Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat

While I'm a very experienced cook, I'm not one of those people who's into cookbooks. However, I am into learning and improving on everything I know, and Samin will definitely make you a better cook. The first half of the book is a crash course into why good food tastes good. It's approachable, enjoyable, and as a designer I was familiar with Wendy MacNaughton's fantastic illustrations, so that was a big plus. Samin's reasoning for using illustrations, vs the ubiquitous mouth-watering food photos, is so you don't get a preconceived idea of what “perfect” looks like. I think that really captures the spirit of why she wrote this book.

There are illustrated pull out charts with regional ingredient groupings and such. If you've ever wanted to learn how to cook without memorizing a recipe, this (cook)book is definitely where you should start.

The second half consists of actual recipes, which I'm sure will be great once I get around to trying them. Several of the techniques are already in my repertoire so I can vouch — everyone should learn how to dry brine and spatchcock poultry, stat.