My bookshelf: The flavour Thesaurus

If there is one book the adventurous and aspiring chef should purchase it is The flavour Thesaurus by Niki Segnit.

Ever wondered what you can pair rhubarb with, well let’s flick to page 254 and it suggests wonderful combinations such as lamb, mackerel, cucumber and saffron. Curious about what to do with the surplus amount of carrots you have left in the bottom of your fridge flick to page 227 and you find pairings like cardamom, coconut, orange and peanuts!

It’s a wonderful, wonderful thing spending an afternoon in the kitchen, creating new dishes and playing around with combinations of flavours. It makes you feel like a magician, a scientist, like Willy Wonka! However sometimes you don’t always get it right, and why should you, it’s an experiment right? This book just gives you a bit of guidance, a helping hand to keep you on the right path or indeed give you a gentle nudge into areas you wouldn’t have considered trying. How many of you know, for example, that grapefruit goes well with blue cheese or cauliflower marries well with chocolate??

This book lived in my handbag whilst I was a contestant on MasterChef, I wouldn’t go anywhere without it. I consider it a good friend now, the kind you can rely on to shock and surprise but never let you down.

In the words of Willy Wonka himself: “Invention, my dear friends, is 93% perspiration, 6% electricity, 4% evaporation, and 2% butterscotch ripple.”