– Customer review on 22/05/2011

was keen to get my hands on this book as I was fed up with the idea that the hobby cook's role is one of 'follower of recipes'. The primary stated aim of the book was what you might imagine - to examine pairings of certain flavours. An admirable aim tackling a poorly represented segment of the market, and although I feel Ms. Segnit has made a fair start in this area.

– Customer review on 26/02/2011

I stumbled across Segnit's book while looking for a gift for a foodie friend, and loved it so much I bought my own.

This is a wonderful book, a guide to flavour pairings grouped in categories such as "sulphurous" - onion & beetroot, broccoli & lemon - and "spicy" - basil & coconut, parsnip & walnut.

For the most part, the author offers ideas rather than recipes and - thus - this is not a book for the beginner cook but for those of us who like to experiment but already have a level of skill in the kitchen.

Perhaps the best part, though, is not the pairings but the humour ! What a funny, intelligent person - and I've added her immediately to the list of people I'd like to invite to dinner !

A great gift, but also a great read - and a terrific addition to your cookbook collection.

– Customer review on 15/02/2011

This is a fabulous book to give a person who is already an accomplished cook and is bored with the usual run of the mill cookbook. It does not have step by step cooking guides rather it provides food riffs for a good cook to mix and match existing recipes that they know. It tells you of interesting and unusual food combinations that work but are unexpected. My sister who is a great cook loved it and read it chronologically to get tips to wow dinner parties. Fab gift to give to a person who will cook for you.

– Customer review on 23/09/2011

In this lively and exceptionally enjoyable book, Niki Segnit takes 160 popular ingredients and explores all the ways they might be combined in the kitchen. She has scoured thousands of recipes in countless recipe books, talked to dozens of food technologists and chefs, and visited hundreds of restaurants - all in her quest for flavour pairings. The result is a unique book that is full of quirky observations, practical information (hundreds of recipes are embedded in the narrative) and good jokes. Here are a couple of randomly chosen entries: Celery and Dill: Like a couple of spry septuagenarians who still bother to find the right necklace for their frock, wear silver shoes to the theatre and are more than capable of a waspish, flirty conversation if given the attention they deserve. Come alive in the red-blooded company of beef, or more workaday tinned tuna, but left to their own devices can make a thrifty but classy soup. Coriander Leaf and Peanut: Substitute coriander and peanut for basil and pine nuts and you have a delicious Vietnamese-style take on pesto. Process a large bunch of coriander leaf with a tbsp ground nut oil, a tsp fish sauce, maybe a few mint leaves if you have them, some chilli and a squeeze of lime. Add half a handful of ground peanuts. Toss through warm noodles - egg or rice - and serve with more peanuts scattered on top. Beautifully packaged, THE FLAVOUR THESAURUS is not only a highly useful, and covetable, reference book that will immeasurably improve your cooking - it's the sort of book that might keep you up at night reading.
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