As others have said, this is definitely not for the novice cook (though definitely worth browsing anyway!), but the recipes and techniques are perfectly laid out and sooo tempting.

Loved this book. Definitely not for beginner cooks, but as someone who fell in love with cooking and different techniques during COVID lockdown, this book blew me away. So many great recipes, amazing new flavors and beautiful photography. HIghly recommend for the avid home cook to add to your collection!

This is definitely not a book for beginners. But I'm very happy about the information provided in this book. Delightful recipes and beautiful photos.

I am always on the hunt to find new ways to learn how to cook. I'm not the greatest cook in the kitchen but I'm always willing to learn. I'm glad I had the opportunity to read and review Chasing Flavor. I found some new techniques and recipes to try.

Chasing Flavor: Techniques and Recipes to Cook Fearlessly is a great cookbook filled with new cooking techniques that will elevate readers appreciation for high quality ingredients. The recipes are meant to be used as inspiration, as the author encourages making changes. The beginning of the cookbook includes essential information, such as pantry staples, tools, and cutting techniques.

The chapters are as follows, with some of the standout dishes:

Starters & Soups: Heirloom Tomato Toasts; Spring Pea Soup; Corn Soup with Spiced Popcorn; Beet Green and Chickpea Soup with Corn Fritters; Matzo Ball Soup

Salads: Corn and Herb Salad with Lime Vinaigrette; Crushed Cucumbers with Yogurt and Chiles; Corn and Shishito Salad with Roasted Red Pepper Vinaigrette

Vegetables: Grilled Carrots with Sweet and Sour Carrot Sauce; Fresh Corn Polenta with Butter and Herbs; Brussels Sprouts with Mustard Vinaigrette; Roasted Broccolini with Ginger-Scallion Topping

Pasta, Grains, & Pizza: Cavatelli with Spring Vegetables and Cheese Sauce; Corn Pizza; Brown Rice Bowl with Pepper Chutney and Crispy Japanese Eggplant; Polenta with Mushroom Jam

Meat & Poultry: Chicken Salad with Roasted Baby Vegetables and Spicy Vinaigrette; Grilled Pork Chops with Sweet and Sour Glaze; Pan-Roasted Chicken Breast with Pan Jus and Warm Potato Salad

Seafood: Grilled Tuna Steaks with Orange-Chile Topping; Grilled Swordfish with Olive Tapenade and Fennel Salad; Slow-Roasted Halibut with Braised Mushrooms; Seared Scallops with Sunchoke Sauce and Apple Vinaigrette

Overall, I wish that every finished dish had an accompanying photograph, as the recipes in this cookbook are so inspirational. I do like how the author has some photos which include technique instruction, especially as there may be some readers who are new to more advanced techniques. Chasing Flavor is a great cookbook and one I would recommend to others.

Disclaimer: I was given an Advanced Reader's Copy of Chasing Flavor: Techniques and Recipes to Cook Fearlessly by NetGalley and the publisher, Rux Martin/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. The choice to review this cookbook was my own.

A great cookbook. You are engaged from the first page. It gives you tools that are practical and will help you navigate the recipes easily. I found the recipes a feast for the eyes. I feel privileged to have the chance to preview this amazing project.

As an avid cook (for my family), I find cooking is as much about making meals as is it is about learning. Learning about new ingredients, new preparations, new twists.

This is not a cookbook for beginners but is perfect for anyone wanting to up their game.

Brilliant and beautiful.

Thank you Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and NetGalley for this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I will definitely be purchasing a physical copy of the book for my collection.

This is a gorgeous cookbook. The photographs are inspiring, Kluger explains his methods well, and gives the reader a lot of information on why things work. I especially liked the "takeaways" listed with each dish, a highlighted key point of cooking that the recipe teaches, that can and should be filed away for future use. There is so much to learn from this book, and it will serve as inspiration for many home chefs. However... this is a serious cookbook. This is not a "fix it quick" sort of deal, this is cuisine, not eats. Many dishes have a lot of work to them, a process of making individual recipes and bringing them together for the final product, and it can get complicated. This isn't a bad thing; it's just something one should be away of. There are easier, less complicated recipes as well, so the reader can definitely work through the book to learn new tricks, skills, and flavor boosts, but a beginner may feel a little intimidated. I felt like this was in part an aspirational cookbook when I was reading through it, but I did pick up so much useful information at the same time. In short, a beautiful cookbook for those looking to up their game and make fabulous, high-end restaurant worthy food.

#ChasingFlavor #NetGalley

Recipes are excellent for special occasions. However, the Adobe DRM advance copy that I received was so difficult and time consuming to use, I was not able to try out the recipes. Publisher - please do not use Adobe DRM.

This one has good recipes, but I found them a tad too complicated/elaborate, making them thus the kind of dishes you'd make on par with a full Sunday roast and not really the fix it and have dinner on the table in 1 hour most busy people are after especially during weekdays

Dan Kluger presents ways that you can become a flavorful chef in your own home. From the best way to cut ginger to mixing cooked and raw vegetables, this is an important addition to any cookbook shelf.

1. Make 5 sauces.

2. Cook 2 main ingredients, one in two sauces and the other one in three sauces. But not all at the same time.

3. Make a garnish by slicing, boiling and then grilling an unlikely ingredient.

4. Assemble in a complex manner.

Serves 4, next week.

Chasing Flavor

The author has worked at many famous New York City restaurants before he started his own, Loring Place in 2016. He apprenticed at an Indian restaurant, Tabla, where he learned to balance sweet, sour, salty and bitter flavors.
He wants to share how to balance sweet, salty, bitter and acidic flavors so that they are exciting from the first bite to the last.
The recipes are shared according to when they are in season and time of year in order to use the ingredients at their peak of freshness.
The recipes are provided in a different style than most cookbooks as some of the ingredients are prepared and stored days ahead of time while others may be made immediately - as is done in most restaurants.
You are given a list of salts, oils, peppers and other staples, as well as a list of tools that will be handy when you start preparing them.
There is an extremely helpful chapter on cutting herbs, vegetables, and seafood which will bring out all their flavor, as well as blending cheese, making shallots, handling pizza dough, and slicing a brisket.
The first recipe, baby artichokes with wine sauce, gives steps in preparation for the artichokes and then easy detailed steps in how to prepare them so you are successful doing the recipe the first time!
The hummus recipe is thorough and easy to do if you follow the directions.
There is a recipe for fried shrimp with szechuan salt and chile aioli that sounds delicious, you make the chile aioli ahead with a food processor and then follow the specific easy steps in frying the shrimp.
Enjoy trying out new recipes everyday with this amazing, flavorful cookbook!
You will feel like you are eating in a fancy restaurant - at home!

This is a fabulous cookbook that I'll absolutely be purchasing for use at home. I had never heard of Chef Kluger before this book. His recipes are great, many of them have a "twist - an ingredient or technique that makes them extra special. The pictures are lovely and make the cookbook extra special.

Thanks to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and NetGalley for the ARC of this book. All opinions are unsolicited and my own.

Chasing Flavor is an absolutely beautiful book filled with recipes I can't wait to try. I love the balance of recipes that feel really special with dishes that are also perfect for a quiet night at home with family. Kluger does a great job of breaking down technique (and the whole section of technique tips is absolutely fantastic), which makes some of the more complicated recipes easily accessible for the home cook. Chasing Flavor hits a lot of high notes, but I particularly enjoyed the fantastic takes on vegetables and the pizza section. The Baked Ricotta with Dried Cherry Tomatoes and the Farro and White Bean Soup with Herb Oil have already become family favorites. The Grilled Hangar Steak with Spice-Roasted Zucchini with Lime Yogurt will be next summer's go to entertaining recipe. Chasing Flavor is absolutely worthy of a spot on your most used cookbook shelf!

Am not usually a fan of this kind of modern food cookbook, but the chef/author explain painstakingly what he was doing. What flavor did he tried to concoct here, and how to balance it with another flavor. Honestly, what he did in this book gives me ideas on how to assemble my own cooking, not that I'm a chef myself.

This book give you insight of what will happen if you do this, what kind of texture you will get, and what you can replace the ingredients with. Not like some cookbooks with exact ingredients you should put in your mixture, that I can't find where I live now.

One interesting read, indeed.

Breathtaking! If there's one word to describe this cookbook, that is it. The pictures are absolutely stunning. Rich, vivid fruits and vegetables, juicy meats, succulent fish. The food looks amazing. You eat with your eyes first, and this book makes that great reminder!

The author starts off with an introduction--pantry staples, equipment to use, and cutting techniques. I LOVE the pictures of the cutting techniques. It is so much easier to see that information than read how to do it.

The recipes themselves are amazing. They include a list of ingredients and fairly simple instructions to follow. I love the 'takeaways' on some of the recipes--simple tips to help give the recipe--or other recipes--that extra oomph.

I love this cookbook and will surely use it often.

Thank you the #NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

This is a great book to have on hand and I'm so lucky that I was able to get an advanced copy! You don't find many cookbooks that get into the specifics or techniques for cooking so when I downloaded this I was happy to see it in this book.

I love books that make you use fresh and seasonal foods and flavors. This book makes you want to get in the kitchen and that my friends should tell you it's one to purchase!

Chasing Flavor is a beautiful cookbook! I’m a good cook, and I have really worked on honing my skills during the pandemic. This book combines familiar flavors used in new ways - I like seeing how to get the most out of in-season, fresh ingredients. The photography is stunning and I only wish there were photos with every recipe. I particularly liked the Essential Cuts section at the beginning of the book that highlights chopping techniques with notes on how to achieve them. The Takeaways are also filled with great tips. I plan to purchase a copy when the book is released and can’t wait to add Chasing Flavor to my collection.

Thank you to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Dan Kluger for this ARC in exchange for my review.

Chasing Flavor is the kind of cookbook that makes you insanely hungry! The book begins, like many other cookbooks, with a guide on stocking your pantry and explaining the different tools and techniques that you’ll use throughout the recipes included in the book.

The thing that really sets Chasing Flavor apart is the complexity of the recipes. None of them seem particularly hard to make yourself, but the flavor complexity is astonishing and present in every recipe. Kluger obviously knows his stuff and named the book appropriately.
The recipes also included a “Takeaway” section, which was a short paragraph of tidbits and thoughts on each recipe.

One thing I will mention is that a lot of the recipes called for a rather extensive ingredient list, which is to be expected with the kind of high end food that you’ll be cooking, but if you’re more of a ‘3 ingredient meal’ kind of person, these lists might seem intimidating and this book probably isn’t for you!