Color

Plant pigments are one of life’s glories! The various greens of forest and field, the purples and yellows and reds of fruits and flowers—these colors speak to us of vitality, renewal, and the sheer pleasure of sensation. Some pigments are designed to catch our eye, some actually become part of our eye, and some made possible the very existence of us and our eyes (see box). Many turn out to have beneficial effects on our health. The cook’s challenge is to preserve the vividness and appeal of these remarkable molecules.