Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat

A beautifully illustrated New York Times bestseller that distils decades of professional experience into just four simple elements - and will set you free from recipes forever

While cooking at Chez Panisse at the start of her career, Samin Nosrat noticed that amid the chaos of the kitchen there were four key principles that her fellow chefs would always fall back on to make their food better: Salt, Fat, Acid and Heat.

By mastering these four variables, Samin found the confidence to trust her instincts in the kitchen and cook delicious meals with any ingredients. And with her simple but revolutionary method, she has taught masterclasses to give both professionals and amateurs the skills to cook instinctively.

Whether you want to balance your vinaigrette, perfectly caramelise your roasted vegetables or braise meltingly tender stews, Samin's canon of 100 essential recipes and their dozens of variations will teach you how.

Review

"Quite simply an essential book ... a masterpiece" -- NIGELLA LAWSON

"I have become slightly obsessed ... revolutionary in its simplicity" -- YOTAM OTTOLENGHI

"This beautiful, approachable book captures how it should feel to cook: full of exploration, spontaneity and joy" -- ALICE WATERS

"An exhaustively researched treatise on the four pillars of successful cooking. If you can train yourself to recognize the proper balance between salt, fat and acid, then apply the right kind of heat, you'll churn out simple, sophisticated fare in the spirit of Berkeley's Chez Panisse, where Nosrat started out" ― New York Times

"Funny and beautifully illustrated, this book will change the way you cook" ― BBC Good Food

"A must for anyone wanting to be a better cook. Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat teaches the fundamentals of cooking and dives into the four elements that make food taste great. So do yourself a favour and buy this book. I promise you won't regret it" -- APRIL BLOOMFIELD

"The book set to shape significantly what we eat in the future . . . also, her accompanying Netflix documentary series is wonderful" ― Daily Mail

"The lush, four-episode Netflix series inspired by this book might be the trebuchet that launched Samin Nosrat to household-name status, but it's her book that we'll still be reaching for decades from now . . . After applying Nosrat's lessons . . . I feel like I've levelled up from journeyman to master" ― New Yorker

"In her liberating and indispensable guide to the whole subject of cooking, Samin Nosrat explains with humour and concision how all great cookery boils down to the four elements of the title" ― The Week

"Superb . . . Samin Nosrat charmingly [breaks] cooking down into its most basic elements" ― Times Literary Supplement

About the Author

Samin Nosrat is a writer, teacher, and chef. She's been cooking professionally since 2000, when she first stumbled into the kitchen at Chez Panisse restaurant. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Bon Appétit, and the Guardian. Samin lives in Berkeley, California. Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat is her first book.

Wendy MacNaughton is an illustrator and graphic journalist. She illustrated the New York Times Bestseller The Essential Scratch and Sniff Guide to Becoming a Wine Expert and Lost Cat: A True Story of Love, Desperation and GPS Technology. She lives in San Francisco. www.wendymacnaughton.com