Umami

Thomas Keller, Harold McGee, Yoshihiro Murata, Kirsten McIvor, Jeremy Whipple, Noriko Yokota

"Umami is considered the fifth taste, in addition to sweet, sour, salty, and bitter. In Umami, ten of today's most renowned chefs explain how they discovered this fifth taste and the ways in which it has had an impact on their cooking. Two of the chefs are Japanese (Nobu and Murata), but the others come from around the world: the U.S. (Anthony and Kinch), the U.K. (Blumenthal and Cursan), France (Bourdas and Nagae), and Peru (Martinez and Schiaffiano) ... For each of the eight main contributors, there's a two-page color spread featuring a personal essay about umami, and photos of the chef and his restaurant. Then the chef presents four recipes that showcase the fabulous umami-rich dishes that have earned his establishment its Michelin star(s) ... An additional section of the book showcases pastry, as two of today's leading pastry chefs weigh in on how umami plays a role in their...