Connecting the dots'

Nik Sharma's The Flavor Equation delves into the science behind cooking

The communal clanging of pestles pounding mortars, the scent of toasted seeds, the warmth of a savoury broth and the intensity of an experience shared with a dining room full of strangers. Appropriately named “Bonding,” this particular course was an interlude during a lunch at Mugaritz in the Basque Country, but the memory was a lasting one.

Flavour is more than the interplay of just two senses, as was clear to me during this unforgettable meal. Taste and aroma may dominate discussions, but as author Nik Sharma illustrates in his second book, The Flavor Equation (Chronicle Books, 2020), a multitude of components shape our perceptions. Memories, emotions and cultural context interlace with our senses.

“In most cookbooks, aroma and taste are the two things that are focused on. Then comes texture and, if you're a chef, you're much more focused on plating, which is the visual part,” says Sharma. When contemplating all the factors contributing to flavour, it occurred to him that they're regularly at play in our kitchens, whether we're explicitly aware of their effects or not.

“We focus on sound when we cook. There are some cultural practices that influence also how we perceive flavour, like funerals: Some people lose their appetite at a funeral. And even something like the call to dinner, like when you ring a gong or a bell, and you get people to come to the table. That also builds the mood, so to speak. We do this all the time and I thought I needed to give them all their special place in this cookbook.”

Explaining the hows and whys of what we do in the kitchen, Sharma examines the core principles of flavour through essays, case studies, flavour maps and other illustrations, and upwards of 100 recipes supporting seven tastes: brightness, bitterness, saltiness, sweetness, savoriness, fieriness and richness.

From making food crispy to how taste works and tips for cooking with aroma, The Flavor Equation offers an education in the science behind the processes generations of cooks have finessed. Sharma connects the dots so people can understand why they have to take certain steps and apply the learning to their own dishes.

“I'm a self-taught cook and I've used cookbooks, newspapers and magazines for recipes, or to learn more about how to cook,” says Sharma. “I would read these books and not find explanations as to why I was doing something or what I was doing. And that threw me off because how is someone going to learn to cook if they don't know why they're doing what they're doing?”

Sharma's background in molecular biology and public policy gives him a unique perspective on the multidimensional nature of flavour. Whether a failed pie crust or bitter-tasting mayonnaise, he takes a scientific approach to finding solutions. He learned the basics of making mayonnaise in chemistry class, and had long tried to solve the problem of bitterness in emulsions (e.g. vinaigrettes and mayonnaise) made with olive or mustard oils.

In developing the curry leaf and mustard oil mayonnaise recipe for The Flavor Equation, he arrived at a straightforward answer to debittering oil: “washing” it with boiling water, which he details in a case study. “It gets rid of the bitter substances because they dissolve in water at a very high temperature,” says Sharma. “And then you use that oil to make an emulsion like mayonnaise or aioli, and it's not bitter anymore.”

Sharma took all the photographs in The Flavor Equation as he did with his blog, A Brown Table, newspaper columns and first cookbook, Season (Chronicle Books, 2018). Creating a visual theme was important, and he arrived at using both macro and micro shots of ingredients to depict the various components of flavour — textures, aromas and tastes.

Sharma shot the micro photographs in a laboratory at University of California, Berkeley and in doing so, he says, his photography came full circle: One of the first cameras he used in graduate school was on a microscope. Some of his favourite micro images include yeast in vinegar — “because that's the living thing that's in the book” — jaggery and kala namak (Indian black salt).

“Jaggery and black salt are two ingredients that are used in India in cooking but I had never seen up-close, microscopic photographs of them in a cookbook or in scientific journals,” says Sharma. “When it comes to cooking, Western food is always used as an example, and I tried to do it from a global approach. My food is neither Western nor is it Eastern, or however you want to define it: It's what it is … (I wanted people to) see science applied to every part of cooking in the world.”

When writing The Flavor Equation, he cross-referenced how different cultures approach flavour, and was intrigued by the similarities and contrasts. Delving into the science of cooking supports one of his primary goals, Sharma adds: To make home cooks feel comfortable in the kitchen by encouraging a deeper understanding of techniques and products. He takes care to develop recipes that work without requiring special elements, but at the same time strives to introduce ingredients that some cooks may be unfamiliar with.

“The way for me to make them accessible is through recipes, and so I hope my work does that. Because I want people to use ingredients that I enjoy, like curry leaves,” says Sharma. “And then if you like it based on the options that are provided in the cookbook, you will try to think about it independently and bring it into your own recipes. The emphasis of my work is always to push the conversation in a different direction.”