Product Description

This extraordinary cookbook from celebrated author Andreas Viestad explores the culinary wonders along the legendary spice route, from Zanzibar to India to Bali and everywhere in between. Part travelogue, part cookbook, this colorful volume captures the spirit of each region and reveals the origins of the spices now used in everyday cooking across the globe. Nearly 100 recipes, a glossary of spices, source list, and unforgettable color photographs document the people, places, and best of all the irresistible cuisine at every stop on the journey. Where Flavor Was Born brings the exotic flavors and cultures of the Indian Ocean into the home kitchen.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #286262 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

About the Author
Andreas Viestad is a food writer and TV chef. His television series New Scandinavian Cooking with Andreas Viestad airs in more than 50 countries. When not traveling, he lives in Norway and South Africa. Mette Randem is an internationally renowned photographer based in Norway.

Customer Reviews

Inspiring me to change my next party's menu...
I purchased this book after seeing it in the window of one of my favorite used bookstores earlier this evening, then tonight I am purchasing multiple copies of this book to give as gifts to my family this holiday season. I should note here, my father is a professional food technologist (for over 30+ years leading R&D programs for some of the world's biggest food companies as well as building and desiging factories and food processes) and my sister's boyfriend is a cookbook author and professional food critic (writing for the NY Times). So these are gifts for serious food lovers.

Where Flavor was Born is a beautiful, inspiring book. Many of the recipes are very simple - emphasizing the wonderful flavors that high quality, fresh spices and sometimes just one other ingredient can achieve. While other dishes involve slow cooking for 8+ hours. In short, recipes which while customized for the needs of a modern, western kitchen, do not cut corners to achieve flavorful combinations.

I generally do not cook from recipes, rather I typically cook extremely fresh, mostly local & organic ingredients which are in season with the minimum of additional steps to bring out their best flavors - it is a very rare dish I cook that involves more than 7 ingredients (even including spices most of the time).

However, this is a rare cookbook which I sat down and almost read cover to cover, noting on many pages recipes which I want to make sometime soon.

So soon, in fact, that I think my next dinner party - on the 25th - will include quite a few dishes from this book - as alternatives to slightly simpler dishes which I had intended on making. And in addition to trying many of the recipes as written, I am also taking inspirations from the overall stories and discussion of the spices.

And though I know I have a gift basket of spices from my favorite spice vender, The Spice House, coming to me later this month, I suspect I'll be calling them up about getting a few of the more exotic spices mentioned in this book (varieties of peppercorns for example).

In short, this is a great addition to the library of anyone who loves food, flavors, and cooking - cooking which is driven by starting with the highest quality ingredients.

fabulous informative cookbook
The photos are stunning. I love learning more about the spices origins and how they can be used. I made my first meal last Sunday - a lamb stew that was delicious and easy to prepare. The smell in my kitchen was fabulous. I even bought a mortar and pestle the other day so that I will be able to grind my own spices. Can't wait to have more time to try more recipes.

A TYPOGRAPHICAL NIGHTMARE
Even though there were recipes and articles I looked forward to reading, I had to return the book, because the print was so small and the ink in many sections was light on white. obviously the art director by scrunching the text into approximately 1/3rd of the page, and by using ink that was off white on a white page thought he might win a design prize, BUT unfortunately for the author, produced an unreadable book