Welcome to The Flavor Files! 🎉 This is where I dive into my love for cooking, flavor, and food science—because delicious food deserves a little curiosity.

Craving more recipes? Find them all at Nik Sharma Cooks.

Still haven’t grabbed my latest cookbook, Veg-Table? You can get it here—it’s packed with veggie magic. 🌱✨

Oh, and if you spot a few affiliate links in this newsletter, just know they help keep the spice (and science) flowing!

Now, let’s get cooking! 🔥

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Hi Friends,

Happy Easter to everyone celebrating! It’s a quiet one over here—I’m not hosting a giant feast, just a casual little lunch that happens to include lamb with smoky tahini, a potato-anchovy salad (because I love drama), an iceberg salad loaded with tomatoes, pancetta, pork floss, and yogurt dressing, a carrot cake dripping in sour cream and orange glaze... oh, and maybe a surprise dessert if I get a second wind and a caffeine boost.

Also, April is my birthday month, which means: Cake and Ice Cream Season™. I bake myself one cake and treat myself to a new ice cream flavor a week leading up to the big day because I deserve it (and so do my neighbors, who conveniently show up right when dessert is ready). This week’s cake? A chocolate hazelnut praline situation that’s so decadent and happy, I smile every time I look at it. Chocolate + Hazelnuts = the Superior Sombo. I don’t make the rules, I just bake by them. 

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It might sound a little sad that I bake myself a birthday cake every year—but honestly? It’s the best kind of self-love. Sure, I could go to a bakery and pick one up, but they never seem to have the exact flavor I’m craving (where’s the cake that tastes like childhood memories, three types of toasted nuts, and a hint of existential crisis?).

Plus, baking it myself gives me a solid excuse to say, “I’m not procrastinating, I’m celebrating me.” And that, my friends, is what I call personal growth… in layers, with frosting. I need to pick a new cake to make this week. There will be frosting!

I’m knee-deep in book edits right now, which basically means I’m in a committed relationship with several Word docs, a chorus of line edits, and my ever-vigilant fact checker. On Thursday, I heroically powered through an entire chapter, feeling, dare I say, productive, only to discover that the file wasn’t auto-saving to the cloud like I thought. Then it crashed. Completely. Gone.

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So, I did what any rational adult on the verge of a Word-induced breakdown would do: I closed my laptop, dramatically whispered “we were rooting for you,” and took myself to a movie. Honestly, there was nothing else to do, and it wasn’t worth crying over. Pick up and move on.

The Wedding Banquet (a remake of the 1993 original by Ang Lee), to be exact. It’s emotional, but tender and warm, like a hug from someone who doesn’t need to say, “you’ll be fine,” because somehow you already believe it.

Until next time,

Nik

For my paid subscribers, we’re making an Indian-style stir fry of vegetables and paneer for my paid subscribers. 

Paneer and Mixed Vegetable Stir Fry

There are some meals that don’t come from a recipe card passed down or a dish served at a holiday table. They come from a feeling of wanting something warm, something nourishing, something that reminds you that you're still here, still trying.

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Welcome to The Flavor Files! 🎉 This is where I dive into my love for cooking, flavor, and food science—because delicious food deserves a little curiosity.

Craving more recipes? Find them all at Nik Sharma Cooks.

Still haven’t grabbed my latest cookbook, Veg-Table? You can get it here—it’s packed with veggie magic. 🌱✨

Oh, and if you spot a few affiliate links in this newsletter, just know they help keep the spice (and science) flowing!

Now, let’s get cooking! 🔥

Share The Flavor Files

Hi Friends,

The garden’s putting on quite the show right now. One moment, it smells like a perfume ad, jasmine and citrus swirling in the breeze, and the next, I’m chasing hummingbirds with my eyes as they duel over the African basil like tiny, caffeinated swordsmen. (Seriously, if you’ve never grown African basil, you should; it’s the basil that refuses to die because it doesn’t produce seeds. Basil with main-character energy.)

The octopus agave is flowering, bees are swarming its blossoms, and I was starting to feel like I was living in a luxurious nature documentary.
Until.

I spotted a garden snake sunbathing like it owned the place, and suddenly, my calm, botanical reverie turned into a live-action survival film. I grabbed the dog and ran inside like a cartoon character in slippers, only to look back and realize the snake was also scrambling for life. Classic mutual panic. Nature: 1. Me: 0.

Anyway, all is well now. The snake’s off writing about the scary human it saw in its journal. I am more of a bee, butterfly, bird, and rabbit-loving type of person.

This week, we’re twirling our forks into a creamy lemon pasta that’s citrusy, silky, and... buzzing? That’s right, we’re spiking the sauce with Sichuan peppercorns, the only spice I know that flirts with your taste buds and messes with your neurons.

Now, don’t be fooled by the name. Sichuan peppercorns are neither peppercorns nor peppers, they’re the citrusy husks from the Zanthoxylum plant (same family as the curry leaf tree), and they’ve been electrifying palates since the mid-fourth millennium BCE. That’s older than your sourdough starter. They even got name-dropped in The Book of Songs, China’s oldest poetry anthology. Spicy and poetic, love that for them.

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Give one a good rub between your palms, and you’ll get a whiff of lemony brightness, like a lime tree on a hot day. But pop one in your mouth and suddenly — zap! — your lips tingle, your tongue goes fizzy, and everything feels... weirdly alive. That’s thanks to a molecule called hydroxy-alpha-sanshool (I know, sounds like a Marvel villain), which tricks your brain into thinking you're touching something vibrating at 50Hz — the same frequency as a humming air conditioner. It’s not a flavor. It’s a full-on somatosensory event.

And here’s the wild part: this numbing sensation can mess with your perception of other flavors. Bitterness, saltiness, even sweetness — they all get temporarily scrambled. It also kicks your salivary glands into overdrive, which is why some researchers are looking into Sichuan pepper as a treatment for dry mouth. A spicy science miracle? Maybe!

In Chinese cooking, you’ll often find these peppercorns doing the málà dance, a flavor combo of numbing (má) and hot (là), where they cozy up with chili heat in dishes like Mapo Tofu or your favorite chili crisp. But they’re not just for savory dishes. I’ve had them in chocolate bars, cocktails, even poached fruit; and they’re just as magical.

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If you’re shopping for them, look for split-open husks — where the flavor is. Avoid the hard black seeds inside; they’re “peppercorn” packing peanuts. They’re gritty and bitter. You’ll usually find two types: red (warmer, floral) and green (zippier, citrusy). They’re mostly interchangeable unless you’re deep in a flavor rabbit hole, in which case: welcome, friend.

Quick kitchen science tip: that buzzy molecule? It’s fat-soluble and doesn’t play well with acid. So when I developed this lemony pasta recipe for America’s Test Kitchen, I bloomed the peppercorns in the fat of the crème fraîche first, then added a second hit right at the end to make sure the lemon juice didn’t mute the magic.

What is the moral of the story? Don’t sleep on Sichuan peppercorns. They’ll wake your dinner (and your mouth) right up.

Among the brands of Sichuan peppercorns commercially sold, I like 50 Hertz Tingly Foods—they make and sell a wide variety of products using this spice. The peanuts are delightful!

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Here’s the recipe for my lemon-rich creamy Sichuan peppercorn pasta.

This recipe resides on ATK and is free. I love seeing you share your excitement! ATK makes several recipes from the residency available for free. You might need to enter your email so they can send you more great content—but you can always opt out anytime. I’ve been a longtime subscriber to their newsletters and have found them super valuable. I hope that helps clarify how to access these co-created recipes—we put a lot of love into them, and I’d love for you to check them out! I appreciate your support!

Have a lovely week,

Nik

Share The Flavor Files

Welcome to The Flavor Files! 🎉 This is where I dive into my love for cooking, flavor, and food science—because delicious food deserves a little curiosity.

Craving more recipes? Find them all at Nik Sharma Cooks.

Still haven’t grabbed my latest cookbook, Veg-Table? You can get it here—it’s packed with veggie magic. 🌱✨

Oh, and if you spot a few affiliate links in this newsletter, know they help keep the spice (and science) flowing!

Now, let’s get cooking! 🔥

Share The Flavor Files

Hey Friends,

Miss me? I missed you! I took a little two-week pause from the newsletter—not to sip a margarita under a palm tree, sadly. I was deep in the cookbook trenches, juggling flour, chestnuts, and a camera. I wrapped up testing and photographing all 100 recipes for my fourth cookbook, and I needed every minute to crank through the mountain of photos. When I shoot, I prefer to tackle one chapter at a time so everything looks cohesive; think of it as visual feng shui but with more butter stains. This also means fewer reshoots, and my book designer is happier.

Then I zipped over to Boston for a few days for rehearsals for Season 26 of America’s Test Kitchen (!!!). I got to hang out with the brilliant and fabulous Bridget Lancaster and Julia Collin Davison, the queens of calm kitchen confidence. They’re funny, and the most challenging part was trying to keep a straight face during rehearsals. The iconic popped in the test kitchen on Friday and we worked on something fun with Dan Souza! She tasted the hoshigaki (I made last year with my buddy, Rie) —no pressure at all, offering homemade dried persimmons to one of the greatest bakers ever. She approved! Dorie smiled and said her mother loved persimmons—and would have absolutely adored these. Safe to say, my heart grew three sizes. 🧡

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The test kitchen was buzzing like a beehive on espresso. I taste-tested cookies, cinnamon rolls, and pasta dishes—it was carb heaven. I cooked a few new dishes for the team to try and filmed something fun that will be out later this year. 

Oh, and on the non-cooking front, we fell into a not-new-but-new-to-me TV obsession: Drops of God. If you’re into flavor (which, let’s face it, you are), this show is a wild ride. Based on a manga series by Tadashi Agi and illustrated by Shu Okimoto, wine tasting is turned into an Olympic-level emotional experience. Expect poetic aroma metaphors, family drama, and plot twists worthy of a telenovela. Highly recommend.

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You’ve definitely heard of that book, unless you live under a rock made of uncooked rice. It’s the most talked about cookbook right now, and rightly so.

This week’s newsletter is a special shoutout to one of my favorite upcoming releases: Umma: A Korean Mom’s Kitchen Wisdom and 100 Family Recipes by the dynamic mother-daughter duo Sarah Ahn and Nam Soon Ahn, in collaboration with the wizards over at America’s Test Kitchen (April 2025). 

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I’ve been following Sarah Ahn on Instagram for a few years now, and from the moment I stumbled across her page, I was hooked—not just by the food (though wow), but by the deep sense of love and family that shines through everything she shares. Her posts always feel like a cozy seat at her family’s table—complete with laughter, kimchi, and the occasional cameo from her adorable dog, MayBee, who might be the fluffiest sous-chef on the internet. (Paddington would be jealous of MayBee’s meals). 

When I finally sat down with her new book, Umma, I didn’t just read it—I felt it. I stayed up late that first night, turning pages, laughing, tearing up, and bookmarking nearly everything. It’s a book that hugs you back. It’s something we all need right now.

Last Sunday, we went to Sarah’s book signing at Perilla in L.A. I finally met her (I meet Sarah on Zoom calls for work) and her amazing mom, Nam, the original “Umma.” She’s every bit as lovely and generous as the stories in the book. Watching them together, signing books, and sharing stories was like witnessing a living cookbook in action.

Get Umma: Available on (Amazon/Bookshop).

This isn’t just a collection of recipes. It’s a legacy. A love letter. A reminder that food is so much more than what’s on the plate—it’s who we share it with (pets included).

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Get Umma: Available on (Amazon/Bookshop).

Now, let’s talk food. I’ve got two standout recipes from Umma that I can’t stop thinking about, and can’t wait to see you make them.

• Kimchi Grilled Cheese – Think melty, crunchy, tangy, funky, and salty, all hanging out in a sandwich that delivers all five tastes and then some. It’s the lovechild of comfort food and flavor science. This isn’t just kimchi and cheese; a lot of flavor magic is layered throughout. 

• Honey Garlic Chicken—This one’s easy enough to whip up on a weeknight but fancy enough to pretend you planned it. It's sticky, sweet, and savory, and it's the kind of dish that makes you lick the spoon and not even pretend to be sorry.

Big flavors. Big feelings. Big fan.

More delicious things soon,

Nik

Share The Flavor Files

Welcome to The Flavor Files! 🎉 This is where I dive into my love for cooking, flavor, and food science—because delicious food deserves a little curiosity.

Craving more recipes? Find them all at Nik Sharma Cooks.

Still haven’t grabbed my latest cookbook, Veg-Table? You can get it here—it’s packed with veggie magic. 🌱✨

Oh, and if you spot a few affiliate links in this newsletter, just know they help keep the spice (and science) flowing!

Now, let’s get cooking! 🔥

Share The Flavor Files

Hi Pals,

I know, I know, three emails in a week? I promise I don’t make a habit of it, but we’ve been busy with the Grubstack Festival, and I had to share a quick update and recipes!

Last Friday, I hosted my first-ever Substack Live with Dan Souza from America’s Test Kitchen, and let me tell you, it was an absolute blast! A huge thank you to everyone who tuned in. If you missed it, don’t worry; you can catch the replay here.

I had so much fun with the live format that I’m seriously thinking about making it a regular thing. Imagine cooking chats, deep dives into flavors, and some fantastic guests. What do you think, should I go for it? Let me know!

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I just returned from San Francisco, where I had the honor of delivering the keynote for The Tasty Awards. While there, I ran into my dear friend and one of the most brilliant minds in baking, Alice Medrich. Her books have been a masterclass in flavor and technique for me, and Flavor Flours is a must-read (I highly recommend reading all her books because you will become a more brilliant pastry chef and chocolate expert), whether or not you bake gluten-free. It completely changed the way I think about grains in my cooking.

One more thing: there is some confusion about recipe access at ATK. So, I want to address and clarify things. The recipes are free. I love seeing you share your excitement! ATK makes several recipes from the residency available for free. You might need to enter your email so they can send you more great content—but you can always opt-out anytime. I’ve been a longtime subscriber to their newsletters and have found them super valuable. I hope that helps clarify how to access these co-created recipes—we put a lot of love into them, and I’d love for you to check them out! I appreciate your support!

More soon, but I’ll keep it short and sweet for now.

Catch you next time!

Nik

It’s St. Patrick’s Day, and I’ve got two recipes that bring a little twist to tradition! 🍀

First up: Colcannon, but with a punch. I’ve taken the classic Irish mashed potatoes and given them a bold upgrade with chaat masala. Creamy, comforting, and just the right amount of tangy-spiced magic. And here’s a tip: leftovers make an insanely good grilled cheese filling. Trust me, you’ll want to try this.

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Then there’s Irish soda bread, but we’re keeping it OG Irish: no sugar, no eggs, no raisins. Just a few pantry staples, a rustic crust, and that signature “X” on top (legend has it, it helps let the fairies out; who am I to mess with folklore?). I swap in kefir instead of buttermilk (both work great), and it works like a charm. I’ve added baking powder to give the dough extra leavening insurance. 

So, ready to cook up something delicious for St. Paddy’s?

In The News

Synbiotic Chocolates Here’s a wild (and delicious) idea: chocolate infused with probiotics. Scientists are experimenting with this combo, turning our favorite treat into a gut-friendly indulgence. The catch? Heat is not its friend, so baking with it will likely wipe out the probiotics. But if you’re using it in no-cook treats, you might just get a tasty health boost! And even if the bacteria don’t survive, you’ll still benefit from all the good-for-you biochemicals in chocolate.