[I-Hate-Hulse]

Closely related to the MSG thread of a couple weeks ago, here's a fascinating article on something called Umami, and how it impacts human's perception of taste. One restauranteur is banking on this natural attraction...

The team's discovery was important because umami could now be seen as an ancient sense that was part of human evolution. Moreover, they found that animals were able to savour it as well, which meant it had likely developed early on in the evolutionary process.

"Umami is not something that humans have just evolved. Glutamate taste is as fundamental as sweet, bitter, salty and sour," Roper said.

For North Americans, the flavour tends to be more difficult to identify. In Japan, it's quite easily recognized because the idea of umami is a part of the culture.

But the sense is not based on race or culture. Nearly everyone is able to sense it, although an estimated five per cent of the population has relatively low sensitivity to umami taste.
.......

When Craig Purdy, a New York entrepreneur, asked chef Jonathan Pratt for an innovative restaurant concept, Pratt jumped at the chance to tell him

He had come to think of it as a clandestine fifth taste, added to the list of what humans already savour — salty, sweet, bitter, sour. Pratt believed it was also the secret to getting customers to return time and again.

"A popular Hawaiian chef told me it was a craving triggered by foods with high levels of natural glutamic acid," explained Pratt. "And I thought, oh wow, I could open a restaurant where the food is actually addictive."

Now, six years later, Purdy and Pratt run Umami Café in the small village of Croton-on-Hudson, New York. Every dish at the New York Times-acclaimed café combines at least three umami foods. Their Truffles Mac and Cheese maxes out at five or more, including wine, cream, black truffles and two cheeses — parmigiano reggiano and fontina.

When umami is an unfamiliar concept to some new customers, Pratt tells them to think about the taste of potato chips. You can't eat just one, but it's not because of the salt. If that were the case, pretzels and corn chips would be scarfed down in the same number.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/senses/umami.html