by Gary Meyer

A visionary new master class in cooking that distills decades of professional experience into just four simple elements, from the woman Alice Waters declared “America’s next great cooking teacher.”

In the tradition of The Joy of Cooking and How to Cook Everything comes Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, an ambitious new approach to cooking by a major new culinary voice. Chef and writer Samin Nosrat has taught everyone from professional chefs to middle school kids to author Michael Pollan to cook using her revolutionary, yet simple, philosophy. Master the use of just four elements—Salt, which enhances flavor; Fat, which delivers flavor and generates texture; Acid, which balances flavor; and Heat, which ultimately determines the texture of food—and anything you cook will be delicious. By explaining the hows and whys of good cooking, Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat will teach and inspire a new generation of cooks how to confidently make better decisions in the kitchen and cook delicious meals with any ingredients, anywhere, at any time.

Echoing Samin’s own journey from culinary novice to award-winning chef, Salt, Fat Acid, Heat immediately bridges the gap between home and professional kitchens. With charming narrative, illustrated walkthroughs, and a lighthearted approach to kitchen science, Samin demystifies the four elements of good cooking for everyone. Refer to the canon of 100 essential recipes—and dozens of variations—to put the lessons into practice and make bright, balanced vinaigrettes, perfectly caramelized roast vegetables, tender braised meats, and light, flaky pastry doughs.

Featuring 150 illustrations and infographics that reveal an atlas to the world of flavor by renowned illustrator Wendy MacNaughton, Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat will be your compass in the kitchen. Destined to be a classic, this New York Times bestseller just might be the last cookbook you’ll ever need.

Samin and Wendy will be in conversation with Davia Nelson of The Kitchen Sisters at the Bay Area Book Festival in Berkeley on Saturday, June 3 from 1:45-3:00. Free admission at the SF Chronicle Stage in the Park.  Details.

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A special dinner in the downstairs restaurant at Chez Panisse celebrating the book will take place on Wednesday, August 2, 2017. Meet Samin and Wendy and enjoy a menu of dishes inspired by Samin’s cooking!

$135 per person (plus service, beverages and tax) includes a signed copy of the book.

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More events coming to Washington D.C., Arlington, Virginia, San Francisco and back to Berkeley. Check here.

“Perhaps no ingredient is as important as curiosity.”—SAMIN NOSRAT

Reprinted with permission of Simon & Schuster.

If you attend the Book festival the book can be purchased and autographed. We urge you to purchase the book at your local independent bookstore. Omnivore Books on Food in San Francisco and Kitchen Arts & Letters in New York offer signed copies in person or by mail. You can also purchase Salt Fat Acid Heat at Indiebound, Amazon and Powell’s via links on the book’s website which will benefit the authors more than a direct purchase from those sources.

You can also read interviews, other excerpts and listen to podcasts here.

Samin Nosrat creates community around food as a cook, writer and teacher in the Bay Area. Called “a go-to resource for matching the correct techniques with the best ingredients” by The New York Times, and “the next Julia Child” by NPR’s All Things Considered, she’s been cooking professionally since 2000, when she first stumbled into the kitchen at Chez Panisse restaurant. From Chez Panisse to Tuscany, Piemonte to the northern coast of Iran, she has spent the past fifteen years immersed in a life of cooking and learning beside groundbreaking chefs, home cooks, farmers, writers and artists.  Drawing on this broad spectrum of experience, she brings to her classes a sense of humor and joy as well as a deep desire to empower and encourage her students to find their own comfortable place in the kitchen.  Her first book is Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: The Four Elements of Good Cooking.

.Samin Nosrat is a writer, teacher, and chef. She lives, cooks, surfs, and gardens in Berkeley, California. Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat is her first book.

Check out her blog at CiaoSamin.

Samin on The Why of Cooking at The Atlantic.

This Simple Advice Completely Changed the Way I Cook (and Eat) at Mother Jones

Wendy MacNaughton is a NYT best-selling illustrator and graphic journalist based in San Francisco. Her books include Meanwhile in San Francisco, The City in its Own Words (Chronicle), Lost Cat: A True Story of Love, Desperation, and GPS Technology (Bloomsbury),Pen and Ink: Tattoos and the Stories Behind Them (Bloomsbury), Knives & Ink: Chefs and The Stories Behind Their Tattoos (Bloomsbury),, The Essential Scratch and Sniff Guide to Becoming a Wine Expert (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), The Essential Scratch & Sniff Guide to Becoming a Whiskey Know-It-All (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) and the forthcoming Leave Me Alone with the Recipes, The Life, Art and Cookbook of Cipe Pineles (Bloomsbury). Wendy is the back page columnist for California Sunday Magazine, and co-founder of  Women Who Draw. Her most recent book is Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat. Her art has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, NPR, Juxtapoz, GOOD, Time Out NY, 7×7, Edible SF and Gizmodo. She has created magazine cover images for 7×7 and Edible SF. Her monthly illustrated documentary project “Meanwhile,” was published in The Rumpus.

Before all that stuff, she studied art and social work, worked as a copywriter in advertising, a campaign director for non-profits, a bookseller in a used bookstore, and a counselor on a suicide hotline. She also created the national campaign for the first democratic elections in Rwanda, health education materials for nomadic tribes in Northern Kenya, and a short film in Eastern Congo. She lives in Potrero Hill with her partner (and frequent collaborator) the writer Caroline Paul, two cats and a dog.

Her books are available at your local book and comics stores and well as online from Indiebound or Amazon.

You can learn more and buy prints and other goodies here.

Her Blog is here.

A Studio Visit with Wendy MacNaughton

Wendy offers her Brief but Spectacular take on telling undertold stories through drawings on PBS Newshour.