Learning to enjoy: How to become a gourmet

We smell more than we taste. 80 percent of the flavor of our food we take on the nose. For a cold, everything tastes the same. The rest of the work is done by the taste buds of the tongue. They tell the brain if something is sour, sweet, salty, bitter or aromatic / savory (umami).

The bad news: The ability to taste decreases with age. While infants still have 10,000 taste buds on their tongue, adults have an average of only 2,000. Over-flavoring in many finished products has made it increasingly difficult for us to distinguish between tastes. Our taste buds dull. The good: You can train it - and that's fun too.

Buy with all your senses

Take a stroll through the weekly market and let the impressions affect you. Look at the colorful stalls selling fruit and vegetables, smell the scent of wood-fired bread and fresh herbs, taste the ripe fruit and try the cheese and sausage stand.

Nowhere do you get the appetite for fresh, seasonal foods from the region and appreciate the value of good food.

Browse cookbooks or food blogs

Cookbooks are a treasure trove for connoisseurs. It is not necessarily about cooking the recipes in 1: 1. Rather, consider cookbooks as sources of inspiration - for unusual combinations of different ingredients and new cooking ideas. Treat yourself to one of the more expensive specimens with high-quality binding and opulent food photography: leaves your appetite.

Learn to taste

Avoid prepared meals with flavor enhancers and flavors. Concentrate on tasting only on more intense stimuli such as cinnamon or star anise. Later, you can switch to finer notes.

Be curious

Dare to try new dishes. Nothing against Mama's delicious roast pork, which you can continue to taste. You should still try dishes that you do not yet know - even those that you may need to overcome, such as shells or eels. You'll be surprised what goodies you've missed so far.

Let yourself be invited to dinner

Someone in your circle of acquaintances will certainly know a trick for crispy fried potatoes or has brought an exotic spice mixture from the last vacation. If you cook together with others or invite yourself to dinner, you will be able to broaden your culinary horizons - and spend some beautiful evenings, because it's never easy to get into a conversation as with food.

You have a girlfriend from the Czech Republic or a colleague from Turkey? Wonderful! Take the chance to get to know dishes from their home country.

Compare

Packaged cheese from the discounter or fresh cheese from the market? Natural yoghurt mixed with fresh fruits or fruit yoghurt from the supermarket? What tastes better?

Be prepared for surprises: many of us have become accustomed - without being aware of it - to flavor enhancers and too much salt and sugar. The result: Maybe you like the industrial product better than the homemade dish and the packaged product better than the fresh.

Try and compare - sometimes as blind tasting. And try to describe the taste and the differences.

Take your time to eat

You're already thinking about the next meeting and only have twenty minutes for a quick lunch break? Then you should rather tolerate that with the enjoyment. The senses need time to develop.

Do not be distracted

Especially singles like to devote their attention while eating to the TV or the newspaper. That distracts from the essential, as well as conversations.

Jürgen Dollase, author of the pleasure guide "Taste School", writes: "Egomaniacs who talk wildly at table, you could feed with dog biscuits, without them noticing!"

So: concentrate on the food!

Forget about taboos

You want to lose weight and therefore refrain from good food? Not necessary! Enjoyment has nothing to do with gluttony. It's about conscious food. And that is not only allowed, but even a must when losing weight or eating disorders. Who consciously enjoys eats slower and is therefore fed up with smaller portions.

do you travel

Traveling forms - of course, this also applies to food. Nowhere else can you get to know the kitchens of other countries as unadulterated as locally. Of course, this does not happen if you only spend your holidays on fast-food chains or in restaurants whose menus show the dishes with a photo.

Eat in Thai food stalls, Italian taverns and Danish hot dog stalls.Visit the market on the spot, stroll through side streets and discover the small pubs where the locals stop off. And if someone invites you to dine at home, do not miss this opportunity.