It is hard to convey just what a staggering achievement <i>Lateral</i> <i>Cooking</i> is. <b>Segnit is truly a one-woman Larousse.</b> Only the scope is so much wider and deeper: this book covers continents! … I can lose myself in it any time, from any page, and <b>you could cook from it over a whole lifetime, and still be learning</b>
- Nigella Lawson,
<b>The cookbooks that teach you the most are the rare ones, experimental or not, that are so well written that you find yourself reading them greedily on a perpetual loop. <i>Lateral Cooking</i> is one of them</b>
- Bee Wilson, Times Literary Supplement
A rigorous, nuts-and-bolts bible of a book, which works from the premise that there are base recipes from which all others can be built... It’s elegantly designed and extremely broad
- Jay Rayner, Observer
<b>My most anticipated book of the year</b>
- Helen Goh,
Witty, playful and conversational
- Diana Henry, Sunday Telegraph
<b>This year’s star book</b>... It’s a cracker: a hefty volume with a simple premise... Segnit has an appealing authorial voice:<b> funny, friendly and authoritative</b>
- Evening Standard,
<b>Segnit is a brilliantly clever cook</b> who sometimes seems to have eaten every great dish in the world, but <b>the real joy is her exuberant voice</b>, which feels like listening to a witty friend
Sunday Times
<b>Book of the decade</b>, if you ask me... Every cook should have it
- Elisabeth Luard,
Knowledgeable and humorous, with a focus on flavour and technique, this cookbook is informative, useful and sure to become a kitchen bible to many
- Guardian, ‘Best Books of 2018’
In a year that’s been a bonanza for cookbooks, this is <b>the one I’d put top of my list</b>
Independent
Want to graduate from a rigid recipe-follower to an instinctive, ingredient-led cook? <b>Niki Segnit shows you how</b>
Waitrose Food
What makes this book really special, just like <i>The Flavour Thesaurus</i>, aside from Niki’s impressive expertise, is her humour and personality. <b>It’s a joy to read</b>
- <i>Olive</i> magazine,
A textbook you'll turn to for all your culinary core techniques and queries
Good Housekeeping
It’s a book you’ll buy not so much for the recipes, though there are plenty, but the insights it will give you on how the whole process of cooking works... <b>a cracking read</b>
- Fiona Beckett,
<b>One of the most exciting cookery books I've read this year</b>
Literary Review
Niki Segnit is back with a new cookbook to break the mould (again)
Huffington Post
It is <b>an absolute triumph</b>, want to take a week off work to read it and cook as I go... cannot recommend enough! <b>If you loved <i>The Flavour Thesaurus</i>, this is basically Christmas </b>
- Rukmini Iyer,
<i>Lateral Cooking</i> is <b>a beautifully simple book that just makes sense</b>. I’m hooked again
- Kenny Tutt,
Niki Segnit's <i>Lateral Cooking</i> is a <b>spectacularly good cookbook</b>. If it were a novel, it'd be a shoo-in for the Booker
- Elisabeth Luard, The Oldie
It’s a clever idea... a fabulous read
- Harry Wallop, The Times
Gorgeous, informative book
- Chef Valentina Harris,
This should be alongside <i>The Silver Spoon </i>and <i>Le Repertoire</i>, that's where it's going on my shelf
- Mat Follas,
A collection of ideas and inspiration – <b>my kind of thinking</b>
- Frances Quinn,
Shows, more effectively than any other cookery writer to date, how one thing in the kitchen leads to another
Times Literary Supplement
A cookbook full of <b>open-ended recipes</b>
- Yotam Ottolenghi,
An enjoyable read
- <i>Delicious </i>magazine,
This isn’t a reference book, it’s <b>an engrossing read for foodies</b>
What’s Hot Blog
<b>A cooking bible</b>... a <b>must-have</b> in every kitchen, I’m blown away!
Amy Treasure Blog
From the author of <i>The Flavour Thesaurus</i> comes this collection of recipes arranged on a continuum, meaning simple tweaks give you a whole new dish
Domestic Sluttery
It’s her humour, stories and thoughtful research that make this much more than simply a cookbook
IndyEats (independent) – Cookery Books of 2018
It's fascinating and engrossing. It makes you want to cook more - and there can be no higher compliment
Ms Marmite Lover Blog - Cookery books of 2018
A wonderfully simple idea... but It’s her humour, stories and thoughtful research that make this much more than simply a cookbook
Independent (App edition)
'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
‘Lateral Cooking...uncovers the very syntax of cookery’ Yotam Ottolenghi
‘Astonishing and totally addictive’ Brian Eno
The groundbreaking book that reveals the principles underpinning all recipe creation, from the author of the bestselling The Flavour Thesaurus
Do you feel you that you follow recipes slavishly without understanding how they actually work? Would you like to feel freer to adapt, to experiment, to play with flavours?
Niki Segnit, author of the landmark book The Flavour Thesaurus, gives you the tools to do just that. Lateral Cooking is organised into 77 ‘starting-point’ recipes, including 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’, we learn that flatbreads, oatcakes, buckwheat noodles, chapattis and tortillas 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, each related in Niki’s signature combination of culinary science, history, chefs’ wisdom and personal anecdote. You will realise that recipes that you had thought were outside of your experience are reassuringly similar to things you’ve made a dozen times before. It will give you the confidence to experiment with flavour, and the variations that follow are a springboard of inspiration to the contents of your fridge and kitchen cupboards. You will, in short, learn to cook ‘by heart’– and that’s where the fun really begins.