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Homo sapiens est une espèce omnivore, mais c'est aussi « un animal qui cuisine »!Notre alimentation résulte ainsi d'un compromis entre nature et culture, et c'est le cerveau qui décide… En raison des inquiétudes liées à la malbouffe, nous nous interrogeons beaucoup sur notre alimentation. Aux questions liées à l'impact environnemental de la production de denrées, s'ajoutent conseils, injonctions ou interdits alimentaires de tous ordres. Ce qui n'était qu'un comportement de survie, une fonction physiologique, se charge de significations émotionnelles, culturelles ou identitaires. Pour comprendre « comment ça marche », la neurogastronomie nous éclaire sur tout ce qui touche à l'action de se nourrir.Activité essentielle pour la survie, se nourrir mobilise de multiples fonctions de l'organisme. Fonctions de planification pour se procurer les denrées, fonctions motrices pour les amener à la bouche, les mastiquer et les avaler. Fonctions sensorielles pour reconnaître les aliments et évaluer la nourriture. Fonctions largement non conscientes du tube digestif : enzymatiques, motrices, sensorielles, neuroendocrines. En maître de cérémonie, le cerveau collecte les informations corporelles et environnementales, et en fait la synthèse. Il commande l'acte de manger et sa cessation, il régule les heures de repas et orchestre les relations entre les organes. C'est lui qui forme les images sensorielles des aliments, et apprend la façon de les manger. Ainsi se déterminent nos choix alimentaires, mais aussi leur valeur nutritionnelle, symbolique et culturelle, jusqu'au jugement esthétique pour la haute gastronomie.Cet ouvrage richement illustré brosse un tableau de nos connaissances en neurophysiologie de l'alimentation et les restitue dans leur contexte social, économique et culturel. Il est destiné aux scientifiques, étudiants, enseignants, diététiciens, gastronomes… et aux curieux de l'alimentation.

“Brilliant and original... From slow feasts to fast food, Linford shows that, no matter what we are cooking, time is of the essence.” —Bee Wilson, TheSunday TimesThe Missing Ingredient is the first book to consider the intrinsic yet often forgotten role of time in creating the flavors and textures we love. Through a series of encounters with ingredients, producers, cooks, artisans, and chefs, acclaimed author of The Chef's Library Jenny Linford shows how, time and again, time itself is the invisible ingredient in our most cherished recipes. Playfully structured through different periods of time, the book examines the fast and slow, from the seconds it takes for sugar to caramelize to the centuries it takes for food heritage to be passed down from our ancestors. From the brevity of blanching and the days required in the crucial process of fermentation, to the months of slow ripening that make a great cheddar and the years needed for certain wines to reach their peak, Linford dissects each segment of time needed to cook—and enjoy—simple and intricate cuisine alike. Including vignettes from the immediacy of taste (seconds), the exactitude of pasta (minutes), and smoking and barbecuing meats (hours), to maturing cheese (weeks), infusing vanilla extract (months), and perfecting parmigiana and port (years), The Missing Ingredient is an enlightening and essential volume for foodies, bakers, home cooks, chefs, and anyone who appreciates a perfectly-executed dish.“Something quite remarkable: a treatise on the single most vital and most overlooked element of food and cooking that's as page-turning as a thriller. A glorious, essential addition to every food lover's book shelves.” —Marina O'Loughlin, restaurant critic

As seen in Food52, Los Angeles Times, and BloombergTwo masters of composition—a chef and a perfumer—present a revolutionary new approach to creating delicious food. Michelin two-star chef Daniel Patterson and celebrated natural perfumer Mandy Aftel are experts at orchestrating ingredients. Yet even in a world awash in cooking shows and food blogs, they noticed, home cooks get little guidance in the art of flavor. In this trailblazing guide, they share the secrets to making the most of your ingredients via an indispensable set of tools and principles: • The Four Rules for creating flavor • A Flavor Compass that points the way to transformative combinations • The flavor-heightening effects of cooking methods • “Locking,” “burying,” and other aspects of cooking alchemy • The Seven Dials that let you fine-tune a dish With more than eighty recipes that demonstrate each concept and put it into practice, The Art of Flavor is food for the imagination that will help cooks at any level to become flavor virtuosos.

By the time she was a teenager, Sara Jenkins had lived all over the Mediterranean, from Italy and France to Spain, Lebanon, and Cyprus, in cosmopolitan cities and in rural hamlets. The family eventually put down roots in a ramshackle farmhouse in a small Tuscan village, where she learned how to make ragu and handmade pasta at the elbow of her Italian “grandmother” on the nearby farm. Meals came from the garden and the surrounding pastures, not the supermarket, and Jenkins grew up schooled in the tradition of cooking from what was on hand. In Olives & Oranges, Jenkins shares the simple, striking dishes she learned at the source. Many, like Peppery Braised Short Ribs and Classic Tuscan Eggplant Parmesan, are favorites from childhood. Others, like Short Pasta with Mushrooms and Mint and Spicy Lemon–Chocolate Ganache Tart, have a contemporary sensibility. Jenkins shows how understanding the Mediterranean “language of flavor” can help you follow your instincts and make your own great meals based on what you have, too. You'll see how salt and lemon juice bring out the natural sugar in Carrot Salad with Lemon, Sea Salt, Parsley, and Olive Oil, and how to use the same technique with lime, salt, and a Moroccan condiment called harissa for a completely different effect in Tunisian Raw Turnip Salad. The opening chapter introduces “small plates”— easy, versatile dishes that can preface a dinner or be grouped together for a small feast, from Roasted Red Peppers with Garlic and Celery Leaves to Chicken Liver Crostini. Soups are spontaneous and flexible, whether they are cooling purées like White Almond Gazpacho or sturdy full bowls like Rich Chicken Soup with Greens. The incomparable pastas encompass fast every-night selections (Spaghettini with Burst Cherry Tomatoes) to complex celebration affairs like Braised Rabbit Ragu and Homemade Lasagna. Fish, poultry, and meat chapters feature rustic preparations: roasted scallops capped with a pale green butter seasoned with parsley and garlic; an impressively big-flavored chicken smeared with a mixture of bacon and herbs and baked in a salt crust; and a spectacular staple of Roman trattorias, veal cutlets wrapped in prosciutto and sage and crisp-fried. Desserts range from fresh Strawberries with Prosecco to a sumptuous Coffee Cardamom Crcme Caramel to the rich but light Lemon Olive Oil Cake. Each of the recipes in the book is identified as “Quick-Cook” or “Slow-Cook” so you can choose which fit best into your schedule. “Flavor Tips” throughout the book suggest ways to modify the dishes so you can use what's freshest and most available. The daughter of the noted food authority Nancy Harmon Jenkins, SARA JENKINS has earned raves at all the New York restaurants where she has been the chef, including 50 Carmine, Il Buco, I Coppi, and Patio. Her newest venture, Porchetta, is located in New York City's East Village. This is her first book.