The Elements of Taste [Hardcover]

Gray Kunz (Author), Peter Kaminsky (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 24, 2001

Four-star chef Gary Kunz has teamed up with food writer Peter Kaminsky to put together a cookbook that looks precisely at what taste is. From "aromatic" to "floral herbal" to "picante", they have identified the 14 basic tastes in the chef's palate. Each of the book's 130 recipes teaches the reader how to use these fundamental building blocks, establishing basic principles so that the reader will have not only the means for creating his or her own masterpieces, but also the language to describe what the inner dynamic of flavour is. Wine lovers have long had a vocabulary to describe the complexity of wines, but gourmands have had no such lexicon - until now!

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Kunz (former four-star chef of New York's Lespinasse restaurant) and Kaminsky (New York Times food writer and author of The Moon Pulled Up an Acre of Bass) team up for a cookbook variation. Instead of arranging food by course or primary ingredient, they identify 14 basic tastes (salty, sweet, floral herbal, "funky," meaty, etc.) then groups them into four categories: Tastes That Push, Tastes That Pull, Tastes That Punctuate and Taste Platforms. The resulting recipes are, understandably, high-concept chef food. Explaining how they layer and balance tastes, the authors conclude each recipe with Our Taste Notes, which take an oenophile's approach to flavor description. Sweet Scallops in a Pink Lentil Crust with a Hot-and-Sweet Bell Pepper Reduction ends thusly: "The taste comes through first as crunch, then salt, and then heat. Next you get sweetness from the scallops.... The celery leaves provide a final garden note with some bitterness to close down the taste." Components are combined fearlessly. Green Onion Fondue includes scallions, tomatoes, dates, cornichons, mint and ajowan. Lady Apples with Gruyere Celery Pork Pockets are stuffed pork chops tweaked with cumin, mustard, prosciutto, turnips and quartered lady apples. As complicated and as multi-ingrediented as many recipes are, the directions are admirably clear, and some recipes, such as Oysters and Cabbage and Two-Tomato Coulis with Three Basils, are quite simple. While some readers may initially find the concept to be contrived, most will welcome this unusual means of creating and characterizing food.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Kunz, who earned four stars as the chef of Lespinasse in New York City, and Kaminsky, a food writer, have written an unusual cookbook. Kunz is known for his innovative recipes; having trained in Europe and worked in Singapore, he was one of the first young chefs to combine Asian and French flavors and cooking styles. He and Kaminsky have come up with a vocabulary of taste, comparable to the vocabulary of winespeak, based on 14 basic tastes they identified, from "Tastes That Push," or heighten the other flavors in a dish salty, sweet, and picante to "Tastes That Punctuate" sharp, bitter tastes like that of horseradish. They have grouped their 130 recipes according to these tastes, e.g., Seafood Casserole with Floral A oli falls under "Spiced Aromatic" and Gratin of Sweet Peas, Tarragon, and Pistachios is under "Garden," one of the "Taste Platforms." Each recipe is followed by Taste Notes, descriptions similar to wine notes; many of the headnotes describe the ideas and experimentation that led to the recipe. This is certainly an interesting approach, though some readers will find it unbearably esoteric. In any case, their book is full of delicious, imaginative recipes and gorgeous photographs of the sophisticated presentations. Highly recommended.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company (October 24, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316608742
• ISBN-13: 978-0316608749
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #765,742 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

51 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great Concept, October 24, 2001

By 

disco75 "disco75" (State College, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Elements of Taste (Hardcover)

What a great time to be buying cookbooks! While we have for a long while had access to recipe collections and representations of the cuisine of various nationalities and popular restaurants, recently there has been a growing library of culinary tomes that give us the skills for producing creations of our own minds. Titles such as Sauces by James Peterson, the 1-2-3 series by Roxanne Gold, Culinary Artistry, Great Wine Made Simple, and now this book provide us with the information about tastes and combinations of flavors and textures to deconstruct, reconstruct, and just plain construct familiar and novel dishes.

The Elements of Taste provides a brief introduction to the authors' theory of flavor. They broadly group flavors into four categories based on the purpose they serve in a dish. Thus, Tastes That Push represent the well-known seasonings that we use to balance sauces, for example: Salty, Sweet, and Picante. Tastes That Pull represent those taste elements that highlight underlying flavors. The authors include here Tangy, Vinted, Floral/Herbal, Spiced Aromatic, Funky (pungents or musky flavors), and Bulby (what have commonly been called Aromatics such as onions and garlic). Taste Platforms represent the textures upon which dishes are built. These include Garden Platforms, Starchy ones, Oceanic ones, and Meaty ones (what the Japanese call umami). Finally, the fourth category is Tastes That Punctuate, basically bitters that stop tastes and cleanse the palate.

This model is very useful one. The authors seem not to have done their research in examining precursors to this model, and make little reference to other cuisines than the one they constructed for this book. They neglect to include several important items, especially in the Platforms section (breads, pastries, soy products, seitan, and mushrooms as a basis for other flavors, for example). There are similar, usually less complex models, already in the literature. Kunz and Kaminsky's model is more extensive than most, however. Surprisingly, they give little space in the book to theory. The majority of pages is devoted to recipes that demonstrate their combining philosophy. The authors do not describe how they took the elements of taste and mixed them to concoct these dishes. (A reader must refer to Culinary Artistry for such guidelines.) They do, however, provide tasting notes after each recipe that dissect the elements used in the dish.

The recipes are very complex, involving multiple steps and sub-recipes. Even a cook enjoying kitchen challenges would be hard pressed to prepare a full meal using this book alone-- one would run out of burners and pans before the dishes were complete. For example, the Honey Glazed Celeriac involves making the glaze, which is a reduction of wine and acids with sauteed aromatics sieved and kept warm, plus Celeriac slices baked and then broiled, plus a garnish of sauteed zucchini with chives, plus Ginger Curry Sauce, a mayonnaise of reduced wine and aromatics whisked with other ingredients.

The writing is an interesting, not entirely successful juxtaposition of aw-shucks, down-home attitude, sophisticated epicurean philosophy, and fancy foods. The recipes are heavy on the Meaty and Oceanic food platforms, making this definitely a carnivore's cookbook. Produce usually stands as garnish and accompaniment to the flesh. In the end, the most special part of the book represent a few precious pages and is underdeveloped. Perhaps a follow-up volume will expound on this interesting culinary model.

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best ... bucks you will ever spend!, July 13, 2002

By 

Y. Demus (San Jose, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Elements of Taste (Hardcover)

Not only is it full of WONDERFUL recipes, it is also full of a lot of taste commentary and other information that will help you to design your own wonderful recipes. If you like to cook, or like to eat, this is the book for you!!!!

This is an especially great book for meat-eaters, who have over 70 amazing recipes to choose from. It's not so great for vegetarians (25 recipes), pretty poor for vegans (9 or 10 recipes), and downright bad for "no-honey" vegans (5 recipes). Still, the book is about more than just recipes: it is about taste, and the factors of taste.

Please note that the recipe count above does NOT include items in the chef's larder: a section filled with 43 recipes for things used to make other things, such as ginger confit, bourbon mustard brine, floral herbal aioli, tomato fennel broth, almond milk broth, bulby citrus butter topping, orange spice mix, cranberry glaze, and crispy rice flake breading.

All in all, an excellent book. One of the things I dig about it most is that it considers TEXTURE as a part of taste, and this is apparent in the recipes. The very first recipe in the book, PAN ROASTED SALMON WITH AROMATIC SALTED HERBS, had me convinced. The thing that really says something about this particular recipe is that both my father and I like it. My father adores salmon; I can't stand the stuff, but I like this. Seriously: try the recipe even if you don't like salmon, and especially if you do; it's easier than it looks and tastier than it sounds. Either way, I believe you will be pleasantly suprised.

Each recipe includes a section on taste, called "taste notes". These help you to hone in on the different tastes in the mix, and why they taste the way they do together.

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, but flawed, June 16, 2002

By 

J. Miller (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Elements of Taste (Hardcover)

The concept is interesting, but I have to say that the recipes could have used a bit more testing and/or proofreading. Almost everyone I've tried has been delicious (5 good to 1 bad), almost all have needed some tweaking in quantities.
The strawberry soup with champagne ice is fantastic, but makes more than twice as much ice as is needed.
The Italian Sausage with Lager Sauce and Apple Bouillon is delicious, but the Lager Sauce has the same consistency as the Bouillon (next time I'll be drastically reducing the amount of lager in the sauce).
One recipe description talks about how the flavor of the almonds interact with the other ingredients but there are no almonds in the recipe!
None of these problems are insurmountable, and I love the complexity of flavor that he layers into the dishes, but a little more testing would have removed a fair amount of frustration.

But it was really worth the price just for that strawberry soup...