I'm not a recipe writer, just an occasional home cook. I ran across one of these mash-up recipes recently and decided to give it a try. It required two trips to Berkeley Bowl and one to Oakland Spice to round up all the ingredients. End result was fine but not worth the bother. We've got specialty stores for every slice of diversity that the Bay Area offers, but I'm hard pressed to imagine how I'd source these when living in my small hometown in Wisconsin.
Indeed! I guess everything is available online these days, but you have to plan in advance. No spontaneity. Sorry that all that work, travel and experimenting didn’t turn out as well as you would like, Birdi.
I’m at that fabulous stage of life where I cook and write about whatever actually delights me; not what’s trending, not what everyone else is doing, and not what the algorithm thinks will go viral.
As much as I might want to write a recipe for lemon-lavender-blueberry sweet rolls with fresh spring-lilac-frosting, ain't nobody searching for that on Google and so nobody's going to find it organically. To be able to have anyone see your multi-hyphenate recipe, you have to garner interest elsewhere or no one will find it and it will languish in a dark corner of the internet. I found out the hard way 😆
Oh no! Sorry about that. From what I’ve heard, Google is changing the way that results work anyway, so you might’ve ended up on page 98 of search regardless.
I'm a home cook who has worked in restaurants until I got to the stage where it was open my own place or get out of the business. I remember when quiche was new to the US but an old standard in Europe and its former colonies. Every few years there seems to be another food fad.
I do mash cultures using spices and flavorings from many sources but my cooking style is in the European tradition. I share my recipes with friends and relatives with no attempt at publication. I do try to stay true to my sources at the same time. I can't imagine some of the current flavor combinations with an indiscriminate use of miso or tahini. Yes, I put lemon tahini sauce on salmon, a fish not common to the Levant. I use Aleppo pepper in my Ethiopian berbere which I blend myself rather than a hotter chili. I may use Jamaican jerk seasoning in a stew. It will be interesting to see how much of the current trends will become part of the American cuisine and what will fall to the wayside.
Honestly, this is nothing new. The cookbook I wrote for Williams Sonoma in 2008 was part of a “New Flavors” series called “Classic Recipes Redefined,” each traditional recipe used a new/trendy ingredient. What’s new is the frenzy over food, and that happened due to many things, including the Ottolenghi effect and the renewed interest in cooking and food during the pandemic.
America has never been a “foodie” culture, the way say France, China, Mexico, etc. are. But we are moving in that direction. Personally, I’m glad people are more interested in food! I didn’t stand in line for 2 1/2 hours to try the Dubai sundae a few months ago, but I was very happy that Ghirardelli offered me an opportunity to skip the line and try it for free. New flavors and ingredients? I’m all for it.
Well, I have to disagree, Amy. It's one thing to add one new or trendy ingredient, but something else to focus on several different flavors and textures in one thing, such as a croissant. It's the piling on the is the focus. Maybe I didn't explain that properly.
You make a good point about increased interest in food and cooking during the pandemic. It must have been during the pandemic that these hyper-flavored foods emerged.
I don't see the difference. It's adding more flavors and textures to classic things. How is my recipe for spring lamb chops with mint pistachio pesto different from a Dubai chocolate bar with pistachio and kadayif or a croissant with rhubarb and custard?
I love the trending mouthwatering global flavor mashups, but honestly-- as a cookbook reviewer with a strict 220 word limit, these recipes also come with very long colorful titles, and boy, do they eat up my word count! I describe fewer sample recipes or am forced to include the ones with more reasonable length titles.
Hah, yes that is such a good point! That the title of recipes are so much longer as a result of this trend. Also full of adjectives. I always say my limit is three and that is too many.
I read the comment before I read who wrote it and was nodding along and instantly thought of **those** reviews...and voila! Of course it was you! Hi, Martha!!
I can be a sucker for flavormaxxed recipes, but only when done thoughtfully. Chicago's new Del Sur Bakery makes it into edible, genius art.
As a regular baker who gets easily bored, flavormaxxing lets me frolic with my recipes. However, I always return to basics. I use one or two hero flavors, and I find that's what many folks want. Or I just keep it absolutely simple. My cherry pie has (tart) cherries in it, a splash of kirsch, and no other flavorings, not even a splash of vanilla. Sometimes my shortbread doesn't even have vanilla in it. (But it's probably made with buckwheat...)
After 23 years teaching Italian cooking and writing about it, there is one thing I am sure about: people wants simple recipes. They might be attracted to new and exotic combinations, but in the end what they really love is food that is fresh, natural and comforting. My feeling is that flavormaxing is instrumental to the food industry, because mass produced food is so tasteless. On the other hand, I doubt that home cooks will have more than a passing interest in such complicated recipes. Who has time to run to 3 spice shop for one dinner?
I'm right there with you. We want some genius combinations, but still, easy to make. Maybe that's why the New York Times has made so much money from its Cooking database.
I think the flavormaxing is particularly compelling on restaurant menus and for food media (helpful to land coverage for a new book). But when it comes to the pendulum swinging this way in recipes, if anything, I think it will help drive cooks back to core flavors, core techniques, and classics—from a vast array of cuisines and cultures. I see a few cookbooks have a handful of these recipes (again, great mediagenic hook!) but less so whole books. Unless of course it’s the premise of the book or an anthology of said recipes.
Yes that makes sense that it will only be a few recipes instead of a whole book. A whole book sounds exhausting, for one thing! And it sounds like you think people will rebel by getting back to classics.
The flavormaxxing trend exhausts readers as we try to imagine these wacky flavor pairings. They often don’t make any sense (ok, to me) as they jumble ill matched flavors for novelty’s sake. I stick with speaking to farmers and cooks at my hometown farmers’ market in CT. They are a practical and creative bunch always on the lookout for celebrating in- season ingredients in fresh ways. My other most reliable sources for flavor pairings is The Flavor Bible ( by Page and Dornenburg).Couldn’t write without it.
Indeed. I am at the farmer's market every weekend, so I'm right there with you. But I have been known to indulge in some of these things --- especially baked goods -- for novelty's sake. No way do I want to bake them, though.
I think it also has do with the saturation of the market. The space is so crowded so people try to create new mashups and over the top combos to find new territory to call their own. I would say often these aren't the recipes that readers get attached to as they are more complicated by nature.
You always spot the latest and greatest trends—thank you for writing about flavormaxing. I’ve been seeing some wild flavor mashups lately but didn’t realize there was actually a name for it. Now I do.
I don’t think you need to be a third culture recipe writer or a person of color to take part. And no, white folks don’t have to stick to Earl Grey and brown butter. Isn’t stuffing pizza crust with cheese or adding Oreo cookies to cheesecake also flavormaxing in its own way? Maybe it’s not as refined as miso or tahini—but it’s been around for a while.
With the rise of Middle Eastern and Asian flavors in the mainstream, flavormaxing feels like it’s crossed into food extremism. I believe in a happy medium: mix boldly, but with balance. Know where your ingredients come from. Let’s eat with intention.
This too shall pass!!
PS: There is nothing like a buttery pound cake. So simple, so delightful.
Re stuffed pizza crust -- I guess it could be the same. To me that is about indulgence -- more of a particular ingredient. But those pastries I named are all indulgent too. Oreos on cheesecake could be flavormaxxing, but I think it would need more, such as a browned butter-sauced cheesecake with marbled chocolate, Oreo cookies and a layer of mocha mousse.
Thank you for sharing the NYT article and for writing about this Dianne. I think this is fascinating in many ways (partly because a lot of my own recipes might be described as flavourmaxing - think strawberry sumac tiramisu or preserved lemon drizzle cake for example). But I also think the NYT article doesn’t fully capture everything that is driving this trend. Sure, the pandemic played its role, as does social media and the wish for businessee to go viral, the economic downturn and our focus on affordable luxury but I think the author doesn’t stress enough how formerly exotic ingredients like miso, sumac, preserved lemons etc have simply become pantry staples for many of us. So it only makes sense to see what else you can make with them. And it also doesn’t really consider how tasty some of these new combinations are.
I am certainly no fan of haphazardly throwing together random ingredients for the sake of novelty but there is a whole world of delicious flavours to be discovered beyond the vanilla / chocolate / lemon or coconut etc cakes many of us grew up with.
As for who gets to write these sorts of recipes, I think anyone and everyone as long as it’s done thoughtfully!
Oh and if you ask me, that candied kumquat black sesame buttermilk sourdough cake donut sounds delicious even if a bit of a mouthful (but a tasty one I think!)
I do think these ultra long descriptive names are difficult to parse even if it is nice to know what you are buying. But flavourwise I loved the sound of that doughnut.
And I remember Nik Sharma recently wrote a great newsletter about naming recipes / dishes - what to include, what to leave out - and it’s really hard (something I am also discovering with my own recipes and cookbook proposal).
I'm not a recipe writer, just an occasional home cook. I ran across one of these mash-up recipes recently and decided to give it a try. It required two trips to Berkeley Bowl and one to Oakland Spice to round up all the ingredients. End result was fine but not worth the bother. We've got specialty stores for every slice of diversity that the Bay Area offers, but I'm hard pressed to imagine how I'd source these when living in my small hometown in Wisconsin.
Indeed! I guess everything is available online these days, but you have to plan in advance. No spontaneity. Sorry that all that work, travel and experimenting didn’t turn out as well as you would like, Birdi.
I’m at that fabulous stage of life where I cook and write about whatever actually delights me; not what’s trending, not what everyone else is doing, and not what the algorithm thinks will go viral.
Does it hurt my views? Maybe.
Do I care? Not even a little.
Oh I love this. A woman who knows what she likes. Thank you Jeanie Jo.
It took me awhile to get here. But I am loving it. I love food and I get to have fun. That’s what it is all about 🫶🏻
Amen!
As much as I might want to write a recipe for lemon-lavender-blueberry sweet rolls with fresh spring-lilac-frosting, ain't nobody searching for that on Google and so nobody's going to find it organically. To be able to have anyone see your multi-hyphenate recipe, you have to garner interest elsewhere or no one will find it and it will languish in a dark corner of the internet. I found out the hard way 😆
Oh no! Sorry about that. From what I’ve heard, Google is changing the way that results work anyway, so you might’ve ended up on page 98 of search regardless.
I'm a home cook who has worked in restaurants until I got to the stage where it was open my own place or get out of the business. I remember when quiche was new to the US but an old standard in Europe and its former colonies. Every few years there seems to be another food fad.
I do mash cultures using spices and flavorings from many sources but my cooking style is in the European tradition. I share my recipes with friends and relatives with no attempt at publication. I do try to stay true to my sources at the same time. I can't imagine some of the current flavor combinations with an indiscriminate use of miso or tahini. Yes, I put lemon tahini sauce on salmon, a fish not common to the Levant. I use Aleppo pepper in my Ethiopian berbere which I blend myself rather than a hotter chili. I may use Jamaican jerk seasoning in a stew. It will be interesting to see how much of the current trends will become part of the American cuisine and what will fall to the wayside.
Indeed it will. Every few years there's something new, as you say.
I see this as different from "fusion cooking" -- not that you mentioned it. This trend is more about piling on different flavors and textures.
Always a fun surprise to come across my own name in your newsletter Dianne. Thanks.
My pleasure Taffy. It must have been a thrill!
Honestly, this is nothing new. The cookbook I wrote for Williams Sonoma in 2008 was part of a “New Flavors” series called “Classic Recipes Redefined,” each traditional recipe used a new/trendy ingredient. What’s new is the frenzy over food, and that happened due to many things, including the Ottolenghi effect and the renewed interest in cooking and food during the pandemic.
America has never been a “foodie” culture, the way say France, China, Mexico, etc. are. But we are moving in that direction. Personally, I’m glad people are more interested in food! I didn’t stand in line for 2 1/2 hours to try the Dubai sundae a few months ago, but I was very happy that Ghirardelli offered me an opportunity to skip the line and try it for free. New flavors and ingredients? I’m all for it.
Well, I have to disagree, Amy. It's one thing to add one new or trendy ingredient, but something else to focus on several different flavors and textures in one thing, such as a croissant. It's the piling on the is the focus. Maybe I didn't explain that properly.
You make a good point about increased interest in food and cooking during the pandemic. It must have been during the pandemic that these hyper-flavored foods emerged.
I don't see the difference. It's adding more flavors and textures to classic things. How is my recipe for spring lamb chops with mint pistachio pesto different from a Dubai chocolate bar with pistachio and kadayif or a croissant with rhubarb and custard?
Number of adjectives, maybe? As in “candied kumquat black sesame buttermilk sourdough cake donut.” Not all are that extreme of course.
I love the trending mouthwatering global flavor mashups, but honestly-- as a cookbook reviewer with a strict 220 word limit, these recipes also come with very long colorful titles, and boy, do they eat up my word count! I describe fewer sample recipes or am forced to include the ones with more reasonable length titles.
Hah, yes that is such a good point! That the title of recipes are so much longer as a result of this trend. Also full of adjectives. I always say my limit is three and that is too many.
I read the comment before I read who wrote it and was nodding along and instantly thought of **those** reviews...and voila! Of course it was you! Hi, Martha!!
I can be a sucker for flavormaxxed recipes, but only when done thoughtfully. Chicago's new Del Sur Bakery makes it into edible, genius art.
As a regular baker who gets easily bored, flavormaxxing lets me frolic with my recipes. However, I always return to basics. I use one or two hero flavors, and I find that's what many folks want. Or I just keep it absolutely simple. My cherry pie has (tart) cherries in it, a splash of kirsch, and no other flavorings, not even a splash of vanilla. Sometimes my shortbread doesn't even have vanilla in it. (But it's probably made with buckwheat...)
That sounds sensible, Martin. You're showing some Midwestern practicality.
Hmmm…Too many flavors can mask the star of a dish. I feel simple is best and will, if it’s a contest, win in the end.
Yes for everyday, for sure. But every once in a while, it's fun to try these things.
After 23 years teaching Italian cooking and writing about it, there is one thing I am sure about: people wants simple recipes. They might be attracted to new and exotic combinations, but in the end what they really love is food that is fresh, natural and comforting. My feeling is that flavormaxing is instrumental to the food industry, because mass produced food is so tasteless. On the other hand, I doubt that home cooks will have more than a passing interest in such complicated recipes. Who has time to run to 3 spice shop for one dinner?
I'm right there with you. We want some genius combinations, but still, easy to make. Maybe that's why the New York Times has made so much money from its Cooking database.
I think the flavormaxing is particularly compelling on restaurant menus and for food media (helpful to land coverage for a new book). But when it comes to the pendulum swinging this way in recipes, if anything, I think it will help drive cooks back to core flavors, core techniques, and classics—from a vast array of cuisines and cultures. I see a few cookbooks have a handful of these recipes (again, great mediagenic hook!) but less so whole books. Unless of course it’s the premise of the book or an anthology of said recipes.
Yes that makes sense that it will only be a few recipes instead of a whole book. A whole book sounds exhausting, for one thing! And it sounds like you think people will rebel by getting back to classics.
The flavormaxxing trend exhausts readers as we try to imagine these wacky flavor pairings. They often don’t make any sense (ok, to me) as they jumble ill matched flavors for novelty’s sake. I stick with speaking to farmers and cooks at my hometown farmers’ market in CT. They are a practical and creative bunch always on the lookout for celebrating in- season ingredients in fresh ways. My other most reliable sources for flavor pairings is The Flavor Bible ( by Page and Dornenburg).Couldn’t write without it.
Indeed. I am at the farmer's market every weekend, so I'm right there with you. But I have been known to indulge in some of these things --- especially baked goods -- for novelty's sake. No way do I want to bake them, though.
Besides your ever-informative topics, you have THE best links, Dianne!
Thank you Amie!
Agree! I always look forward to what the next "What I'm Reading List" opens up to me.
I think it also has do with the saturation of the market. The space is so crowded so people try to create new mashups and over the top combos to find new territory to call their own. I would say often these aren't the recipes that readers get attached to as they are more complicated by nature.
That makes a lot of sense, Katie!
You always spot the latest and greatest trends—thank you for writing about flavormaxing. I’ve been seeing some wild flavor mashups lately but didn’t realize there was actually a name for it. Now I do.
I don’t think you need to be a third culture recipe writer or a person of color to take part. And no, white folks don’t have to stick to Earl Grey and brown butter. Isn’t stuffing pizza crust with cheese or adding Oreo cookies to cheesecake also flavormaxing in its own way? Maybe it’s not as refined as miso or tahini—but it’s been around for a while.
With the rise of Middle Eastern and Asian flavors in the mainstream, flavormaxing feels like it’s crossed into food extremism. I believe in a happy medium: mix boldly, but with balance. Know where your ingredients come from. Let’s eat with intention.
This too shall pass!!
PS: There is nothing like a buttery pound cake. So simple, so delightful.
Re stuffed pizza crust -- I guess it could be the same. To me that is about indulgence -- more of a particular ingredient. But those pastries I named are all indulgent too. Oreos on cheesecake could be flavormaxxing, but I think it would need more, such as a browned butter-sauced cheesecake with marbled chocolate, Oreo cookies and a layer of mocha mousse.
I take it you're not a fan, Sanaa.
Thank you for sharing the NYT article and for writing about this Dianne. I think this is fascinating in many ways (partly because a lot of my own recipes might be described as flavourmaxing - think strawberry sumac tiramisu or preserved lemon drizzle cake for example). But I also think the NYT article doesn’t fully capture everything that is driving this trend. Sure, the pandemic played its role, as does social media and the wish for businessee to go viral, the economic downturn and our focus on affordable luxury but I think the author doesn’t stress enough how formerly exotic ingredients like miso, sumac, preserved lemons etc have simply become pantry staples for many of us. So it only makes sense to see what else you can make with them. And it also doesn’t really consider how tasty some of these new combinations are.
I am certainly no fan of haphazardly throwing together random ingredients for the sake of novelty but there is a whole world of delicious flavours to be discovered beyond the vanilla / chocolate / lemon or coconut etc cakes many of us grew up with.
As for who gets to write these sorts of recipes, I think anyone and everyone as long as it’s done thoughtfully!
Oh and if you ask me, that candied kumquat black sesame buttermilk sourdough cake donut sounds delicious even if a bit of a mouthful (but a tasty one I think!)
I couldn't get past all the adjectives to imagine it!
I do think these ultra long descriptive names are difficult to parse even if it is nice to know what you are buying. But flavourwise I loved the sound of that doughnut.
And I remember Nik Sharma recently wrote a great newsletter about naming recipes / dishes - what to include, what to leave out - and it’s really hard (something I am also discovering with my own recipes and cookbook proposal).
I will have to look that up. Yes, writing a good recipe title is an art.
Here is the link to Nick’s piece
https://open.substack.com/pub/niksharma/p/the-power-of-a-recipe-name-does-it?r=9b6fq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false