The Flavor Genius

Chef Frank Terranova M.C.F.E.

Why Taste At All

The Flavor Genius

Why Taste At All
Why is the tasting process so complicated? Just so we can enjoy our food? Well there’s more to it than that. In all animals, including humans, tasting does two things, it warns us about bad foods and it attracts us to good ones. When our ancient ancestors roamed the forests and fields, hunting and gathering their dinner, they needed a way to tell poisonous plants from healthy ones, or weather a piece of meat was spoiled. Generally poisonous plants have a strong bitter flavor that both animals and humans know to avoid. Because the taste buds on the back of the tongue are most sensitive to bitterness, even if you start to eat something bad, you have one last chance to gag and spit it out before you swallow. Similarly, spoiled food often tastes sour warning us not to eat it. Sourness can also mean a food is not ripe and therefore not good enough to eat.
On the other hand, foods that contain certain amino acids, which are the building blocks of the proteins that our bodies require, have a savory, sort of meaty taste that humans like. Likewise a pleasant, sweet taste is common in foods that are high in calories, which we need for energy. Early humans learned that sweet and savory foods meant healthy foods. As a result. We still favor these tastes today. Indeed, human babies are born with a taste for sweetness to make sure that they will eat their first food, milk which contains natural sugars.
The world is full of wonderful things to eat as we have our favorite foods and other we are not so fond of. Tongues and taste buds are all the same, right? Who does like the taste of cauliflower anyway?