  The cultural diversity of culinary practice, as illustrated by the variety of
regional cuisines, raises the question of whether there are any general
patterns that determine the ingredient combinations used in food today or
principles that transcend individual tastes and recipes. We introduce a flavor
network that captures the flavor compounds shared by culinary ingredients.
Western cuisines show a tendency to use ingredient pairs that share many flavor
compounds, supporting the so-called food pairing hypothesis. By contrast, East
Asian cuisines tend to avoid compound sharing ingredients. Given the increasing
availability of information on food preparation, our data-driven investigation
opens new avenues towards a systematic understanding of culinary practice.
