'You could cook from it over a whole lifetime, and still be learning' Nigella Lawson

'A rigorous, nuts-and-bolts bible of a book' Jay Rayner, Observer

'Lateral Cooking...uncovers the very syntax of cookery' Yotam Ottolenghi

'Astonishing and totally addictive' Brian Eno

This groundbreaking book reveals the principles underpinning all recipe creation, from the author of the bestselling The Flavour Thesaurus

Do you feel you that you follow recipes slavishly without understanding how they actually work? Would you like to feel freer to adapt, to experiment, to play with flavours?

Well look no further - in these pages, Niki Segnit, author of the landmark The Flavour Thesaurus, gives you the tools to do just that. Organised into 77 'starting-point' recipes, Lateral Cooking including plenty of tips for substituting ingredients and reducing the phenomenal variety of world cuisine down to its bare essentials - and then building it back up again.

So, under 'Bread', Niki guides you through flatbreads, oatcakes, buckwheat noodles, chapattis and tortillas, showing you how they are all variations on one theme. A few simple tweaks and you can make soda bread, scones or cobbler. And so on, through breads and batters, broths, stews and dals, one dish leading to another.

Lateral Cooking is as inspirational and entertaining a read as it is a practical guide. Once you have the hang of each starting point, a wealth of new flavour combinations awaits, each related in Niki's signature combination of culinary science, history, chefs' wisdom and entertaining personal anecdote.

Niki shows you that recipes you had thought were outside of your experience are reassuringly similar to things you've made a dozen times before, giving you the confidence to experiment with flavour. The variations that follow are a springboard of inspiration to the contents of your fridge and kitchen cupboards.

In these pages, you will discover to cook 'by heart' - and that's where the fun really begins.