By far, one of the most loved books on cooking in my house is Culinary Artistry by Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page. The book explores cooking in a way that makes it a constant point of reference for meal planning and recipe creation. One of my favorite sections of Culinary Artistry is the section in the middle that helps match flavors so that you get combinations that taste great together. Robin seems to have a gift for these food pairings and rattles them off when I blindly ask what goes with [insert any food here], but I'm blundering when it comes to matching flavors beyond the most rudimentary combinations. The best way I've found is to look at recipes other people have written and assume they weren't complete idiots.

Dornenburg and Page are back with a new book,The Flavor Bible, which takes this concept of flavor matching to new heights. The Flavor Bible dedicates 374 pages to a thoroughly researched collection of flavor combinations across all of the major world cuisines. The book is not a cookbook, but rather a cross-reference of these elusive flavor match-ups aimed at saving you the hours of research required to make your meals taste exceptional. Like previous offerings from the authors, The Flavor Bible is a compilation drawn from some the best and brightest chefs around the globe, distilled down into a highly usable reference destined to be stained with sauces from the love it receives in your kitchen.

Karen and Andrew are in Seattle this weekend as part of their book tour for The Flavor Bible and graciously took time out of a sunny September Saturday to visit with a handful of local food bloggers, trade tips on Seattle dining hot spots, and share their insight on persistence in getting published as a food writer. On hand for the conversation were Seattle's food blogging ringleader, Keren Brown (aka Frantic Foodie), Ronald Holden of Cornishon, Seattle Tall Poppy, Michael of Herbivoracious, and Plate Lunch.