Guy Crosby offers a lively tour of the history and science behind the art of cooking, with a focus on achieving a healthy daily diet. He traces the evolution of cooking from its earliest origins, recounting the innovations that have unraveled the mysteries of health and taste.

Cooking food is one of the activities that makes humanity unique. It’s not just about what tastes good: advances in cooking technology have been a constant part of our progress, from the ability to control fire to the emergence of agriculture to modern science’s understanding of what happens at a molecular level when we apply heat to food. Mastering new ways of feeding ourselves has resulted in leaps in longevity and explosions in population—and the potential of cooking science is still largely untapped. In Cook, Taste, Learn, the food scientist and best-selling author Guy Crosby offers a lively tour of the history and science behind the art of cooking, with a focus on achieving a healthy daily diet. He traces the evolution of cooking from its earliest origins, recounting the innovations that have unraveled the mysteries of health and taste. Crosby explains why both home cooks and professional chefs should learn how to apply cooking science, arguing that we can improve the nutritional quality and gastronomic delight of everyday eating. Science-driven changes in the way we cook can help reduce the risk of developing chronic diseases and enhance our quality of life. The book features accessible explanations of complex topics as well as a selection of recipes that illustrate scientific principles. Cook, Taste, Learn reveals the possibilities for transforming cooking from a craft into the perfect blend of art and science.

Recalling an earlier era when cooks relied on sight, touch, and taste rather than cookbooks, the author encourages readers to rediscover the lost art of preparing food and use their imagination in the kitchen.

Reforming Modernity is a sweeping intellectual history and philosophical reflection built around the work of the Morocco-based philosopher Abdurrahman Taha, one of the most significant philosophers in the Islamic world since the colonial era. Wael B. Hallaq contends that Taha is at the forefront of forging a new, non-Western-centric philosophical tradition. He explores how Taha’s philosophical project sheds light on recent intellectual currents in the Islamic world and puts forth a formidable critique of Western and Islamic modernities. Hallaq argues that Taha’s project departs from—but leaves behind—the epistemological grounds in which most modern Muslim intellectuals have anchored their programs. Taha systematically rejects the modes of thought that have dominated the Muslim intellectual scene since the beginning of the twentieth century—nationalism, Marxism, secularism, political Islamism, and liberalism. Instead, he provides alternative ways of thinking, forcefully and virtuosically developing an ethical system with a view toward reforming existing modernities. Hallaq analyzes the ethical thread that runs throughout Taha’s oeuvre, illuminating how Taha weaves it into a discursive engagement with the central questions that plague modernity in both the West and the Muslim world. The first introduction to Taha’s ethical philosophy for Western audiences, Reforming Modernity presents his complex thought in an accessible way while engaging with it critically. Hallaq’s conversation with Taha’s work both proffers a cogent critique of modernity and points toward answers for its endemic and seemingly insoluble problems.

This engaging and approachable (and humorous!) guide to taste and flavor will make you a more skilled and confident home cook How to Taste outlines the underlying principles of taste, and then takes a deep dive into salt, acid, bitter, sweet, fat, umami, bite (heat), aromatics, and texture. You'll find out how temperature impacts your enjoyment of the dishes you make as does color, alcohol, and more. The handbook goes beyond telling home cooks what ingredients go well together or explaining cooking ratios. You'll learn how to adjust a dish that's too salty or too acidic and how to determine when something might be lacking. It also includes recipes and simple kitchen experiments that illustrate the importance of salt in a dish, or identifies whether you're a "supertaster" or not. Each recipe and experiment highlights the chapter's main lesson. How to Taste will ultimately help you feel confident about why and how various components of a dish are used to create balance, harmony, and deliciousness.

In Cook's Science, the all-new companion to the New York Times-bestselling The Science of Good Cooking, America's Test Kitchen deep dives into the surprising science behind 50 of our favorite ingredients--and uses that science to make them taste their best. From the editors of Cook's Illustrated, and the best-selling The Science of Good Cooking, comes an all-new companion book highlighting 50 of our favorite ingredients and the (sometimes surprising) science behind them: Cook's Science. Each chapter explains the science behind one of the 50 ingredients in a short, informative essay--topics ranging from pork shoulder to apples to quinoa to dark chocolate--before moving onto an original (and sometimes quirky) experiment, performed in our test kitchen and designed to show how the science works. The book includes 50 dynamic, full-page color illustrations, giving in-depth looks at individual ingredients, "family trees" of ingredients, and cooking techniques like sous vide, dehydrating, and fermentation. The 400+ foolproof recipes included take the science into the kitchen, and range from crispy fried chicken wings to meaty-tasting vegetarian chili, coconut layer cake to strawberry rhubarb pie.

Named one of the Best Fall Cookbooks 2020 by The New York Times, Eater, Epicurious, Food & Wine, Forbes, Saveur, Serious Eats, The Smithsonian, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, The Chicago Tribune, CNN Travel, The Kitchn, Chowhound, NPR, The Art of Eating Longlist 2021 and many more; plus international media attention including The Financial times, The Globe and Mail, The Telegraph, The Guardian, The Independent, The Times (U.K.), Delicious Magazine (U.K.), The Times (Ireland), and Vogue India and winner of The Guild of U.K. Food Writers (General Cookbook). Finalist for the 2021 IACP Cookbook Award. "The Flavor Equation" deserves space on the shelf right next to "Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat" as a titan of the how-and-why brigade."– The New Yorker "Deep and illuminating, fresh and highly informative... a most brilliant achievement." – Yotam Ottolenghi "[A] beautiful and intelligent book." – J. Kenji López-Alt, author The Food Lab and Chief Consultant for Serious Eats.com Aroma, texture, sound, emotion—these are just a few of the elements that play into our perceptions of flavor. The Flavor Equation demonstrates how to convert approachable spices, herbs, and commonplace pantry items into tasty, simple dishes. In this groundbreaking book, Nik Sharma, scientist, food blogger, and author of the buzz-generating cookbook Season, guides home cooks on an exploration of flavor in more than 100 recipes. • Provides inspiration and knowledge to both home cooks and seasoned chefs • An in-depth exploration into the science of taste • Features Nik Sharma's evocative, trademark photography style The Flavor Equation is an accessible guide to elevating elemental ingredients to make delicious dishes that hit all the right notes, every time. Recipes include Brightness: Lemon-Lime Mintade, Saltiness: Roasted Tomato and Tamarind Soup, Sweetness: Honey Turmeric Chicken Kebabs with Pineapple, Savoriness: Blistered Shishito Peppers with Bonito Flakes, and Richness: Coconut Milk Cake. • A global, scientific approach to cooking from bestselling cookbook author Nik Sharma • Dives deep into the most basic of our pantry items—salts, oils, sugars, vinegars, citrus, peppers, and more • Perfect gift for home cooks who want to learn more beyond recipes, those interested in the science of food and flavor, and readers of Lucky Peach, Serious Eats, Indian-Ish, and Koreatown • Add it to the shelf with cookbooks like The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science by J. Kenji López-Alt; Ottolenghi Flavor: A Cookbook by Yotam Ottolenghi; and Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking by Samin Nosrat.