The Zen of Tasting, from my book in progress

Reading the menu is not the same thing as eating the food.
Takayuki Zoshi, Master Buddhist Sculptor
From his talk on the Value of Spiritual Practice

There are some people who are quite well versed in palate awareness when it comes to wine, and a few others when it comes to coffee. This attention to our palate is far less developed regarding food. Good cooks and chefs do have a developed palate awareness, but few talk about it with the same vigor, confidence, and relish as do wine connoisseurs. Think about it — the passion and focus that is inherent in a sommelier’s description as he tastes and describes a fine wine: buttery, chewy, nutty, tart, racy. Now that’s palate awareness! If you attentively notice what happens in your mouth while tasting your cooking, your cuisine will improve instantly.

We can create fascinating, pleasing, exciting, exotic, subtle, imaginative, sensational taste experiences right in our own kitchens. More than exotic ingredients, it takes astute awareness of our palate – a simple method for discovering remarkable culinary secrets every day.

Food is about eating, not about measuring. All garlic cloves have different sizes and different flavor-powers. One bottle of balsamic vinegar is sweeter or more sour than another, one salmon filet is more or less flavorful than its neighbor. Let recipes guide you at the grocery store so you know what to buy but let your palate guide you in the kitchen. Remember, each ingredient carries its own flavor-power, and this varies greatly depending on the brand, the age, and the quality of the ingredient. Creating good food is less about measuring quantities and more about measuring flavor-power on your palate.

What happens on your palate when you add a bit of balsamic vinegar to, let’s say, turkey gravy? Feel the taste widen and rest along the sides of your tongue and tease your throat. For me, the sensation is like pulling a cashmere sweater onto cold arms, warm and slightly prickly at the same time.

What happens to your palate when you add a bit of horseradish to turkey gravy? Perhaps the center of your tongue is piqued as the taste wafts slightly upwards at the back of the throat. If you’ve added a bit too much, notice it march right up your nasal cavities and obliterate the turkey flavor all together.

What happens when you add ground sautéed portabella mushrooms to turkey gravy? Feel your tongue languish while the flavor glides like a slowing ice skater all the way down to the middle of your throat.

The sensations may be different for you; you may describe them in another way, or you may not be able to describe them at all. What is most important is to notice the sensations and have them guide your cuisine.

There is a scientific taste sensation map of the tongue, but this is not how I relate to tasting food. I taste food much like I watch the sunset, sit in a hot bath, or listen to opera with closed eyes: pure unadulterated sensation. I try to fully experience the sensations in the act of tasting. In addition to flavor, tasting is also about texture, temperature, smell, and how the elements blend.

I remember the first time I ate an avocado. I was in high school visiting a friend, and for an after-school snack she grabbed a perfectly ripe avocado from the refrigerator and cut it open and handed me half with a spoon. Never one to shrink from a new experience I dug the spoon in and put what turned out to be heavenly green manna in my mouth. I smiled for hours after that. The texture, the coolness, the calming subtle flavor, all these things combined for a premier sensation that I never forgot.

Imagine that first time someone accidentally dropped a scoop of vanilla ice cream into a glass of root beer en route to their bowl -- what an exciting taste experience that must have been! So simple and so enjoyable.

A good chef is always experimenting, a great chef is a maestro of the symphonic palate. All flavor and textural combinations achieve a certain balance on the palate. I remember that one of the first chefs I worked under kept telling me that I had to be able to taste every ingredient I put into a dish, EVERY SINGLE ONE. He trained me to taste with consciousness.

We made a simple but excellent Madeira sauce for chicken, and I had to be able to taste not only the Madeira but also the salt, white pepper, nutmeg, chicken drippings and the other ingredients, no matter how subtle. He taught me, within a second or two of tasting, to differentiate the flavors and their power in the combination. It wasn’t hard to do — it just took that split second of attentive consciousness — tasting all the flavor elements and noting their balance. Balance does not mean equal. In the Madeira sauce the Madeira was dominant, as it should be, and each element played its part, some were bit players and others supporting actors.

Through keen attention to your palate you will learn to adjust your dishes to maximum effect, guided by your own taste preferences.