Lateral Cooking

You could cook from it over a whole lifetime, and still be learningNigella 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 TheFlavour 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 Nikis 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 youve 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 thats where the fun really begins.