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“I had thought fermentation was controlled death. Left alone, a head of cabbage molds and decomposes. It becomes rotten, inedible. But when brined and stored, the course of its decay is altered. Sugars are broken down to produce lactic acid, which protects it from spoiling. Carbon dioxide is released and the brine acidifies. It ages. Its color and texture transmute. Its flavor becomes tarter, more pungent. It exists in time and transforms. So it is not quite controlled death, because it enjoys a new life altogether.
The memories I had stored, I could not let fester. Could not let trauma infiltrate and spread, to spoil and render them useless. They were moments to be tended. The culture we shared was active, effervescent in my gut and in my genes, and I had to seize it, foster it so it did not die in me. So that I could pass it on someday. The lessons she imparted, the proof of her life lived on in me, in my every move and deed. I was what she left behind. If I could not be with my mother, I would be her.”
― Michelle Zauner, Crying in H Mart

“That eating should be foremost about bodily health is a relatively new and, I think, destructive idea-destructive not just the pleasure of eating, which would be bad enough, but paradoxically of our health as well. Indeed, no people on earth worry more about the health consequences of their food choices than we Americans-and no people suffer from as many diet-related problems. We are becoming a nation of orthorexics: people with an unhealthy obsession with healthy eating.”
― Michael Pollan, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto

“Food commonly eaten for more than 150 years should be innocent until proven guilty, and food invented in the last 150 years is guilty until proven innocent.”
― Miles Hassell MD

“The real question here is how you -- as a reader, eater, and citizen -- can recognize and protect yourself against the onslaught of misleading information and advice that results from food-company manipulation of nutrition research and practice. Everyone eats. Food matters. All of us need and deserve sound nutrition advice aimed at promoting public health -- not corporate commercial interests.”
― Marion Nestle, Unsavory Truth: How Food Companies Skew the Science of What We Eat

“Calgene's FlavrSavr tomato was the first genetically modified whole food. When Calgene brought it to the FDA in 1992, the tomato was subjected to $2 million-worth of testing by the FDA on top of the testing done by Calgene. In a public meeting the FDA scientists brought the results of their extensive and sophisticated chemical analyses to a panel of external advisers; the panel included representatives of public interest groups and industry, as well as scientists whose specialties ranged from nutrition to basic plant science. The concluding slide of the FDA's presentation had a simple message: Calgene's transgenic tomato ¡­ is a tomato.

Mendel in the Kitchen: A Scientist's View of Genetically Modified Food”
― Fedoroff, Nina V.; Brown, Nancy Marie

“I liken modern scientists to conquistadors. They have no idea what they're dealing with, but they're going to conquer it, whatever it is --- all in the name of God. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not opposed to scientific discovery and exploration. I love this stuff.

What I despise is reckless disregard for how little we know. We create trans fats with nary a question about whether they're good for us or not. We develop a food pyramid with carbohydrates on the bottom and thirty years later we realize it created an obesity and type 2 diabetes epidemic. It should give us all pause that we would be a much healthier nation if the government had never told us how to eat.”
― Joel Salatin, The Marvelous Pigness of Pigs: Respecting and Caring for All God's Creation

“Well then, first would be the abalone and sea urchin- the bounty of the sea!
Ah, I see! This foam on top is kombu seaweed broth that's been whipped into a mousse!"
"Mm! I can taste the delicate umami flavors seeping into my tongue!"
"The fish meat was aged for a day wrapped in kombu. The seaweed pulls just enough of the moisture out of the meat, allowing it to keep longer, a perfect technique for a bento that needs to last. Hm! Next looks to be bonito. ...!" What rich, powerful umami!"
Aha! This is the result of several umami components melding together. The glutamic acid in the kombu from the previous piece is mixing together in my mouth with the inosinic acid in the bonito!
"And, like, I cold aged this bonito across two days. Aging fish and meats boosts their umami components, y'know. In other words, the true effect of this bento comes together in your mouth... as you eat it in order from one end to the other."
"Next is a row... that looks to be made entirely from vegetables. But none of them use a single scrap of seaweed. The wrappers around each one are different vegetables sliced paper-thin!"
"Right! This bento totally doesn't go for any heavy foods."
"Next comes the sushi row that practically cries out that it's a main dish... raw cold-aged beef sushi!" Th-there it is again! The powerful punch of umami flavor as two components mix together in my mouth!
"Hm? Wait a minute. I understand the inosinic acid comes from the beef... but where is the glutamic acid?"
"From the tomatoes."
"Tomatoes? But I don't see any..."
"They're in there. See, I first put them in a centrifuge. That broke them down into their component parts- the coloring, the fiber, and the jus. I then filtered the jus to purify it even further. Then I put just a few drops on each piece of veggie sushi."
"WHAT THE HECK?!"
"She took an ingredient and broke it down so far it wasn't even recognizable anymore? Can she even do that?"
Appliances like the centrifuge and cryogenic grinder are tools that were first developed to be used in medicine, not cooking. Even among pro chefs, only a handful are skilled enough to make regular use of such complex machines! Who would have thought a high school student was capable of mastering them to this degree!
"And last but not least we have this one. It's sea bream with some sort of pink jelly...
... resting on top of a Chinese spoon."
That pink jelly was a pearl of condensed soup stock! Once it popped inside my mouth...
... it mixed together with the sea bream sushi until it tasted like-
"Sea bream chazuke!”
― Yuto Tsukuda, ʳꪤΥ½©`¥Þ 8 [Shokugeki no Souma 8]

“They pop in the mouth, just like salmon roe! But inside...
... is the savory saltiness of seaweed!"
"Those pearls are seaweed?!"
But how?!"
"Delicious! Not only is the pop of the pearl a fun texture, the salty, savory flavor of the seaweed melts seamlessly with the rice! I can barely stop myself! It's an addicting combination!"
"Wait... how do you know that technique? Those pearls are seaweed extract gelled into a spherical shape. The only way to do that is by using a calcium-chloride bath and an alginic-acid gelling agent!"
"What the heck?!"
"That's food science!"
"Yukihira pulled a page from Alice Nakiri's own book!"
"I've experimented with this stuff before, y'know. When I was a little kid, anyway."
"Wha-?! But that's-"
"Convenience store Dagashi Candy?!"
"Dagashi?! What's that?"
Both chemicals are on the ingredients list!
"It's what's called an educational candy. Kids play with that to learn how to make their own jelly pearls. I had a blast with it when I was little. I made lots of different stuff."
"Dad, look! I made miso pearls!"
"Aha ha ha! That's great! Now don't let any of the customers see that."
"You can get both alginic acid and calcium chloride at any pharmacy. I used those, along with some seasoned seaweed extract and a little bit of ingenuity...
... to make these savory seaweed bombs- my own spin on the traditional seaweed bento!"
"That's right! There were some educational candies in that pile of sweets he got from the kids yesterday!"
"The transfer student used a food-science trick?"
"And it was one he got off of a package of children's dagashi candy?!"
"Hmm? What's this? I see something that looks like okaka minced tuna hiding inside the rice..."
Mmmm! It's dried tunatsukudani!
This, too, earns full marks for flavor! And its smooth, juicy texture is a wonderful contrast to the pop of the seaweed pearls!”
― Yuto Tsukuda, ʳꪤΥ½©`¥Þ 9 [Shokugeki no Souma 9]

“Good cooks make the most of what they have, great cooks of what they don't.”
― Neel Burton

“If you draw the full length of the blade through the fish in one gentle sweep, the resulting cross section is smooth and the cells are cleanly cut.
But if you force the blade down on the fish to cut it, the cross section becomes ragged and the cells are squashed.
If the surface of the slice is rough, more of the fish is exposed to air, and so it oxidizes faster and its flavor deteriorates.
This becomes even more apparent with water-chilled sashimi. The ragged surface of the slices allows the water to penetrate the fish and leech out its flavor."
"That's why the sashimi becomes watery and tasteless.”
― Tetsu Kariya, Japanese Cuisine

“Kombu is a species of edible kelp (Laminaria japonica) that thrives in long streamers about a palm's-width wide that can reach up to thirty feet in length. Along with katsuobushi, it is the other main ingredient for making dashi. Kombu contains a high level of the amino acid glutamate, which is the source of the "fifth taste", umami, and a precursor to the flavor enhancer MSG. Japan consumes about 50,000tons of kombu a year--- about half wild, and half farmed--- most of it harvested off the coast of the northern island, Hokkaid¨­.”
― Tetsu Kariya, Japanese Cuisine

“Main ingredients: rice, distilled alcohol, brewing saccharides...' what's that all mean?"
"During the second World War, something called ²õ²¹²Ô²ú²¹¾±³ú¨­²õ³ó³Ü was created as a way to make sake from a small very small amount of rice."
"'³§²¹²Ô²ú²¹¾±³ú¨­²õ³ó³Ü'?"
"Essentially, you take sake made the proper way but then dilute it until it's three times its original volume.
Besides water, the main additive is distilled grain alcohol, followed by malt syrup, glucose, and MSG to fix the flavor."
"What? You add a completely different alcohol that wasn't created during the brewing?!"
"Monosodium glutamate? I can't believe they'd add such a thing to a drink!"
"You're right. This isn't real sake. Although we now have an abundant supply of rice, the big beverage companies still make ²õ²¹²Ô²ú²¹¾±³ú¨­²õ³ó³Ü since it's an easy way for them to make a profit."
"But I trusted them because they're popular brands..."
"It's the other way around. Most of the large companies with huge advertising campaigns on TV and whatnot use this method."
"Then what about this bottle with "Junmaishu" on it?"
"It's from a small brewery in the countryside, a sake made from nothing but rice, °ì¨­Âá¾±, and water.
This is the kind of sake that should have an ingredient label so that people can see that it's truly pure. It's a tragedy that we have it the other way around here in Japan.
Is there any other country in the world that's degraded their traditional drink like this?It's an important part of our culture and it's almost been destroyed.”
― Tetsu Kariya, Sake

“Sake is the best when it comes to pairing with seafood. It's often said that Chablis and raw oysters go well together, but I've got my doubts about that. I find a strong off taste lingers after I eat raw oysters and drink Chablis."
"Why is that?"
"Wine has a lot more sodium in it compared to sake. The sodium compounds are part of what gives wine its fine flavor.
But at the same time, I think one of those compounds brings out the fishiness of the seafood.”
― Tetsu Kariya, Sake

“In France, caviar, truffles and foie gras are considered to be the three major delicacies.
And when the French eat caviar, they don't drink wine with it.
The French aren't stupid. They're more than aware that no wine goes well with caviar.
That's why they drink vodka with it. But they don't know about sake."
"You're right. Vodka's usually served with caviar."
"But vodka really isn't a drink to have during a meal."
"It's not just caviar--- I don't think wine goes well with any kind of seafood.
It doesn't matter whether the fish is grilled, simmered, raw or in a bouillabaisse. And it's completely out of the question for things like raw oysters, karasumi and sea urchin.
Wine contains far more sodium than sake.
And some of those sodium compounds do not mix well with the fats in the fish, so that distinctive seafood flavor ends up being emphasized even more.
On the other hand, sake has hardly any sodium, so it doesn't bring out the fishiness.
And the sugars from the rice starch enhance the flavor of the food."
"Hmm."
"Come to think of it, shiokara tastes a lot better when you eat it with rice than when you eat it on its own. I guess this is the same thing.
It's the power of rice.”
― Tetsu Kariya, Sake

“Chicken meat, gizzard, chicken skin and chicken wing.
This time, I added about 10 percent more water to the Takazasu I gave to you...
...and let it sit for about a week to blend the alcohol and flavor together. And I've warmed it just like the last one so that it will be 118 degrees when poured into the cup.
If the temperature is any lower than that, the sweetness of the sake becomes too distinct and it loses its lightness."
"Hmmm! This one tastes so light, even though it's the same temperature!"
"After eating for a while, people tend to start getting a bit tired. If you warm this sake up to the right temperature, it helps you continue to eat."
"That's right. And this sake is not only light, but it also has a strong, rich taste...
... so it can capture the fatty parts like the chicken skin and chicken wing and boost their flavor."
"This way, you can continue to eat, and you'll never get tired of drinking.”
― Tetsu Kariya, Izakaya: Pub Food

“With standard pot stickers, the filling is enclosed in a wheat-dough wrapper. But with these, the filling is stuffed into a chicken wing.
"Stuffed chicken wings. You can call 'em chicken-wing pot stickers too.
So you made some stuffed Satsuma Jidori chicken-wing pot stickers, eh, Yukihira?"
"You got it! First, you remove the two long bones inside the wing...
Then you stuff the filling in the cavity they leave behind and fry 'em up! That's the basics of a stuffed chicken wing."
"Mmm! I can smell their savory aroma from here. What's in the filling?"
"Well, there're the basics, like ground pork, chives and cabbage. I added some diced pork jowl too.
Oh! And shiitake mushrooms. That's the important part.
See, chicken meat has inosinic acid in it, and shiitake mushrooms have guanylic acid. Both of those are umami components.
Together, they magnify each other, giving the dish a richer flavor.”
― Y¨±to Tsukuda, ʳꪤΥ½©`¥Þ 17 [Shokugeki no Souma 17]

“Hm. A dal bean curry, eh? It looks similar to Chana Masala, a Punjabi dish that uses chickpeas...
!
This viscous stickiness...!"
"It's Natto!"
Gooey texture and savory flavor are melding together inside my mouth! Was natto ever this delicious?
"Wait... this is no normal natto! Could it be..."
"Yes, sir. This natto I made by hand using charcoal smoke. It's charcoal-aged natto.
After I added the natto spores to a batch of soybeans, I stored them in an underground room. There I lit a charcoal fire and then kept the room at just the right temperature and humidity to ferment the soybeans.
As this process takes several days to complete, I prepared it ahead of time, over my summer break."
"The carbon dioxide generated by the charcoal fire impacts the maturation of the soy proteins. It gives the natto a richer flavor. It also halts bacteria death in the beans, preventing the typical smell of ammonia from developing!"
"Did you know all that?"
"I heard a little about it once. It's supposed to be a really hard process that takes loads of time to finish!"
"And she made it by herself?!"
"But that isn't all.
There's another flavor--- a deeper, more savory one that resonates across the tongue like a deep bass chord."
"Oh, that?
As a special hidden seasoning, I added shoyu koji."

SHOYU KOJI
Instead of salt, soy sauce is added to the koji bacteria and mixed with the rice until thick. Then it is left to ferment at a constant temperature for several weeks.

So that's the black stuff that was in that jar!
Shoyu koji has over ten times glutamic acid---an umami component--- than shio koji does.
I see. While the strong flavor of curry spices drowns out most other seasonings, shoyu koji's flavor is powerful enough to that it is instead a savory magnifier!
Her curry takes full advantage of her detailed knowledge of fermentation techniques! It is truly a magnificent dish!
"The creamy Japanese-style curry roux has blended in with the natto's gooeyness beautifully!"
"The mound of crisp, minced green onion on top is hard to resist as well!"”
― Y¨±to Tsukuda, ʳꪤΥ½©`¥Þ 7 [Shokugeki no Souma 7]

“ The cream sauce has a rich, full-bodied bitterness to it that makes the tongue tingle...
Its spicy freshness lightens up the thick, heavy flavor of the roast beef to exactly the right degree! The wallop the meat's juice packs is no joke, but I feel I could keep eating this forever!
Sure, he shoved a mountain of artichokes into this dish...
... but how did he manage to make their uniquely fresh, vibrant and astringent flavor stand out this much?!
"This, too, is the result of Mr. Eizan's highly skilled use of cynarine. Any unnecessary source of sweetness has been removed, which makes the taste of the cream sauce stand out even more starkly."
"Whoa, Whoa! Slow down. I'm totally lost here!"
"I get that cynarine's supposed to make stuff taste sweet, but how does that even work?"
"Is it so bitter that anything tasted afterwards seems sweet by comparison?"
"No, it isn't anything as simple as that. Cynarine directly affects the taste buds."
Yep! When you eat food that contains cynarine, the compound spreads across your tongue as you chew, covering up and thereby blocking the taste buds for sweetness.
That's what's happening with Yukihira and the judges right now. Their tongues can't taste sweet, so bitter flavors really stand out. As they eat other food, the act of chewing gradually wipes the cynarine off the tongue. Slowly, their taste buds resume their normal functions. But here's where the important bit happens...
Since the tongue has been blocked from tasting sweet flavors for a time...
... even a tiny bit of sweetness will now stick out like a sore thumb!
"When there's a ton of cynarine smeared on the tongue, even a cup of water will taste supersweet.”
― Y¨±to Tsukuda, ʳꪤΥ½©`¥Þ 27 [Shokugeki no Souma 27]

“I tried the deep-fried horse mackerel--- your father's favorite, apparently--- and it was far better than any version of it I've ever had in Kyoto."
"You're rambling, Dad," complained Koishi. "Tell him about the nori-ben."
"What's the rush? Anyway, the point is, Mr. Aramiya knows his fish. He comes from a long line of fishermen, and apparently even ran his own sushi place at one point. With someone like that whispering secrets in your father's ear, it's no wonder his nori-ben turned out so delicious."
Nagare picked up the right-hand bento and continued. "Sure, it looks exactly the same. Both on top---" he inserted a pair of chopsticks into the top-right section, which Kyosuke hadn't yet reached--- "and when you dig down inside." Koishi and Kyosuke watched as Nagare carefully set the segment on the lid of the bento, revealing the individual layers. "And yet it's not the same."
"Hmm... it has the same three layers. Looks identical to me," said Koishi, inspecting it from the side. Kyosuke nodded in agreement.
"The difference is this part in the middle," said Nagare, removing the top layer of nori. "Look carefully. Those aren't bonito flakes, are they?"
"You're right!" exclaimed Koishi, leaning in for a closer look. "Is that... fish meat?"
Kyosuke was still gazing blankly, apparently unable to see the difference. Nagare darted into the kitchen, emerging a moment later with a styrofoam box. He held it up in front of the waiting pair, then opened it to reveal a fish.
"Cutlass fish, this is called. See how it looks just like a sword? That's what's in the bento. Grilled, minced, and seasoned with soy sauce and kabosu fruit. Both cutlass fish and kabosu are Oita specialties--- and the citric acid in the kabosu stops the dish from spoiling too. If you just use bonito flakes, the flavor can get a little monotonous, but this gives it heaps of depth.”
― Jesse Kirkwood, The Restaurant of Lost Recipes

“Roxannah plucked an early-blooming flower, white with the faintest tinge of pink and a red pillar at the center, though most of the buds would not open for another month. "What do you think?"
Adin, who had been examining a thick stalk and some of the broad leaves for damage, held up his trowel. "Perfect. I don't know how you even found these plants all the way out here." He knelt and started to dig. "When we were children in Elephantine, my mother used to make sweets with the sap of the marsh mallow. It's an Egyptian delicacy. In ancient times, it was reserved for the pharaohs. Thankfully, these days the rest of us can enjoy it too."
Intrigued, Roxannah dropped down next to him. "Cook is always telling us to discover new recipes. How did your mother make it?"
He looked up from his digging. "As I mentioned earlier, my expertise lies more in the area of consumption than production."
"A talent every good cook appreciates."
He shifted his trowel to get around a stubborn root. "I do remember the ingredients since I helped to gather them. Honey, nuts, and mallow sap. Simple, eh?"
"I can experiment with that." She broke off a narrow stalk and gingerly put a dollop of the sap on her tongue. "Very sticky."
"I think that's the secret. The sap pulls everything together into a chewy treat.”
― Tessa Afshar, The Queen's Cook

“The strawberry, he informs us, is a member of the rose family and its botanical name, Fragaria, means "fragrance." And while most people know it is the only fruit with seeds on the outside, it is actually not fruit at all but swollen stems. It is one of the few fruits to contain ellagic acid, a compound believed to prevent healthy cells from turning into carcinogenic ones.
My classmates cluck their tongues at this.
"And the best way to cook the fraises," he says in his distinct fresh accent, "is to barely cook them at all. Which is why my strawberry cr¨¨me br?l¨¦e is so fantastic. Quick to make, delicious, and the texture of the berry remains firm."
Combining strawberries in rum, sour cream, and cream plus a dash of fresh lemon juice in a bowl, he tosses the mixture and spoons it into ramekins. Ideally, he says, the strawberry mixture should be refrigerated for several hours to meld the flavors. However, since we're on a time crunch, he sprinkles each with brown sugar before sliding them under the broiler so the tops turn a crusty caramel in seconds.”
― Sarah Strohmeyer, Sweet Love

“In a ready crust of crushed walnuts, flour, and butter, D'Ours lays the pear slices in a pinwheel design. Because they've soaked up the red wine, their edges are etched in burgundy while their centers are white, giving them a candy cane appearance. A perfect Christmas dessert.
Next, he crumbles the Roquefort over the pears, noting the irony of fruit desserts. Pairing fruit with sweet ingredients such as honey or sugar brings out the fruit's tartness while tangy cheese can make the fruit seem sweeter. Which might explain why my grandfather salted his grapefruit.
"Roquefort has an intriguing history," he says while tapping a traditional flan filling of cream, sugar, and eggs. "You might be surprised to learn..."
I stick up my hand and before D'Ours can object, I explain how Roquefort, like most blue cheeses, attributes its blue veins to penicillin mold and that in the past, Roquefort makers (there are only, like, nine in the world), used to put wrapped cheese next to humongous moldy rye bread in caves and let the spores from the rye bread seep into the cheese.”
― Sarah Strohmeyer, Sweet Love

“We slurped cool briny oysters wrapped in a gossamer sheet of warm pancetta fat and topped with a sweet green pistachio emulsion. We frantically scooped up disappearing clouds of Parmesan "air" with muesli. We popped bubbles of melon caviar between our tongues and the roofs of our mouths. We crunched down on delicate coils of sweet and salty olive oil spring candy. It was delicious, surprising, strange, and fun to eat this food.”
― Laurie Woolever, Care and Feeding: A Memoir