1st Edition

The Essence of Gastronomy Understanding the Flavor of Foods and Beverages

By Peter Klosse Copyright 2014
    352 Pages 24 B/W Illustrations
    by CRC Press

    The Essence of Gastronomy: Understanding the Flavor of Foods and Beverages presents a new comprehensive and unifying theory on flavor, which answers ancient questions and offers new opportunities for solving food-related issues. It presents gastronomy as a holistic concept, focusing not only on the food and its composition but also on the human who eats it. This book defines gastronomy as the science of flavor and tasting, where flavor is a broadly interpreted objective characteristic that refers to product quality, and tasting is defined as the human perception of flavor registered by all the human senses.

    Understanding tasting and flavor and how humans react to it is not merely hedonistic. It relates to larger societal issues such as nourishing the elderly and the food children eat at school, and it offers a practical advantage to the hospitality industry of comprehending why customers enjoy their food and beverages. The book presents gastronomy as a discipline that combines natural sciences and human-related sciences. Following an introduction that sets the stage for the author’s groundbreaking research on gastronomy, the book describes flavor perception, the sensorial act of tasting, how it works, and what neural systems are involved. It then focuses on understanding flavor, discussing universal flavor factors and the new flavor theory.

    The book also examines food and beverages from a flavor standpoint, including the effects of ingredients and techniques that are used. It also explores liking, primarily at the flavor level, which includes practical guidelines for matching food and beverages. The final chapter looks at the interpretation of sensorial signals in the brain and addresses issues such as food choice, preferences, and palatability. Offering a new approach, this book provides readers with a roadmap for finding their way into the gastronomic world.

    Introduction
    There is No Reason to Argue about Taste
    Struggling with Words
    Source of Pleasure
    Times Have Changed
    Setting the Stage
    Gastronomy, the Science of Flavor and Tasting
    Chemical Senses and Classification
    Universal Flavor Factors
    Gastronomy and Hotel Schools
    Structure of This Book
    Summary
    Notes

    Making Sense of Taste
    Tasting: An Intricate Process
    Tasting: What Happens in the Mouth?
    The Gustatory System
    The Olfactory System
    The Trigeminal System
    There is More than Meets the Mouth
    Intrinsic and Extrinsic Components of Flavor
    Are Professionals Able to Taste Better than Amateurs?
    Summary
    Notes

    Understanding Flavor
    Finding Words: Comparing Apples to Oranges
    Words do Not Come Easily
    Universal Flavor Factors
    Building the Theoretical Model
    Description of the Flavor Styles
    How to Generate a Flavor Profile
    The Role of the Basic Flavors
    The Role of the Big Four Basic Food Molecules
    Summary
    Appendix: How Low-Fat Foods Get Their Texture
    Notes

    Flavor in the Kitchen
    No Beast Is a Cook
    Practice or Purpose?
    Ingredients: Basic Qualities
    The Essence of Cooking
    Characteristics of the Principal Techniques
    Other Techniques to Get or Keep Flavor
    Making the Dish Complete: Sauces, Herbs and Spices
    Vegetables, Fruits, and Mushrooms
    Flavor Composition
    Culinary Success Factors
    Summary
    Appendix : Influence of Preparation
    Notes

    The Flavor of Beverages
    Aqueous Solutions
    Mineral Water or Spring Water
    Tea
    Coffee
    Beer
    Wine
    The Effects of Grapes and Grape Growing on the Flavor of Wine
    The Effects of Vinification on the Flavor of Wine
    After Vinification
    Beer and Wine Comparison
    Summary
    Notes

    Matching Foods and Beverages: The Fundamentals
    Taste!
    Old Guidelines
    New Guidelines
    Gustatory Effects in Matching Foods and Beverages
    Mouthfeel Effects in Matching Foods and Beverages
    Gastronomic Reflections
    Summary
    Notes

    Food Appreciation and Liking
    Introduction
    Tasting and the Brain
    Food Liking and Palatability
    Flavor Styles Revisited
    Is Food the Stimulus or the Response?
    Where It All Comes Together: The Behavioral Model of Food Choice
    Introducing: Guestronomy
    Summary
    Notes

    Biography

    Peter Klosse, Ph.D., is a professor of gastronomy at Hotel Management School Maastricht, the Netherlands, and owner of a Michelin-starred restaurant at the gastronomic five-star hotel in Apeldoorn. He founded the Academy for Gastronomy in 1991, which offers courses and training on gastronomy and wine and food. The academy is also responsible for training the sommeliers in the Netherlands.

    "…it is a volume that leads us to think of food as science flavor and taste and leads us through the intricate relationships. It is a good book that will be of interest to all those who are interested in discovering new facets of this fascinating world."
    —R. Zamora, Fats & Oils, April-June 2015

     

    "This informative volume presents a comprehensive and unifying theory on flavour, presenting gastronomy as a holistic concept that combines both natural and human-related sciences thereby focusing not only on food and its composition but also on the consumer. It is therefore highly recommended to any individuals with interests, both academic and social, in the tasting, flavour and combination of foods and beverages. Reading this volume can only enhance your gastronomic pleasure!"
    —Charles J. Knill & John F. Kennedy, Chembiotech Laboratories, UK in Carbohydrate Polymers