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There is a gourmet in each of us. We should develop our sensitivity in relation to food – so we can not only enrich the palette of taste sensations, but also expand our perception of the world in general, make contact with it and ourselves more harmonious.
How do you eat? With joy or with anxiety? Do you belong to the adherents of proper nutrition, scrupulously choosing dietary, low-calorie, high-vitamin foods, or do you allow yourself to carelessly fill up at any time? Or maybe you feel complete indifference to taste nuances and have a snack in a moment free from work, just to compensate for energy costs?
How each of us relates to food can tell a lot about us. Because the absorption of food is one of the ways to interact with the outside world, to taste it, to be filled with its energy. A person who is able to enjoy food is more inclined to listen to himself than to edifications that are heard from all sides. That is why it is so important to develop a sense of taste: it allows you to better understand yourself, to naturally maintain your health and strength. And as a result, enjoy life more fully.
Here are some tips developed using input from the French Institute of Taste and the Analytical Group on Obesity and Overweight (GROS).
Get to know the products closer
What does it do? “We need taste in order to determine if yesterday’s roast has gone bad,” jokes neuroscientist Annick Forion. When we put a piece of food in our mouth or take a sip, it first stimulates the receptors – taste, smell, tactile, temperature. Then the process of recognizing what we eat takes place in the cerebral cortex, and after that the subcortical zones of pleasure and memory are included in the work.
This is how the sense of taste informs the brain about whether food coming from outside is dangerous for the body. The understanding of what can and cannot be eaten develops from a very early age: we learn that apricot-scented soap is inedible, that it is better to beware of undercooked chicken. But taste does more than just provide safety; it allows you to recognize subtle differences between foods and increases your sensitivity to new things. So, the Japanese, for example, distinguishes more varieties of rice than the European.
Where to start? Perhaps you have a preference for certain foods that you always buy from the same places. Why not find out more precisely what their features and advantages are? Try several varieties of apples, orange juice, butter for salad dressing, cheese for sprinkling spaghetti, or several brands of dark chocolate one after the other. When you are on vacation, go to the local market and buy freshly caught fish or tomatoes straight from the garden.
It also affects the taste.
- Drinking from a crystal glass or from a plastic glass.
- Exquisite serving on a tablecloth or a table covered with oilcloth.
- Meal in peace and quiet or in noise and violence.
- Eating for a friendly conversation or in front of a booming TV screen.
- It’s nice to arrange food on a common dish and plates or leave it somehow.
- Choose fruits and vegetables according to the season or take everything indiscriminately.
- Cook regularly, especially with children, or buy ready-made meals.
Understand what you really want
What does it do? Giving in to the impulse to eat everything at once, we lose taste. According to nutritionist Bernard Weisfeld, with this approach to food, a person seems to turn back into a baby, whom his mother feeds, as soon as he cries. Meanwhile, the waiting time that passes from the first “signal” of the baby to feeding helps to develop his emotional sphere.
And in adults, moments of anticipation give food to the imagination: we imagine the object of desire. By not immediately jumping on food, we allow ourselves to understand how hungry we are and what exactly we would like to eat. Slowly, we are able to eat exactly as much (and exactly what), how much (and what) we need to satisfy all our needs.
Where to start? Give credit first… to the packaging or serving of the product. Look, smell. Do you want to continue your acquaintance with food? Open the package. Seeing its contents, explore it with the help of other senses: in addition to taste, evaluate the color and shape, texture (solid, sticky, rough …), inhale the smell, listen, for example, to the rustling of cereal or splashing milk.
Does this food attract you, do you want to try it? Give yourself time to get a good taste of the food, even if it’s microwaved pizza. And after each swallowed piece, ask yourself: what do you want now, what can give you pleasure?
Trust the Feelings
What does it do? Our upbringing often seems to fence us off from our own feelings, forcing us to obey the rules: “Until you finish eating, you won’t get up from the table!”, “First soup, then the second!” Later, we ourselves convince ourselves that we do not like boiled vegetables, we cannot stand soups, or we prefer a certain type of bread, although the technology for baking it has changed a long time ago.
Captured by memories of the past or concern for health, we often experience feelings of guilt, shame or sadness while eating … and gradually lose contact with our body, cease to recognize its sensory signals. But even from a physiological point of view, the sense of taste is a very personal matter for everyone: for example, for some people, sugar helps to taste coffee with greater intensity, while for others, on the contrary, it dulls the sensations.
If we focus on the sensations, putting aside the principles of “rational nutrition” for a while, we will be able not only to understand whether we really eat with pleasure, but also to realize our uniqueness and build trust in the body.
Where to start? To face prejudices head on, try to figure out where they come from. What does your favorite dish remind you of? What about a dish you can’t stand? What associations do they evoke? Dreary afternoon snacks in kindergarten? The anxiety that blood red evokes? Fear of obesity? What is your father’s or older sister’s favorite dish?
Then focus on the smells and flavors and see how the images that pop up in your memory are replaced by purely physical sensations. Perhaps this will be followed by a reassessment of views.
If you are open to culinary experiments
Haute cuisine schools, cooking classes, sommelier courses, tea, wine, cheese or chocolate tastings. Special “gourmet trips”: to oyster festivals, truffle hunting, a walk through the most delicious places in Paris or New York, accompanied by an experienced guide. There are plenty of opportunities available to us to fully experience the taste of life.
On the gastronomic magazine “Stol” you can learn about tastings and culinary master classes
В you can master the techniques of gastronomic improvisation
On the With the British company Gourmet on Tour, you can choose a culinary adventure to your taste and almost anywhere in the world.
Find out what others like, try new things
What does it do? The taste does not remain unnamed, given once and for all: “The first sip of even the best wine seems intoxicating to few,” notes anthropologist David le Breton. Taste likes and dislikes change depending on the surroundings with whom we identify ourselves, on memories (oh, what mum baked pies!), on where we live (“pasta” – Italians, “paddling pools” – French …), on socio-cultural context.
Globalization sets new, standardized tastes (for example, ketchup and cola), which we inevitably get used to. “By limiting ourselves to only familiar and familiar food, we withdraw into ourselves, losing the fullness of contact with other people,” emphasizes the sociologist Jean-Pierre Corbeau.
Where to start? Don’t give up anything out of principle or prejudice. In China, even bland taste is also considered a taste! Go with friends to an exotic restaurant – the skill of the chef, the interior, music and presentation of dishes stimulate the taste perception.
After tasting different dishes, share your impressions so that each of the participants in the feast formulates and expresses their feelings about food. Let your imagination run wild: tasting Spanish cheese, feel the aroma of cypresses, hear the local dialect, the murmur of springs, the clatter of goat hooves along the paths of mountain villages.
Enrich your culinary vocabulary
What does it do? “The mouth is the meeting place of words and tastes,” says psychoanalyst Gisele Arrus-Revidy figuratively. When we find words to talk about our favorite food, it tastes even better.
Where to start? Remember the exact name of each product – in front of you is not just meat, but tenderloin, fillet, loin. Try to describe its color and texture (liquid, dense, airy), smell, temperature (burning, warm, icy), main tastes (salty, sweet, sour, bitter), nuances and combinations of flavors, texture (fibrous, creamy …), the feeling of the product (spicy, sparkling, tender), the sound associated with it (narzan hissing in a glass, a crunchy cucumber …), the specific memory that this food evokes in you (ripe strawberries in the summer cottage, grandmother’s homemade dumplings …), dreams, which she awakens.
Describe in detail all the sensations that a piece of chocolate truffle gives on the way from the taste buds of the tongue to the stomach itself: changes in its consistency, temperature, taste and aftertaste. Tell your friends about that fantastic salad or jelly that you were recently treated to. Finally, savor the inspirational food descriptions from your favorite writers.