The Importance of Taste

Probably one of my favorite comments someone can say is, "This taste like shit, does anyone want it?" Seriously, how many times have you heard someone say that? Like I’m going to want the rest of the disgusting snack you’re having. To be honest, we shouldn't be so quick to dismiss the offer without at least some explanation. Why does it taste bad? Is it cold? Did the texture change? Is it too soft or hard now? Was it not what you were expecting? Have you ever even had this before? Is it old or is it just something you personally aren't fond of? Our taste receptors, tongues and senses all contribute to how we perceive food. Today were gonna cover a very crucial topic to any chef or foodie, old or new, and that is the importance of taste... 

I encourage any cook, or really just any person, to always taste EVERYTHING. If you're girlfriend burned the popcorn, taste it. If you waited too long and your food got cold, taste it. If food is a little old, maybe passed expiration date or looks a little funny, smell it first and then, if you don't gag, taste it. Cookies have been sitting out for almost a week and look stale, taste them. If the pasta is overcooked/undercooked or you had steak for dinner and 30 minutes later it’s still sitting out, TASTE IT. I don't care if you've had steak before, have you had it cold? Not refrigerator cold but room temperature cold? Sure burnt popcorn sucks but what does it remind you of? Does that taste load a memory of anything for you? How about the smell? What would you instinctively gravitate towards to counteract this taste? Food can always be questioned and in order to cook amazing food you need to have an amazing palate. 

To be frank, we can only cook food as delicious as we have ever tasted it. It's why I persuaded my parents back in college that my fine dining eating habits were more so "educational dining experiences". I was honing my palate to different flavors, techniques and standards. Now I can talk about food and ingredients and in my mind taste and put dishes together without even stepping into a kitchen. It’s a skill that has taken me years to curate, that I will probably never fully master in this lifetime. That being said, we never want to cook bad food so we should know what bad food tastes like. We should know the difference between something being old or fresh, the potential of an ingredient in peak season or when something is over/under seasoned; it’s all part of this never ending training of our palates. One way to keep yourself sharp is always trying ingredients, whether they're the same or new to you, and understanding how they work. How they smell, how they sound as you eat them, all of these factors work to your advantage when creating a new dish. 

Lets start at the beginning. Just like we have 5 senses, we have 5(ish) tastes as well. Salty, sweet, sour, bitter, umami and two more that play a crucial role on our palates, fat and heat. Each one is actually a receptor on your tongue that lets your body know what nutrients the food has to offer and if the food is good or bad for you. I’m sure we can all identify what tastes are what but do you know what they all mean? 

Salty foods contain salt, which your body uses to maintain water balance. Water balance is essential for survival, so your brain loves when some (but not too much) salt is added to food. Salt can even help revive bland flavors. It contrasts well against fattiness or sweetness and can also help cut bitter taste. For example, whenever you take anything out of a fryer or even if you're pan-frying, the first thing you do is sprinkle on a generous amount of seasoning because salt helps balance the fattiness. If the flavor disappears too quickly on your tongue after you've had a taste, the dish probably needs more salt. Salt can also counteract sweets; a pinch of salt makes a dessert less sweet while sharpening the flavor. Salt and caramel for example, bring out the complex, bitter components. Using salt can also tame bitter flavors; when sprinkled on bitter vegetables like eggplant and late-season cucumbers, salt draws out moisture, and with it, residual bitterness. 

Sweet foods tell your brain there are carbohydrates or energy on its way. Your brain loves energy, so it is hardwired to love sweet flavors. I’m sure we're all familiar with something being too sweet. This can easily be balanced with acidity or sour foods; if your iced tea is too sweet, add some more lemon juice! Sweet can also mellow salt, sour, and bitter. Adding too much sweetness will make a dish heavy and dense. Sweetness can create the perception of richness in a broth, soup, or sauce (this might come from steeping slow-cooked vegetables or simply adding a pinch of sugar). 

Sour food signals the presence of acid and fermentation, which are important for your digestion. Acidity helps balance things that are too fatty or too sweet. It’s why pairings like steak and red wine or french fries and malt vinegar work; as fat coats your palate, acid helps break it down and balance it all out. Sour cleans up fatty or murky flavors, brightens foods and creates complexity among otherwise flat flavors. Vinegar is the strongest, and most popular out of the sours, while citrus has "tempered acidity" offset by sweetness (citrus—and most fruits—will change in acidity during the growing season or the crop will be sweeter and less acidic as the season progresses). 

Bitter is actually a bit of a mystery in health terms. Some people enjoy it as it acts as a palate cleanser or digestive when you've had too much going on in a course. It's very popular in drinks, keeping a cocktail balanced with the heat from the alcohol itself and sweetness from different juices or additives. Bitterness adds complexity to dishes that might otherwise be too plain or boring—but a little goes a long way, so use it conservatively. The bitterness that comes from charring fish, meat, and vegetables will cut richness and add depth but too many burnt bits will make that same food unbearable. Bitter flavors best balance out sweet ones and give them dimension. 

Umami signals to your brain that there are amino acids in the food, which means protein. These are the building blocks of all the cells in your body. Umami can be found in seaweed, mushrooms, ketchup, soy sauce and the like. Umami basically just adds intensity; adding ingredients high in umami will give your finished dish more depth and power. Salt intensifies umami while acid and sweetness diminish it. 

Fat is definitely its own category as it has this ability to mellow or round out other tastes. Fattiness will also add a general perception that you are eating a luxurious or gluttonous meal with a thick, almost creamy feel that coats your mouth. Dishes taste more decadent when using really good butter or really good olive oil. A little finishing oil to a dish or mounting a sauce with butter will do wonders for a dish. Fat best traps flavors; a flavor that is bound in an emulsion with fat has more staying power and intensity than it otherwise would. Incorporating more fats will necessitate additional salt and acid. Fat balances sour while it also tempers salt and bitter. It's important to remember that fats have distinct flavors and qualities: animal fats are heavy and rich, dairy fats are on the sweeter side and vegetable and nut oils have a leaner profile. 

Heat of course has the ability to warn the body of something we maybe shouldn't be eating or to call for more saliva for a cool down. Heat creates dynamic, complex flavors bringing liveliness to dishes that might otherwise be bland. Heat alleviates richness - hot sauce and mayo is a beautiful combo. It can work with every other taste and can be adjusted or turned down with fat, acid and sweetness. 

Ultimately these 7 tastes together are what create flavor. As chefs it’s our jobs to be maestro’s in an orchestra, keying off different ingredients and layering them in such a manor that will play beautifully on the palate. Sure, take a few ingredients and make them taste good, cool, but can you take those same ingredients and make them taste completely different? Create new flavors with them? It's important to note that they're not flavors in and of themselves. "They are qualities of ingredients that have their own distinctive flavors, any of which may be key components of the dish you are making,” says Daniel Patterson author of The Art Of Flavor. Flavor is the art of combining these tastes with all of the other sensations that your brain can experience, such as aroma, texture, and color. Cooking is all about balancing and contrasting different sensory experiences just like art is about balancing and contrasting colors and textures. That is one of the most important components of understanding taste. 

Taste starts way before we put anything in our mouths. Yes, we have taste buds but that’s not the only sense that comes into play here. Smell, touch, sound, and sight all come in to play. The most important of these outside senses would have to be smell because the nasal canal and esophagus are connected. Have you ever smelled something and knew what it tasted like before even trying it? If we can apply this skill of ‘tasting through scent’ in culinary contexts then we can decide on how to season or best compliment a dish without actually adding anything and potentially altering it. Imagine this: its summer, you're outside by the water, you hear the waves crashing into the shoreline, you feel a mist coming off of the sea tapping your shoulders, the sun is blaring and you can smell the water baking into the sand. You're sitting at a bonfire with friends grilling up some local ingredients: some fresh shrimp that you've pierced with a pointy stick. As you go to eat your shrimp, you experience everything around you at once with it. You get a gust of air coming off the ocean crashing into the sand, you get a breeze coming from the opposite side passing through your gardens and bringing the scent of fresh herbs and the two combine in harmony. You may be just eating this shrimp but you’re getting the saltiness and the rosemary, all without having to mess with your food. Your experience has already been seasoned; can’t you taste it? Bigger, well-acclaimed restaurants such as Alinea or Manresa are using the senses to their advantage; using different music to enhance a mood during a dish or having you taste one thing while smelling another experiencing how their contrasts mix in your mind and not just on your palate. These chefs possess extreme attention to detail and are true magicians of their craft. 

Did you know that 90% of taste is tied to smell? Its true. There are just five taste qualities of food (like I said - salty, sweet, bitter, sour, and savory), but there are more than 10,000 scents. Think about when you are sick or have a cold; when your immune system is weakened and you can't differentiate any smells. Do you find yourself thinking EVERYTHING is under seasoned? I was at a restaurant for the first time many years ago while I was starting to get sick, and the chef had gotten high appraisal from different publications, so when I wasn't as wowed as my fellow diners were, I knew my cold must've been worsening. The cold had nothing to do with my taste buds but everything to do with my congestion and sense of smell. The next time you take a bite of a dish, give it a deep smell. Even if you're not a chef or a foodie or normally care about what you put in your mouth, smelling your food before tasting it will dramatically change how you experience flavor. 

When you eat, all of your senses are working together at the same time curating an experience. This is why we enjoy eating so much. The simplest example would be eating your favorite cookie. Your hands feel the cookie, how thick or thin it is leading into if it would be crispy or chewy. Your eyes see the cookie, noticing the golden brown around the edges. Your nose catches that buttery sweet smell as you lift it to your mouth. Your ears hear the crunch and crumble as you bite into the cookie as your mouth feels the crumbly texture and warmth still from the oven. You could even associate the nostalgia of sitting in your kitchen as a child as your mom baked fresh cookies. All of these senses are leading up to your overall perception of taste. 

Some Taste Exercises: 

First of all, taste EVERYTHING; good foods, bad foods, cold or hot. Then, as you chew your food, especially with hot food, draw a small amount of air into your mouth to push the rate at which the aroma goes into your nose. You find more delicate notes this way using your nose to taste. It’s just like when you aerate a wine in the glass or even "slurp" air in your mouth to pick up the subtleties of a certain grape. 

Go to the grocery store and start tasting different herbs. Don't just taste carrots but taste carrot tops, or any top for that matter. Cilantro stems, for example, are spicy but leave you with a fresh burning taste and not a fiery one (if that makes sense). It’s important to know your ingredients and the same goes for your spices. Once a week take the tops off your fresh spices (be mindful of how aggressive you are) and give them all a light sniff. In a few weeks you'll start recognizing these spices more in every day eating. You'll also learn how it smells when spices are getting old or stale and how quickly they go. Learning the smell of each will expand your "nasal vocabulary". 

When you're at a new restaurant or bar its important to be adventurous. Always try new things that you haven't quite had before, given you're in a reputable establishment. Order that appetizer you can't pronounce or ask to taste that strange beer on tap. "Foods read like books; read as many different foods as you can"-unknown. 

So there you have it, the method to the madness of pairings and how they’re discovered. While cooking is all about the contrasts and balance of flavors and tastes, know when to push boundaries and when simplicity is enough. In other words, sometimes you want to attack your palate with exotic flavors and make someone say "wtf this is amazing!" and other times you just want to take a bite of something and just say "ahhhh, that hits the spot". Now, my friends, you know how.

Tags: education, review, knowledge, learning, taste, work