Aroma: Daniel Patterson and Mandy Aftel

By JULIETTE ROSSANT Perfume makes me think of the Middle East, where men and women alike favor heavy perfumes and even taxi and bus drivers will offer you a little lemon cologne for your hands. Perfurmeries still exist in the bazaars of Istanbul, Cairo, Damascus, and Jeddah and remind us that the ancient Silk Road (see map) carried spices and scents from the Far East to Europe through these cities. Vying with all this scent in the Middle East is the smell of food everywhere: onions and tumeric, cinnamon and curry, and lamb, beef, and chicken simmering in stews. It's a wonder that no chef has teamed up with a perfumer before Aroma (Artisan 2004), a fascinating new cookbook and fragrance guide by Mandy Aftel, owner of Aftelier Perfumes and a natural perfumer, and Daniel Patterson, formerly chef at Frisson in San Francisco. If cuisine is about taste and not only presentation, then it truly is about smell. This is a handsome book, from the front cover photo of Mint-Infused Asparagus Soup (p. 39) to the rainbow from pale greens, blues to rust red colored paper used throughout. It is a book meant to inspire visually the very scents described within. Although the English language is better suited to evoking sights than scents, this book is intriguing. The table of contents is a bit complicated because each section has recipes for both the perfumer and the cook. There are helpful chapters such as The Perfumer's Pantry (p.19) and The Cook's Pantry ((p. 27) and then recipes organized around themes such as "Refreshing," which includes Spearmint, Cucumber, Lime , Orange, and Lemon Verbena, and "Spicy," which has Cinnamon, Black Pepper, Ginger, Cumin, and Coriander. They are fun to explore or you can search through recipe lists for both fragrances and cooking. Fragrance recipes are fewer but many are quite fun for gifts like Saffron, Ginger, and Blood Orange Bath Salts (p. 192) or Lemon Verbena-Lavender Mist (p. 60). There are also recipes for nightime face elixirs, solid and liquid perfumes, and moisturizing body oils. Some of the recipes from this book takes a little planning. You have to buy in a health food store or online various kinds of essential oils like black pepper essential oil for the Black Pepper-Scenter Pok Shoulder Confit (pp. 154-5) -- don't forget your litsea cubeba essential oil for the Steamed Artichokes with -- you guessed it -- Litsea Cubeba Mayonnaise (p. 95). Other recipes are less exotic, like Poached Chicken with Tarragon (p. 79) or the Blood Orange, Fennel, and Avocado Salad (p. 55). The recipe for Jasmine Liquid Perfume contains many exotic ingredients like labdanum absolute, jasmine sambac absolute, and orange essential oil but the White Peach-Jasmine Sorbet is much simpler -- white peaches, lemon juice and jasmine pearls, a kind of jasmine tea (p.111). OK, I poked fun at the litsea cubeba, but in fact just including such oddities is an act of bravery that helps to spread knowledge and increase familiarity. Who knows: perhaps the next generation will see its share of children named Litsea right among all the Lauras and Lisas. Previous articles: Tyler Florence: Eat This Book The Perfectionist by Rudolph Chelminski Bobby Flay's Grilling for Life Mother's Day Gift: Finding Betty Crocker The Sensual Language of Baklava: Diana Abu-Jaber Paula Deen & Friends Roland Mesnier's Dessert University Puerto Rico: Grand Cuisine of the Caribbean Don Pintabona: Shared Table Annabel Karmel: First Meals Nigella Lawson's Feast Cook Like a Kyrgyz Personal Favorites: The Chefs of Las Vegas Anne Willan: The Good Cook Gale Gand's short+sweet More Food from Alton Brown Manju Malhi's India With Passion SOS: Baking from the Heart Madhur Jaffrey: Our Lady of India, CBE Amazon UK's Steamy Xmas Chefs All Hail Alfred Portale Agassi's Star Palate: Celebrity Chefs Book links: Publisher Amazon.com Technorati Tags: chefs food restaurants cooking branding cookbooks perfume --> back to superchefblog