The Privilege of Taste

Listen to our thoughts on the hierarchy of taste and flavor. A conversation of tasting nostalgia, super tasters and the art of tasting your food.

If you laughed or learned something from our show, please share Thyme to Chat with a friend and rate us on your favorite app. It really makes a difference as we build this community.

Connect with us on Instagram: @thymetochatpodcast You can connect with your hosts at @culinaryherbalisim and @tastysaltyreal.

Tasting and Aging

Most of us know a tiny picky eater. A lot of us can recall a strong food aversion or sensory food experience from our own childhood. These recations can sometimes indicate a sensory sensitivity in young people bot not always. Oftentimes we forget that children have way more tastebuds than adults, so eating can be a wildly stimulating experience! For more on how our tastes evolve as we age, check out this article from the Guardian.

Hierarchy of Taste

When we look at this idea of hierarchy in taste we run into two concepts. The first is the pervasive societal idea of what food should be expensive fine dining and what cultural foods we expect to be affordable take out.

And the second is linked to phycological drivers of human behavior and taste. Contrasting the idea of a hierarchy of basic needs with that which drives our desire and interest in food.

Figure 2. A model of human motivation for eating and for the palatability of foods.

Applying this concept to the real world, we can look at how difficult it is to understand the taste and flavor preferences of food bank users. Reading this paper coming out of the UK, we come to understand that an innate power dynamic between the researcher and those seeking basic needs substances impacts the data. Making it very difficult to understand the flavor preferences of program participants.

The Five Brackets of Taste

Generally speaking our tongues have the ability to distinguish between just 5 different brackets of taste. Bitter, salty, umami, sour and sweet. A really great resource for the creative cook mentioned in the show is the incredible Flavor Bible.

Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/thyme-to-chat/donations