Launch of Terroir Plus

Many people have asked three basic questions that are factors in how certain foods taste:

• What components and/or ingredients make a food or dish [insert attribute of food or dish here, such as “taste sweet”, “have a pungent smell”, etc.]?

• When do you make a food or dish so that it [insert attribute of food or dish here]?

• How should you create a food or dish so that it [insert attribute of food or dish here]?

Often what gets missed is:

• Who are you making the food or dish for, and how will that affect how the eater perceives or does not perceive [insert attribute of food or dish here]?

• Why are you making the food or dish, how does that affect how your emotions and therefore your energy and stress levels, and finally how does that affect your performance in the kitchen and therefore [insert attribute of food or dish here]?

• Where is the food or dish made, and how do the physical and cultural factors of the environment surrounding the sources of each and every component and/or ingredient of the given food or dish affect the [insert attribute of food or dish here]?

If we were to be given a theoretical formula for each of these six questions for all possible attributes of a given food or dish, we would quite possibly have a “theory of everything” for that food or dish. You could customize it however you want it; it would be an artisanal food maker's wet dream.

I can't pretend to answer the “who” question, as I'm not a sociologist. I'm no psychology expert, so I can't pretend to know anything about the “why” question either. However, I am a geographer. Therefore, in the new section on this blog known as “Terroir Plus”, I plan on helping to understand the “where” question listed above.

Stay tuned for the first content-based post in this new section, which will be about using the concept of terroir to make the claim that honey has far more potential variations than any other food commodity imaginable. Until then, later!