🌍 Around the world

British cooking pairs native herbs like mint, sage, thyme and parsley with a long love of warm spices in baking, mustard and horseradish with meat, and a curry tradition …

Louisiana's Cajun and Creole cooking share a roux, the onion-celery-pepper trinity, cayenne, thyme and bay, and file powder, but differ in their origins and in their use …

Caribbean cooking draws on Indigenous, African, European, Indian and Chinese roots, with allspice, scotch bonnet, thyme and green seasoning at its heart and jerk as its b…

Chinese cooking seasons mainly with ginger, garlic, spring onion and fermented sauces, reserving dried spices for braises and roasts, with vast differences between region…

Ethiopian and Eritrean cooking centres on berbere and mitmita spice blends, spiced clarified butter (niter kibbeh) and slow-cooked stews (wat) eaten with injera.

French cooking relies on fresh herbs — tarragon, chervil, parsley, thyme, bay — and a quiet hand with pepper, nutmeg and quatre épices, with bolder spicing in Provence an…

Greek cooking relies on wild oregano, dill, mint, parsley and bay, lemon and olive oil, with cinnamon, allspice and cloves warming meat stews and mahleb and mastic in bre…

India has no single cuisine but many regional ones, united by a shared technique of blooming whole spices in fat and layering ground masalas through a dish.

Indonesian and Malaysian cooking rests on fresh spice pastes called bumbu or rempah, fried until fragrant, with sambal on the side and nutmeg and cloves from the Spice Is…

Italian cooking uses herbs more than spices — basil, parsley, oregano, rosemary, sage — alongside chilli in the south, fennel in pork, and saffron and nutmeg in the north…

Japanese cooking uses spice sparingly and precisely: dashi and soy form the base, with wasabi, shichimi, sansho, yuzu, ginger and shiso adding pointed accents.

Korean cooking is built on fermented pastes (jang), gochugaru chilli, garlic, ginger, spring onion and sesame, with kimchi and banchan on every table.

Mexican cooking is built on dozens of fresh and dried chillies, toasted and ground into salsas and moles, with native herbs like epazote and Mexican oregano and a handful…

Middle Eastern cooking pairs warm ground spices such as allspice, cinnamon and cumin with sour sumac and dried lime, herb-heavy salads, and blends like za'atar and bahara…

North African cooking from Morocco to Egypt uses cumin, coriander, caraway, cinnamon and saffron, and blends such as ras el hanout, harissa, chermoula and dukkah.

Persian cooking favours fragrance over heat: saffron, dried lime, rose petal, cinnamon and turmeric, huge quantities of fresh herbs, and slow stews balancing sour and swe…

Peruvian cooking rests on native ajíes, especially ají amarillo, with Andean herbs like huacatay and influences from Spain, Africa, China and Japan in dishes like ceviche…

Sichuan cooking is famous for mala, the numbing heat of Sichuan pepper and chilli, but its cooks describe more than twenty compound flavours, many of them not hot at all.

Sri Lankan cooking is built on coconut, true cinnamon and dark roasted curry powders, with Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim and Burgher kitchens each adding their own accents.

Thai cooking builds flavour from fresh herbs and aromatics pounded into pastes, balanced with fish sauce, lime, palm sugar and chilli, and varies widely by region.

Turkish cooking uses fruity dried chilli flakes, dried mint, sumac, cumin and oregano, with a dazzling regional range from Aegean olive-oil dishes to the chilli-rich sout…

Vietnamese food is defined by generous fresh herbs, fish sauce and lime, with star anise and cinnamon in the broths and three regions of distinct character.

West African cooking builds rich soups and stews on chilli, onion, tomato and palm oil, seasoned with native spices such as grains of paradise, selim pepper and dawadawa.