W hat is Taste:
Does It Really Matter Anymore?
As I sat at my computer last night and read the email asking our class to write what we did and did not like, a million things rushed into my mind. Taste, by definition, has myriad meanings and many have nothing to do with what really goes on with those thousands of taste buds on our tongue. 
Few can really "taste" in today's world. We have become numbed to what real foods are, and actually have begun to prefer the pre-packaged flavor I call "plastic." I was touched personally by Slow Food: The Case for Taste in that this is something I have been fighting against consciously and unconsciously for years.
Author Carlo Petrini says that we "now prefer to buy prepackaged, presliced, and often precooked food" which leaves us little opportunity to actually see what food is, where it is coming from, or how it is in a natural form. Therefore, we have lost the ability to choose. All this talk of prepackaging leads me to the discussion of taste within the book. Petrini says we have "lost touch" with many aspects of the heritage of food, as well as the most complicated, yet necessary points, of the "wisdom relating to the cultivation" of foods, etc. By losing touch, I begin to see he also carries this theme over to how we now taste, or should I say, don't taste, foods, as we have truly lost touch with taste. We no longer use our senses to cook or to eat, and have become desensitized to most everything we consume day to day. Do you remember what you had for breakfast? What did it taste like, what was the texture on your tongue, what did it smell like? Being able to taste, to me, also means being aware. Taste is an awareness we have to reawaken in adults, and teach to the growing young.
The most interesting of the taste debate is how they are now going to schools, and trying to re-educate people on taste, and the behind-the-scenes work of the foods we consume. Most importantly, they are reaching out to children, the youth of the world who will form the next generation of discerning consumers, buying and working off their own tastes and preferences. Petrini now makes the point about the sensory experience of food saying that as children are taught about food and nutrition in class that no one ever stops to think that "this alimentation might be connected with pleasure or the awakening of the senses of touch, smell, and taste." We thus need to correct our approach to food. Petrini wants to "emphasize the cognitive capacities arising from sensory experience" and bring an awareness that beings with ones own perceptual apparatus and arrives at the recognition of the qualitative characteristics of what one is eating, and the pleasure it can bring to them.
I especially was touched by Petrini stating that being in touch with the sensory experiences of food can transcend the "simple idea that eating is just swallowing." That is a powerful statement to me as I see today's consumers as just gobbling food down, with it only taking the average American fifteen minutes to eat a meal, which is not even enough time for your body to physiologically register fullness. You bypass taste buds by not even chewing food, but mixing it with soda in your mouth, and washing it all down together, making eating quicker, and more efficient, yet in no way a source of pleasure. 
Quality of life can be improved by simply tasting your food. Stopping everything else you are doing while eating, as I know many people multitask during meals or eat while driving, and ignore concentrating on what you are eating. We need to take back our right to enjoy food and derive pleasure from every aspect of it. By educating children in this manner of sensory identification, and teaching them how to taste, smell, and touch what they consume, we can breed a generation who takes pride in what they choose to eat. Then, "aware consumers will come into being" according to Petrini, and I strongly agree.
As someone who is surrounded by food and taste on a daily basis, I used to grow frustrated with my mother as I would have her sample hundreds of batches of cookies with me as I worked through my cookie study one year. Her immediate response was usually, "it's good." I did not want to know if it was good or bad, I wanted to know what flavors hit the tongue first, what lingered after the cookie was gone. Could you taste the delicate butter? Does the sweetness kiss the taste buds or slap the jaws coyly? How did the cookie smell, what did it feel like in your hand and as it passed your lips? This may sound like a lot to think about when eating a cookie, but if everyone was this aware, I doubt as many people could easily inhale a bag of cookies, wrecking their waist lines, contributing to a country of looming obesity, and causing themselves more pain than pleasure. Being aware keeps people satisfied and content on a deeper level than just the obvious satiation of food for the stomach. It becomes a full mind body sensory experience as we have been discussing. In this sense, we can see how undertaking a slow foods lifestyle can also help the health of our country. Taking time to taste food also means we would be taking time to sit down, or stop our lives. Our stress levels could drop, we would eat less, and be more satisfied. Freshness would be valued, and spirits would sore with pleasure. Psychologically, we would be producing more serotonin and dopamine, the feel good hormones, and less cortisol, the stress hormone. We would be happier and healthier, inside and out. All that from knowing how to truly taste food.
However, as Petrini notes, this era is plagued by ignorance about agriculture and how food is produced in this country. I would have to agree to this as well as a fact, but our culture is just as ignorant about taste. Perhaps it is the world we live in today, where speed and efficiency are valued over pleasure, and people who do enjoy food are seen as gourmets, food aficionados, or in extreme cases, gluttons. We must rethink what the word pleasure really means, and separate that from any negative connotations we might have surrounding the term.
To taste is to know. To be aware. To touch, to feel, to smell. To use all of our sensory organs we were born with, as pleasure is something to be praised and appreciated daily. It is a gift we are given that separates us from other primates. Our tongue has taste buds and our noses have sensitive olfactory glands, both of which we need to be using more. We also all have a heart, and spirit that can be nurtured with good food that you eat with a clean, informed conscious. Knowing where your food comes from, how it was produced, and what went into it arriving on your fork all help you to enjoy the experience of eating, and take a new found pride in your choices of food. Petrini makes all these points while also providing a wealth of knowledge of how this entire movement started and is continuing to grow. As a supporter for a few years now, I know first hand how empowering it can be to really learn to taste food. Soon after trying these principles I took a new approach to how I cooked for myself and others, and found that not only was I more pleased, but those who ate my food were, too.
Other questions I would like to see covered in this debate include breaking taste down into the five known tastes, and breaking down foods by these terms, by which I am meaning: bitter, salty, sweet, sour, and unami (which is a lesser known taste, but is just as valid and can be found in things such as shitake mushrooms.) Deconstructing "taste" in a strictly food sense could be a complete study in itself. To do this would require the awareness I have been discussing throughout the entire article. I also think it would be interesting to bring my psychological studies on how tastes and food preferences are developed into light as they play a large role in how today's society eats as well. Another goal I have is to challenge everyone who might read this book to perform a "silent dinner" where one does nothing but focus on the food they are eating. To take it a step further, they could prepare a meal with local farmer's markets ingredients, and talk to the farmers from whom they buy their foods. Ask the farmer how he or she would prepare the item, and how they feel it should, and does, taste. People should also be willing to sample new things, and try different varieties of food side by side, to really educate the tongue and senses on differences in taste, texture, etc. This may seem overwhelming to the average consumer, but every small action in the right direction will help. Even the longest hikes started with a small step, and perhaps finding the most pleasurable tastes, can start with one thoughtful, educated bite.
