Of Cabbages and Kimchi: A Practical Guide to the World of Fermented Food

A playful and accessible guide to fermenting at home

James Read, founder of Kim Kong Kimchi and owner of a walk-in remotely-monitored fermentarium, is on a mission to bring bacteria back to our kitchens. Here, he takes the ten greatest 'living' ferments - fermented foods that are neither cooked nor pasteurised - and puts them under the microscope. The result is Fizz.

From the fiery funk of kimchi to the velvet tang of kefir (via kombucha and kvass), Read demonstrates how the microbial process works, then shares his recipes for recreating these delights in your own kitchen without specialist equipment. Alongside his recipes, Read investigates the extraordinary cultural and historic backgrounds of fermented foods, exploring how the microbes that bring them to life have developed alongside our culinary evolution.

Featuring over fifty recipes and packed to the brim with essential how-to information, Fizz will help you create, understand and appreciate fermentation's bubbling magic.

About the Author

James Read is the founder of Kim Kong Kimchi, a company that's made tens of thousands of jars of kimchi distributed through hundreds of stores across Europe. Kim Kong Kimchi has given James the opportunity to build his own walk-in remotely-monitored fermentarium, write an array of fizz-related spreadsheets and address audiences from London's Chinatown to Copenhagen on the wonders of fermented foods. He adores research, reading peer-reviewed papers on microbiota, hunting out ingredient origin myths and running A/B tests on fermenting pineapple cores.

Dimensions (cm): 20.5 x 16.1  x 2.7