The Fifth Taste: Cooking with Umami
Japanese chefs speak of a mysterious "fifth taste," one which is beyond and complementary to the known four (sweet, sour, salty and bitter). A few examples are the savory, pungent, meaty quality found in foods such as soy sauce, Parmesan cheese, red wine, mushrooms, truffles and oysters. In this book, a married couple (he's a chef; she's an author) explain and exploreumamifor Western audiences. They begin with an authoritative (if dry) scientific breakdown ofumami-causing amino acids and nucleotides, and a lesson on how they react with certain taste buds in our mouths. This is followed by recipes for the authors' own "everyday" dishes usingumami-full ingredients (helpfully printed in boldface). Their Asparagus Frittata, "Ragumami" Tomato and Two Meat Sauce and the like are fine, but the real meat of the book comes in the more than 60 delectable,umami-loaded recipes from top American chefs. Mouths will water over Rick Bayless's Spicy Chipotle Pork Tacos with Sun-Dried Tomato Salsa, Nobu Matsuhisa's Cilantro Soup with Monkfish, and Jody Adams's Braised Duck Legs with Mushrooms and Caper-Vinegar Sauce. Comprehensive recipes and pictures of scrumptious-looking food add to the book's appeal.(Dec.)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.