A cuisine is defined by its fat, its acid and its fire.
Each page gives a short history, the cuisine’s fats, aromatics and acids with measurable notes, and links to the techniques and ingredients already explained on this site. Uncertain history is not written as certain.
Turkish cuisine and its regions
Not one kitchen but a map: Aegean olive oil, Black Sea anchovy and maize, south-eastern isot and pomegranate molasses, Central Anatolian yoghurt and dough.
Greek cuisine
Olive oil, lemon, herbs and fasting: the other shore of the Aegean, close to the Turkish kitchen but with a logic of its own.
Levantine cuisine
Lebanon, Syria, Palestine and Jordan: a meze kitchen built on tahini, chickpeas, bulgur, sumac and lemon.
Persian cuisine
Saffron, rice, sour fruit and herbs by the handful: a kitchen that puts meat with fruit and sweet with sour in the same pot.
Italian cuisine
A regional rather than national kitchen: butter, rice and polenta in the north; olive oil, durum wheat and tomato in the south.
French cuisine
Butter, stock and sauce: the kitchen that wrote technique down, classified it, and set the order of the restaurant kitchen.
Japanese cuisine
Dashi, soy, rice and season: a kitchen that multiplies umami by combining two ingredients and touches the ingredient as little as it can.
Indian cuisine
Not one kitchen but a subcontinent: its shared grammar is spice bloomed in fat, ghee and pulses.
Mexican cuisine
Maize, chilli and beans: a kitchen of lime-treated corn, chillies toasted on the comal and slow-cooked sauces.
Chinese cuisine
Ginger, garlic, spring onion and soy: a kitchen of very high heat for a very short time, and a different one in every region.