Flavour – the Utimate Quest

Chef Adam Moore

Flavour is the ultimate quest for the ever consuming foodie. It can make a great dish sensational but also turn a dish into the worst experience on the planet. Flavor is such a powerful tool to wield in the right hands. Flavour can also be quite hard to master as it’s very personal, just like our palettes.

So how do we as chefs or as product developers create great tasting or flavourful dishes? The answer is not an easy one - so we need to take a journey and start using building blocks to create the tools for flavour.

Let’s start with this question: what’s the difference between taste and flavour?

These two get confused regularly and are often used incorrectly.

Taste is often referred to as the five (soon to be six) basic that have connection with our tongue like Umami, Salty, Sweet, Bitter and Sour (fattiness or rancidity is soon to be confirmed as number six) but is not about aroma or texture.

And Flavour is the total combination of aroma, taste, texture, chemical sensations, location and past experiences.

Heat and spicy are not official taste sensations but in fact a heat or warmth can impart a flavour.

Understanding how taste works and experimenting by using a combination of tastes or taste sensations working alongside each other will give you the right tools for a flavour sensation. 

A useful tool is this Flavour Star developed by Cooksmarts.com:

KEY

  • DARK GREY ARROW: Balances – Counteracts the other Flavour. If your dish is heavy in one flavour attribute, use a balancing flavour to level it out

  • LIGHT GREY ARROW: Enhances – brings out the other flavour attributes

  • SALTY & SAVOURY UMAMI – Balances bitterness, enhances sweetness

  • SPICY - Balances sweetness

  • BITTERNESS – Balances sweetness and saltiness

  • SWEET- Balances sourness, bitterness, spice, enhances saltiness

  • SOUR – Balances spice, sweetness, bitterness, enhances saltiness

Flavour Tool Rules

Here are some great ways to start practicing with some taste elements to produce flavour for the ultimate sensation.

  1. Acidity and Sourness added to any dish can contrast with the richness in your food. This is why a squeeze from a lemon wedge is always paired with fried fish and chips, to cut through the fattiness. Sourness from vinegars helps to cleanse your palate prior to the next mouthful.

  2. Bitterness in foods again provides a balance to fattiness or flavours which are smokey or meaty. This is why a coffee dressing or coffee rub works with rich meats, as does a roquette lettuce salad.

  3. Sweetness is not confined to obviously sugary ingredients but can also be found in caramelised onions, tomato ketchup, barbecue sauce, oyster sauce, teriyaki sauce and miso-ginger glaze. Adding sweetness to a meal can often make dishes that are rich, savoury, or salty even out while cooking, or balance bitterness and extremely sour dishes. It also enhances salty foods making them more savoury.

  4. Saltiness is ideal to add to dishes that are overly sweet. It also makes items like fruit more complex and exciting. Salt added to sweet items like chocolate can really change the profile to a whole new flavourful moment. Bitterness or bitter foods can be balanced by adding salt.

  5. Umami is the ultimate taste of savouriness, that salivating sensation often found from eating mushrooms, walnuts, tomatoes, anchovies, meat, parmesan cheese and even Vegemite.

Start practising today by experimenting with these tastes to enhance your menus or recipes.