Peanut butter and jelly? Of course. Peas and carrots? Classic. Tried-and-true food combinations stand the test of time, but sometimes even quintessential pairings can lose their luster. What to do? Cue science for inspiration.
That's what James Briscione and his wife and co-author, novelist Brooke Parkhurst, set out to do in The Flavor Matrix: The Art and Science of Pairing Common Ingredients to Create Extraordinary Dishes. Consider peanuts and fish sauce in a funky-sweet brittle, or peas with coconut and pork in garlicky, bright tacos.
Briscione, now the director of culinary research at the Institute of Culinary Education, cut his teeth in kitchens in the American South, then New York City. Along the way, he won the television show Chopped--twice. When he served as lead chef in IBM's project Chef Watson (a computer programmed to use the chemistry of flavor to suggest pairings), his ideas about flavor evolved. While Briscione considered recipes based on professional experience, the computer "thought about combining ingredients based only on their inherent flavors, with no notions of which foods conventionally go together." From Watson came the inspiration for The Flavor Matrix.
The book itself is as beautiful as its dishes; it's a pleasure to leaf through. The dishes, naturally, are stunning. The alphabetical organization isn't always intuitive (for instance, "J" for Jerusalem Artichoke is actually a recipe for Gin and Brown Butter Emulsion), but users looking to learn--or looking to shock then please their dinner guests--are in luck. --Katie Weed, freelance writer and reviewer