Lateral Cooking

'You could cook from it over a whole lifetime, and still be learning' Nigella Lawson

'A rigorous, nuts-and-bolts bible of a book' Jay Rayner, Observer

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This new edition of the groundbreaking book reveals the principles underpinning all recipe creation. Now smaller, lighter and simpler!

Do you slavishly follow recipes without understanding how they actually work? Would you like to feel freer to adapt, to experiment, to play with flavours?

If so, look no further - in these pages, Niki Segnit, author of the landmark The Flavour Thesaurus, gives you the tools to do just that. Organised into 77 'starting-point' recipes, Lateral Cooking includes 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', Niki guides you through flatbreads, oatcakes, buckwheat noodles, chapattis and tortillas, showing you how they 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. The variations given are a springboard of inspiration to the contents of your fridge and kitchen cupboards, all related in Niki's signature combination of culinary science, history, chefs' wisdom and entertaining personal anecdote.

In these pages, you will discover to cook 'by heart' - and that's where the fun really begins.

This updated edition has been redesigned with a focus on the recipes, in a smaller and easier-to-read format.