Flavorama

“Arielle Johnson’s Flavorama is the “everyman’s” food science book we’ve all been waiting for, even if we didn’t know we needed it. Dr. Johnson delves into every aspect of flavor, how we sense it, create it, and control it, in a way that will elevate the culinary game of all who read it. Fun, clear, and uber-approachable, Flavorama instantly vaults to the top shelf to take its rightful place at the right hand of Harold McGee. If I didn’t love it so much, I’d be green with envy.” — Alton Brown "I’ve known and admired Arielle Johnson and her work for more than a decade. Arielle is that rarest of flavor scientists, as experienced in restaurant kitchens as in the lab, and a skilled translator of the chemistry into clear and useful advice for any food lover. I can’t recommend Flavorama highly enough: it’s essential reading for anyone who’s serious about understanding deliciousness and how to create it." — Harold McGee, author of On Food and Cooking “Count yourself lucky to be alive in the time of Dr. J. She has dedicated her life to understanding the aspects of food that others write off as mystical or inexplicable. And now she’s taken the time to explain them, bestowing us with the tools to harness and understand flavor. It’s as though an advanced alien civilization has deemed us worthy of faster-than-light technology. You’re lucky Arielle’s one of us, and you’re even luckier to be holding this book.” — David Chang, founder of Momofuku "If you want to figure out how to make the ginger in your dish hotter or make brown butter more delicious, Flavorama is your book. Arielle Johnson, a food chemist who found her way into the Noma kitchen in Copenhagen and eventually built the restaurant’s fermentation lab, takes a brainy dive into manipulating molecules to create deliciousness, but the book is written in such an engaging, useful way that you’re not sad about the science. Get pleasantly lost in her treatise on smell receptors, or just experiment with smell by making a mug of citrus peel dashi." — Kim Severson, New York Times

“Arielle Johnson’s Flavorama is the “everyman’s” food science book we’ve all been waiting for, even if we didn’t know we needed it. Dr. Johnson delves into every aspect of flavor, how we sense it, create it, and control it, in a way that will elevate the culinary game of all who read it. Fun, clear, and uber-approachable, Flavorama instantly vaults to the top shelf to take its rightful place at the right hand of Harold McGee. If I didn’t love it so much, I’d be green with envy.” — Alton Brown "I’ve known and admired Arielle Johnson and her work for more than a decade. Arielle is that rarest of flavor scientists, as experienced in restaurant kitchens as in the lab, and a skilled translator of the chemistry into clear and useful advice for any food lover. I can’t recommend Flavorama highly enough: it’s essential reading for anyone who’s serious about understanding deliciousness and how to create it." — Harold McGee, author of On Food and Cooking “Count yourself lucky to be alive in the time of Dr. J. She has dedicated her life to understanding the aspects of food that others write off as mystical or inexplicable. And now she’s taken the time to explain them, bestowing us with the tools to harness and understand flavor. It’s as though an advanced alien civilization has deemed us worthy of faster-than-light technology. You’re lucky Arielle’s one of us, and you’re even luckier to be holding this book.” — David Chang, founder of Momofuku "If you want to figure out how to make the ginger in your dish hotter or make brown butter more delicious, Flavorama is your book. Arielle Johnson, a food chemist who found her way into the Noma kitchen in Copenhagen and eventually built the restaurant’s fermentation lab, takes a brainy dive into manipulating molecules to create deliciousness, but the book is written in such an engaging, useful way that you’re not sad about the science. Get pleasantly lost in her treatise on smell receptors, or just experiment with smell by making a mug of citrus peel dashi." — Kim Severson, New York Times

Arielle Johnson, Ph.D., is a flavor scientist who consults for some of the top chefs and restaurants in the world. Co-founder of the fermentation lab at René Redzepi’s Noma in Copenhagen and Science Director for Noma Projects, Arielle is a former Director’s Fellow at the MIT Media Lab and Science Officer for Alton Brown’s Food Network show, Good Eats: The Return. She has lectured on food and science at SXSW, Tales of the Cocktail, WIRED, and the Harvard Science and Cooking series, and her writing on the subject has appeared in the Los Angeles Times and Lucky Peach. She lives in New York City. Follow her on Instagram @arielle_johnson.