soda bread
scones or cobbler. And so on through breads and batters broths stews and dals one dish
leading to another. Lateral Cooking is as inspirational and entertaining a read as it is a
practical guide. Once you have the hang of each starting point a wealth of new flavour
combinations awaits each related in Niki's signature combination of culinary science history
chefs' wisdom and personal anecdote. You will realise that recipes that you had thought were
outside of your experience are reassuringly similar to things you've made a dozen times before.
It will give you the confidence to experiment with flavour and the variations that follow are
a springboard of inspiration to the contents of your fridge and kitchen cupboards. You will in
short learn to cook 'by heart'- and that's where the fun really begins.
