With the sheer number of food blogs available, what do I believe I have to contribute to the conversation? First, let me tell you some of the things I am not:

• An expert
• A food scientist
• A scientist
• A rock

And some of the things I am:

• A former professional cook with some culinary school
• An avid eater of nearly everything
• An over-analyzer of everything, including myself
• Helplessly passionate.

I believe the perception of the sensations of food is an ever-evolving dialogue. It includes ingredient analysis, process understanding, and self-awareness. The level of what we consider deliciousness includes a heavy dose of nostalgia – in other words, you must understand yourself to understand why you perceive something as delicious.

“To get the full picture, or hear the full song, we need to understand how those blends of chemical and physical attributes inform preference, from a variety of different viewpoints”.

Rasmussen (2015)

The blog you are about to read is part critique.

I will go to a restaurant, and rather than reviewing the place itself, I examine how one dish fits into the larger picture of deliciousness. I will research the dish’s origins (from the chef themselves, if they talk to me) and a small bit of the dish’s relevant history. Rasmussen (2015) asserts that deliciousness has a “hedonic value”. Hedonic means possessing pleasant or unpleasant sensations. This means I will add in my expectations, and how my own history informs my perception of the dish’s hedonic value.

“To me this is what separates the good dishes from the truly slap-yourself-on-the-forehead ones. When you eat something amazing, you don’t just respond to the dish in front of you; you are almost always transported back to another moment in your life. “

Chang (2016)

The blog you are about to read is also part recipe.

If I perceive a dish as delicious, I will research and then develop a theory on why I thought it was amazing. I will attempt to re-create the dish using my theories and report out how close I was to attaining its “muchiness“. If I perceive as dish as less delicious, I will research, develop a theory on how to make it better, and re-create the dish towards the “ideal”.

So, what do I believe I have to contribute to the dialogue of food? My mission, if I have one, is to make you, my reader, a better informed, more self-aware cook. I will encourage you to examine your own food history and maybe help you put a little more love in whatever you’re cooking.

Because universe knows we need more love and understanding. This is my one small contribution.

We plan to post the first and third Tuesday of each month, starting January 4, 2022. If you want to be notified when we post, hit that subscribe button below.

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References

Chang, D. (2016). “The Secret Code to Unleashing the World’s Most Amazing Flavors.” Wired Magazine. https://www.wired.com/2016/07/chef-david-chang-on-deliciousness/

Rasmussen, K. (2015). “Calibrating Flavour part 2: formulae for deliciousness [sic].” https://nordicfoodlab.org/blog/2015/12/calibrating-flavour-part-2-formulae-for-deliciousness/