Free cookbook for those who have COVID-related smell and taste issues

Millions of people around the world have reported that losing their sense of smell and taste was the first sign they noticed of a COVID-19 infection. For a large percentage of those people, the damage to their gustatory system was persistent, lasting for weeks or even months. Some have yet to recover their sense of taste. This loss can be psychologically devastating.

Treatments for this phenomenon include olfactory training, and now there is also a cookbook aimed specifically at those suffering from these effects. Ryan Riley of Life Kitchen announced the new tome, called Taste & Flavour: A Cookbook to Inspire Those Experiencing Changes in Taste and Smell as a Result of COVID, on Twitter earlier today. The cookbook builds on the principles of Life Kitchen: Quick, easy, mouth-watering recipes to revive the joy of eating, which Riley developed after he saw how chemotherapy affected his mother’s ability to taste and experience food.

According to the Life Kitchen website, the book uses “five principles of taste and flavour – umami, smell, stimulating the trigeminal nerve (responsible for sensation in the face), texture, and layering flavour” to create recipes for those people who have lost their senses of taste and smell as a result of coronavirus. You can download a digital edition free of charge, and those in the UK mainland can order a physical copy for only the cost of shipping (£3.00).