Bitter

Embrace the beauty of bitter flavors. Bitterness is often dubbed an acquired taste. In this bold cookbook, UK MasterChef 2021 finalist Alexina Anatole shows how it can elevate your cooking and add complexity and depth to a dish. Bringing together the best flavors from around the world with a combination of savory and sweet dishes, Alexina shows you how to cook with bitter ingredients in a way that suits your palate. Spanning ten ingredients that showcase the full range of bitter notes—grapefruit and bitter oranges; bitter greens; tahini; beer; walnuts; cranberries; tea; coffee; cocoa; liquorice—each chapter will add real depth of flavor to your food. Whether you choose to work with bitterness by soothing it with dairy, distracting with acidity or doubling down and going all in, Bitter will make each bite an experience, and inspire you to create meals that impress. Catering for all dietary preferences, Bitter contains a balanced number of vegan, vegetarian, dairy-free and gluten-free recipes and caters for every occasion: start with bold breakfasts recipes, like Banoffee Breakfast Bread, Malted Crepes with Lime & Sugar, and Winter Citrus Fruit Salad, then fill your day with light lunches and weeknight dinners like Roasted Eggplants with Whipped Feta, Grapefruit & Hot Honey, Seared Salmon Tacos with Grapefruit & Avocado and Allspice Lamb Chops with Pickled Walnut Ketchup. Then, impress your guests with Ancho Coffee Beef Short Ribs, Duck Confit with Bitter Orange Salsa Verde and Jerk Pork Belly with Grapefruit Hot Sauce, plus decadent desserts such as Negroni Pavlova, Bitter Chocolate Torte with Passionfruit Sauce and Tiramisu Tres Leches cake. Alexina's deep passion for understanding how different culinary traditions create their signature flavors shines through in her recipes, which offer modern twists on classic dishes from around the world.

Alexina Anatole is a chef, TV presenter, and writer based in London. After reaching the final of UK MasterChef in 2021, she made a brave career change from the trading floor to the food world. Anatole also writes Small Wins, a Substack newsletter that enhances your cooking and your life in small, manageable ways. She has been featured on BBC One’s Saturday Kitchen, Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch, and BBC Radio 4’s The Food Programme. She also runs sold-out events, including Sel, London’s most intimate supper club, and Cocoa POP, a chocolate-themed pop-up with chocolatier Octavia Lamb. Alexina is of mixed heritage: the granddaughter of chicken farmers from Cambridgeshire, England, and Saint Lucian grandparents who arrived in London during the Windrush era. Part of a series on the five tastes, Sweet is her second book—her first book, Bitter, was published in 2024.