Lateral Cooking: Foreword by Yotam Ottolenghi

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Whether or not you like the book will depend on how willing you are to go with Segnit’s basic conceit of the cooking continuum, how important you feel it is to understand cooking from that perspective and if you agree that it will turn you into an instinctive cook (if you are not one already) and if that’s what you want to be. Her background is in marketing, specialising in food and drink, and she has worked with many famous brands of confectionary, snacks, baby foods, condiments, dairy products, hard liquors and soft drinks. The result is greater creativity in the Lateral Cooking encourages improvisation, resourcefulness, and, ultimately, the knowledge and confidence to cook by heart. Lateral Cooking is essentially a practical book, but like The Flavour Thesaurus it’s also a highly enjoyable read.

The recipes in each chapter are then arranged on a continuum, the transition from one recipe to another generally amounting to a tweak or two in the method or ingredients.It’s a great book for reading about food and Segnit does a great job of taking cooks through a basic approach to a food and showing how other foods relate to it. Once you have the hang of each starting point, a wealth of flavour possibilities awaits, each related in Niki's signature combination of culinary science, history, chefs' wisdom and personal anecdote. At over 600 pages long, its a brick of a book, with densely packed pages illustrated only by simple red ink line drawings.

So, in addition to the flavouring suggestions, each starting point recipe comes with a list of ‘leeway’ bullet points that illustrate the different ways the basic recipe can be prepared and variations in ingredients (and this is before you get on to the more major variations of the flavouring suggestions). This may result in small marks to the dustjacket and title page, please also bear in mind that each signature will be a little different from the one we show here. It will give you the confidence to experiment with flavour, and adapt with the seasons or the contents of your fridge. Lateral Cooking offers these formulas, which, once readers are familiar with them, will prove infinitely adaptable. You will find yourself inventing novel dishes, just by applying the logic from this book, with surprising results.The recipes in each chapter are arranged on a continuum, passing from one to another with just a tweak or two to the method or ingredients. Entertaining, opinionated and inspirational, Lateral Cooking will have you torn between donning your apron and settling back in a comfortable chair. Lateral Cooking is a comprehensive work and notable academic achievement, taking a fresh perspective on a well worn subject that will have you thinking about cooking in a new way.