(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2018)

“Briscione, director of culinary research at the Institute of Culinary Education, along with cowriter and wife Parkhurst, will delight food nerds with this scientific exploration of flavor profiles of common ingredients…Professional chefs and home cooks who enjoy experimentation will welcome this insightful new approach.”
—Publishers Weekly

A revolutionary new guide to pairing ingredients, based on a famous chef’s groundbreaking research into the chemical basis of flavor.

As an instructor at one of the world’s top culinary schools, James Briscione thought he knew how to mix and match ingredients. Then he met IBM Watson. Working with the supercomputer to turn big data into delicious recipes, Briscione realized that he (like most chefs) knew next to nothing about why different foods taste good together. That epiphany launched him on a quest to understand the molecular basis of flavor—and it led, in time, to The Flavor Matrix.

A groundbreaking ingredient-pairing guide, The Flavor Matrix shows how science can unlock unheard-of possibilities for combining foods into astonishingly inventive dishes. Briscione distills chemical analyses of different ingredients into easy-to-use infographics, and presents mind-blowing recipes that he’s created with them. The result of intensive research and incredible creativity in the kitchen, The Flavor Matrix is a must-have for home cooks and professional chefs alike: the only flavor-pairing manual anyone will ever need.

Celebrity chef and instructor James Briscione is the director of culinary research at the Institute of Culinary Education, lead chef on IBM’s Chef Watson project, and the first-ever two-time Chopped champion. He lives in New York City.

Brooke Parkhurst is a writer, cook, culinary instructor and mother. She is the author of Belle in the Big Apple and the co-author, with James, of Just Married & Cooking.

For more on James and Brooke, please visit thecoupleskitchen.com.