The Essence of Gastronomy

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This book 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. Gastronomy is defined 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 ... gastronomy is presented as a discipline that combines natural sciences and human-related sciences. Following an introduction that sets the stage for the author's ground-breaking 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. Food and beverages are also examined from a flavor standpoint, including the effects of ingredients and techniques that are used, and guidelines for matching food and beverages are given. The final chapter looks at the interpretation of sensorial signals in the brain and addresses issues such as food choice, preferences, and palatability. --taken from back cover