Barb Stuckey - Taste What Youre Missing: The Passionate Eaters Guide to Why Good Food Tastes Good

W hether its a grilled cheese sandwich with tomato soup, maple-cured bacon sizzling hot from the pan, or a salted caramel coated in dark chocolate, you know when food tastes good to you. But you may not know the amazing story behind why you love some foods and cant tolerate others. Now, in Taste What Youre Missing , the first book that demystifies the science of taste, youll learn how your individual biology, genetics, and brain create a personal experience of everything you tasteand how you can make the most of it.

A seasoned food developer to whom food companies turn for help in creating delicious new products, Barb Stuckey reveals that much of what we think we know about how taste works is wrong. And the truth is much more fascinatingfor instance, your tongue is not divided into quadrants for sweet, sour, salt, and bitter and only a fraction of what you taste happens in your mouth. As Stuckey explains how our five senses work together to form flavor perceptions, she tells intriguing stories about people who have lost the sense of smell or taste and the unexpected ways their experience of food changes as a result. Youll learn why kids (and some adults) turn up their noses at Brussels sprouts and broccoli, how salt makes grapefruit sweet, and why you drink your coffee black while your spouse loads it with cream and sugar.

Stuckey also provides eye-opening experiments in which you can discover your unique taster type and learn why you react instinctively to certain foods, in particular why your response to bitterness is unique. Youll find ways to improve your ability to discern flavors, detect ingredients, and devise taste combinations in your own kitchen for delectable results.

Taste What Youre Missing gives curious eaters, Food Network watchers, kitchen tinkerers, and armchair Top Chefs the understanding and language to impress friends and families with insider knowledge about everything edible. What Harold McGee did for the science of cooking Barb Stuckey does for the science of taste in Taste What Youre Missing , a calorie-free way to get more pleasure from every bite.

Praise for

T ASTE W HAT Y OURE M ISSING

Barb Stuckeys book makes the complicated science of food and taste accessible to anyone. It is as enjoyable a read as it is a thorough summary of why good tastes good.

D AVID C HANG, CHEF AND OWNER OF M OMOFUKU

Understanding taste and flavor (and the difference between them) is one of the foundations of great cuisine. Barb Stuckeys book is an excellent primer on the subject. Her enthusiasm for food and science is infectious, and she explains with clarity and humor (and some neat little experiments you can try out) exactly what happens as we eat. Great reading for cooks, foodies, and indeed anyone interested in the sensory world that surrounds us.

H ESTON B LUMENTHAL, CHEF AND OWNER OF T HE F AT D UCK

Taste What Youre Missing would be useful to anyone who cookswith or without a culinary degree.

P ETER R AINSFORD , P H. D., V ICE P RESIDENT , A CADEMIC A FFAIRS,
T HE C ULINARY I NSTITUTE OF A MERICA

Simply fascinating! Compelling! A page-turner. Taste What Youre Missing should be required reading for anyone who eats. In laymans terms, Barb Stuckey gives us the tools to analyze and diagnose our food neuroses, as well as get the most out of every plate of food we consume. I think if we were better tasters as a whole, we would seek out better, and yes, healthier foods for ourselves and our children.

C ARLA H ALL , T OP C HEF A LL -S TARS
FAN FAVORITE, CO-HOST ON T HE C HEW , AND FOUNDER OF A LCHEMY BY C ARLA H ALL

A fascinating book that will change the way you think of everything you eat or drink forever.

K ATHLEEN F LINN, AUTHOR OF T HE S HARPER Y OUR K NIFE,
THE L ESS Y OU C RY AND T HE K ITCHEN C OUNTER C OOKING S CHOOL

This book brilliantly weaves the subjective experience of eating together with the objective science of taste perception. A must-read for food lovers and cooks alike. Youll never look at a plate of food the same way again.

M ING T SAI, CHEF AND OWNER OF
B LUE G INGER, HOST AND EXECUTIVE PRODUCER OF S IMPLY M ING

Barb Stuckey is a professional food developer who leads the marketing, food trend tracking, and consumer research functions at Mattson, North Americas largest independent developer of new foods and beverages, where she has worked for fifteen years. She and her fianc divide their time between San Francisco and Healdsburg, in Californias Sonoma wine country.

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Praise for Taste What Youre Missing

A deliciously welcome surprise. Stuckey combines accessible, well-researched information, personal anecdotes, and terrific writing to create a book that really makes the reader reconsider what that much used word taste means. It is a book that definitely made me more conscious of the way I eat and also made me feel much smarter. Both of these are good things.

Simon Majumdar, author of Eat My Globe,
judge on Food Channels The Next Iron Chef

This book brilliantly weaves the subjective experience of eating together with the objective science of taste perception. A must-read for food lovers and cooks alike. Youll never look at a plate of food the same way again.

Ming Tsai, chef and owner of Blue Ginger and
host and executive producer Simply Ming

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Copyright 2012 by Savorite Things LLC

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Free Press Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

First Free Press hardcover edition March 2012

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Stuckey, Barb.

Taste what youre missing : the passionate eaters guide to why food tastes good / by Barb Stuckey.
p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Gastronomy. 2. Taste buds. 3. Food presentation. I. Title.

TX631.S836 2012

641.013dc23

2011038535

ISBN 978-1-4391-9073-9
ISBN 978-1-4516-5472-1 (ebook)

For Roger, whom I love more than tomatoes

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