Flavor? What fucking flavor?!

I try not to rant and not to start flame wars -- at least not too often. Hey, when it comes to food, there is really no right or wrong. It's a matter of experimentation and taste. Or at least that's what I tell my students to make them feel empowered to experiment in the kitchen. But the recent article in chow.com entitled "Beyond Salt and Pepper" reminded me that I tell my students little white lies sometimes. There is right, and there is wrong. And the authors of that article couldn't be more wrong in my opinion.

They state that:

No matter how many cookbooks you read or how much Top Chef you absorb from the television, your home cooking won’t match your favorite restaurant’s. One reason: Professionals use a lot of fat and salt, which tease more flavor out of ingredients. There are other ingredients you can use, however, to boost flavor.

To argue with this statement, I have to get a little technical and actually define "flavor," which they never bother to do. According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, flavor is "the blend of taste and smell sensations evoked by a substance in the mouth."

Let's start with the taste. What can we taste anyway? Very little. Human tongue can perceive only 4 sensations: sweet, sour, salty, and bitter. Everything else we smell. This might come as a surprise, but you can't actually taste herbs and spices (paprika, garlic chile paste, ginger, celery seed, and tarragon) that the authors of the article suggest you use to "boost flavor." You can only smell them. Since your throat is connected to your nasal passages, you smell stuff better when it's in your mouth (thus thinking you taste it better). Smell is a big part of our gustatory experience and those are all wonderful ingredients to use. But the article seems to imply that those are ingredients home cooks can rely on since they can't use as much salt and fat as restaurants do. That's absurd! Substituting salt with tarragon is just like substituting a bar of soap with a towel. They are both part of the bathing experience, but one can help you get cleaner and the other one can help you get drier. You probably won't argue that using soap to dry yourself is not the best idea.

"What about the spiciness?" you might say. "That bity sensation you experience from chiles, raw garlic, and ginger?" Certain ingredients act as irritants (in a good way), which is a part of the gustatory experience too, but you still don't actually taste them. So using less salt, and throwing in more garlic or chiles is not likely to get you a culinary masterpiece.

What other secret weapons can home cooks add to their cooking arsenal? The authors suggest acidic ingredients, like citrus juice, wine, vinegar, and Dijon mustard, and sweet ingredients like honey and maple syrup. At least we are getting to stuff we can actually taste. There is only one little problem. The more sweetness and acidity you add, the more salt you'll need to balance it. That's the art of seasoning that separates good cooks from bad cooks. It's not about whether cinnamon goes with cardamom. It's how much salt to use to balance the sweetness and acidity in the dish.

But hey, you can kill all birds with one stone and use Worcestershire sauce, suggests the article, because it's sour (main ingredient is vinegar), sweet (from molasses and sugar), and salty (from anchovies). Nothing against Worcestershire sauce, but isn't that kind of like trying to get enough of each food group by ordering a happy meal at McDonald's? Technically, it has your protein, starch, fat, vegetables, etc, but probably not in the proportions you'd like.

My favorite part is readers' comments that suggest the use of MSG, soy sauce, and anchovies. Have they ever wondered why those taste so good? Because they are loaded with salt! When I posted my first story on salt last year, one of the readers commented that a way to get around using salt in salads, is to add flavorful ingredients like olives. So why are olives are so "flavorful"? Could it be because they are cured in salt? That goes for capers and all those other salt substitutes. If you want to use these ingredients, be my guest. They are all wonderful (except for MSG maybe). But let's not pretend that they are better for you than plain old salt or that the final dish will have less sodium and taste just as good.

I can't help but wonder why we keep looking for substitutes and why we can't use as much salt and restaurants do. What's so terrible about salt? Somehow, people in Japan and France don't worry about it, and live long and healthy lives. Though, I don't believe they try to substitute exercise with anything either.

I don't remember where I read this, but it's an interesting statistic that many Americans spend more time watching food TV than actually cooking. We can sit in front of TV watching Iron Chef and eating low-fat, low-sodium potato chips all we want. Or we can get into the kitchen, cook a decent meal with no substitutes and go for a brisk walk.

And about fat... It's a big misconception that the difference between restaurant food and home cooked food is pounds of cream and butter. Sure, classic French cooking is extremely heavy on fat, but many modern restaurants use fat, don't abuse fat. How do I know? I worked in one. The difference between home cooking and restaurant cooking is the amount of salt and doneness of meats, fish, and vegetables. Use more salt, cook things less, and your food will improve so much you might not want to eat out.