The Laws of Cooking: And How to Break Them

by Justin Warner

Foreword by Alton Brown.

The Laws of Cooking . . . and How to Break Them encourages improvisation and play, while explaining Justin Warner's unique ideas about "flavor theory"-like color theory, but for your tongue. By introducing eleven laws based on familiar foods (e.g., "The Law of Peanut Butter and Jelly"; "The Law of Coffee, Cream, and Sugar"), the book will teach you why certain flavors combine brilliantly, and then show how these combinations work in 110 more complex and inventive recipes (Tomato Soup with "Grilled Cheese" Ravioli; Scallops with Black Sesame and Cherry). At the end of every recipe, Justin "breaks the law" by adding a seemingly discordant flavor that takes the combination to a new level.

Genres: Cookbooks, Food, Cooking, Nonfiction

336 pages, Hardcover

First published October 13, 2015

About the author

JUSTIN WARNER is the winner of the eighth season of Food Network Star and is the chef/co-owner of Michelin-rated Do or Dine restaurant in Bed-Stuy, New York. His first Food Network appearance was on 24 Hour Restaurant Battle in 2010, which he also won. He continues to be a frequent guest on Food Network and will host a new Food Network web series launching in 2015. Warner was a waiter at Danny Meyer's acclaimed restaurant The Modern prior to starting his own career as a chef.

Reviews

[Jeanne King · Rating 5 out of 5]

For a cookbook, this is GREAT reading!! (The recipes seem terrific as well, but I'm no cook--and probably never will be.) This cookbook hit the NY Times top 10 list the day it was released (I think. I could be making this up.) If any of you are Food Network Star fans, you'll remember Justin from the competition of 3 seasons ago (before Eddie and Lenny). Alton Brown loved him, mentored him, bathed him (well....AB didn't go that far!). Justin won the competition but his quirky style befuddled the execs at Food Network; he's never been given a show although he makes appearances here and there on FN's competition shows (e.g., Cutthroat Kitchen) and excels consistently. Justin does have a 5 minute web series, "Foodie Call." It's worth watching. But another 25 minutes of Justin is called for. Justin fans unite!! If you don't write hate mail to FN supporting Justin, at least buy his cookbook to show support. And, as I mentioned, it's great fun to read. And the pix will have you salivating. Just reading the recipe ingredients will have you wishing for Justin to be your private chef for a day. Do it! Get it? Now! At a discount from amazon.com!

[Andee Nero · Rating 4 out of 5]

People need to stop calling Justin Warner "the poor man's Alton Brown." Outside of the fact that they're both white boys in glasses, they have completely different styles.
Pros: Damn, this is a sexy book. It feels good in your hands. It is soft. The photography ranges from silly to sensual to wtf. The book itself is organized by flavor profile and looks at the different and creative ways you can combine flavors. I'm all about this. Good shit, right here.
Cons: How is Justin Warner not fat???? At least 75% (that's a low estimate btw) of the recipes involve hard liquor, deep-frying, heavy cream, buttermilk or some combination of these. Further, these aren't accessible to home cooks, with some of the recipes spanning several pages. I suppose one should expect complicated recipes from Justin Warner, so I excused this, choosing to focus on the flavor profiles instead. Also, majorly judging him for having a recipe called "yolo burger." I hope he regrets that.

[Robert Hudder · Rating 3 out of 5]

So, imagine this. Come up with some rules of cooking, show some examples and then break the rules... Yeah, it is a conceit. Another way to think about this book, is that there are certain types of flavour/taste combinations that work really well in the American canon. By taking those apart, you can create new flavour combinations that work by echoing things the taster knows. This is how this cookbook works. There are some aggressive recipes here and the character that is Justin Warner comes through. The thing is, he is more than a drunk post college graduate who is just figuring out his life. It is obvious that he spent a lot of time thinking about these recipes and why they work.

Even the breezy style and asides in the body of the recipe are thoughtful and show a really good understanding. This is someone who won a Food Network Star season. His persona is really crafted and I kind of wished they let a little more of the serious food guy out.

Anyway, here are the recipes I am interested in and notes along the way.

Pumpkin butter (p.58) I do have a recipe somewhere...
Radish caprese (p.61) A cool trompe bouche that I am going to try sometime
Idea: Infuse cream with flavour and then whip it.
Cauliflower puree (p.74) I don't think I have seen these ingredients together in any of the current collected batch. Will try.
Onion chaw (p.90)
Idea: sumac in milk (p.153) for about 15 minutes gives it a cereal milk flavour (Trix). Might combine this with cream idea.
Blue Cheese Cake (p.162) Have tried a few savory cheesecake ideas. This one is another to add to the list.
Idea: Make my own soya milk?
Get some freeze dried durian.
Chia gel along with other gels (p.174)
Torido (p.248)
I have some browning in my pantry. I don't care for his jerk mix but I should look one up soon. Jerk Cauliflower may be a good idea...
Howitzer habanero cake. My son would like this one
And I forgot about this website Volatile Compounds in Food database. This is the third or fourth mention of food science (Herve This was mentioned)
Roasted cocoa cauliflower (p.294) This is a take on a recipe I made a few weeks ago. Let's just try it and see how it compares.

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a big fan of Justin Warner's out-there approach to food and cooking. Fun to read, and inspired some recipe thoughts.

[Zack · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted more book and less cook book. Justin is an amazing chef but this book didn't capture that for me.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a weird cookbook, in that I don't think I'll actually make any of the recipes, but his overall schema of food was interesting and worthwhile.

As other reviewers have noted, Warner is not Alton Brown. I don't hold this against him, but the book was given to me as a gift due in large part to Alton's recommendation, so finding it as light on the science / foodnerding as it is was somewhat surprising and a tiny bit disappointing. Some recipes are also way too fancy for my blood. I don't know about you, but my proverbial Altonian "great American megamart" doesn't carry jackfruit, and I don't know where I would get it in my small, midwestern city (nevermind some of the other, stranger ingredients that I had to google for). So that limits the book's utility somewhat.

That said, the "Laws" structure has some merit. I don't necessarily agree with all of his examples for each law, and ultimately most of the laws are special cases of a more-general law, which is "balance 'bad/weird' flavors (bitter, sour, spicy, bland, funky) with 'good' flavors (sweet, salty, fatty)". This is sort of obvious in practice and in retrospect, but there's still some utility in having derived this over-law for myself from his examples, and also having seen his special-case applications of this law (because some combinations do work better than others). The appendix on texture also got me thinking. I also liked his DIY cold-smoker design. So in these ways, a useful book.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

This more of a modernist cuisine book than anything else, many of the recipes are laborious with eccentric ingredients. Some require smokers or other exotic equipment. Some of these read like Iron Chef, so they might have been an ingredient challenge. An interesting read once sort of thing, but not a keeper.

Does list prep and cook times along with hold! instructions for items that can be prepped ahead of time which is great info and I wish more cookbooks were more explicit about holds.

[Xin Tong · Rating 3 out of 5]

The idea is good and I found this book from a podcast I listened to recently. But first of all, only I would say, 2-3 laws mentioned indeed make full sense. Secondly, the recipes are either too obvious or intendedly "eye-catching" by some bizarre combination with hard-to-find ingredients. Just not there yet Mr. Warner. I am sorry.

[Heather F · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding. If you liked him on Next Food Network Star, you'll love this book. He makes food science understandable, the recipes look good.

[Jacquelyn Merryfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb. Every recipe I made (9) was flawless. Well written and I loved his thought process throughout. Highly recommend!

[Peter Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

Food porn at its finest. If you like Alton Brown you'll like this book. Heck the foreword is by Alton.

[Joe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Intermittently interesting. Appreciated his perspective on taste combinations, but most of the recipes are pretty complicated and involved.

[Julie Westhoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! Gave this to a few family members that love to cook. Heard that he is appearing in chef shock