This week will be FUN! My guest is Niki Signet, London based author of The Flavor Thesaurus – Pairings, recipes and ideas for the creative cook.” Get a copy NOW
A complete guide to the 99 most essential ingredients and their numerous flavor combinations, offering inspiration for the cook who has everything.
Whether a flavor is defined by a “grassy” ingredient like dill, cucumber, or peas, or a “floral fruity” food like figs, roses, or blueberries, flavors can be combined in wildly imaginative ways. In this lively and original book, Niki Segnit identifies the 99 fundamental ingredients of food and examines what goes with what―revealing for the first time just how infinite are the possibilities in an everyday kitchen.
Segnit has scoured thousands of recipes in countless recipe books, talked to dozens of food technologists and chefs, and visited hundreds of restaurants―all in her quest to uncover the planet’s essential pairings. Moving from Meaty to Cheesy, Earthy to Mustardy, and more, Segnit celebrates traditional pairings such as pork and apple and cucumber and dill; points us toward contemporary favorites like goat cheese and beet; and introduces us to unlikely but delicious matchings such as blueberry and mushroom. With nearly a thousand entries and 200 recipes, The Flavor Thesaurus is not only a highly useful and covetable reference book, but the sort of book that will keep you reading, laughing, and cooking for years to come. Learn more about Niki here!
Niki Segnit’s first book, The Flavour Thesaurus, won the André Simon Award for best food book, the 
Guild of Food Writers Award for best first book, and was shortlisted for the Galaxy National Book Awards. It has been translated into fourteen languages, including French, Russian, Japanese and Korean.
On BBC Radio 4, she has contributed to The Food Programme, Woman’s Hour and Word of Mouth, and her columns, features and reviews have appeared in the Guardian, the Observer, the Times, the Times Literary Supplement, the Sunday Times and Prospect magazine. She lives in London with her husband and two children.
Good Life Guy’s Wine of The Week:
2018 Valraven Sonoma Zinfandel
Valravn Zinfandel is from old, bush-pruned vines averaging 40 years old (some over 100) across the county’s best appellations including Rockpile, Dry Creek Valley, Alexander Valley, and Russian River Valley AVAs. Hand harvested, hand sorted and gently destemmed before fermentation. In the cellar, a short cold soak was followed by primary fermentation in small lots using a combination of open and closed top tanks. The berries were kept in tact to capture the buoyant fruit profile. Following fermentation, the wine was barreled down for malolactic and aging for 14 months in French oak, 10% of which was new.
PRESS – 90 POINTS, VINOUS
“The 2018 Zinfandel is racy and exuberant, with tons of varietal character. This stylish, budget-friendly red hits all the right notes. Succulent red fruit, mint, cedar and sweet floral notes flesh out in a delicious, affordable wine that over-delivers big time.“