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The light, butter rich, flaky pie crust that your mother made without effort; the deep, intoxicating smell of an Italian grandmother’s Bolognese sauce that simmered for hours on the back-burner in preparation for Sunday dinner; the aroma of a steak dripping fat on the coals of your dad’s bar-b-que or the first wood-fired pizza you bit into realizing that this is how pizza was meant to be; a late September – first pick MacIntosh apple that bites in chucks of sweet and sour and drips down your chin with its incredible nectar or an early summer fresh-picked strawberry that is hard to describe; a slice of artisan sourdough bread – fresh from the oven with its chewy crust and aromatic, nutty textured interior slathered with salty butter or perfectly roasted chicken with crispy skin and moist, full flavored meat from the breast and thighs; this is what flavor memories are built on. We all have them and oftentimes take them for granted but in our subconscious, we never forget them. The thought of them reminds us of family, friends, gathering around the table, sitting on a rock in the middle of an apple orchard, waiting for treats from the oven, or watching an honest cook practice a craft bursting with tradition passed down from generations before. These memories are important, cherished, and real – even more so to those of us who chose to cook as a career.

These memories are often the reason why a cook aspires to become a chef, and a chef, dreams of becoming a restaurateur. We want to relish and re-create these flavor memories for others to enjoy. These memories represent our journey through life and the people who have touched us through food. It’s interesting that so many chefs remember points in time, places, friendships, and events through food and the memories that it has framed. As chefs we are on a quest to define, perfect, and present these memories and create new ones. The food on our menus may not read like the food that is so vividly portrayed in our minds, but it will always be designed to help the guest and the cook think, see, smell, touch, and taste those moments in time when a food created a lasting impression. We all want diners to walk from the table, forever changed and moved by a flavor that is impossible to forget.

“Flavor is not actually in food; any more than redness is in a rose or yellow in the sun. It is a fabrication of our brains and for each taste we create a mental ‘flavor image’, in the same way that we develop a memory bank of the faces of people we know. The difference is that whereas faces fade when you haven’t seen them in a while, flavors and smells have a way of lodging themselves in indelibly.”
― Bee Wilson, First Bite: How We Learn to Eat

Chefs know that this flavor cannot be easily created or re-created – there are so many moving parts. Flavor is comprised of aromas, textures, tastes, visual presentations, and context. The exact same recipe and procedure, impeccable attention to every detail and total focus may not lead to a pie crust as delicate and flaky as your mother’s. That memory may only be possible through the hands of your mother; where she was at the time, how she felt, and the connections that you had to her. It may not be possible to re-create that, but the chef will always try. This is the quest. This is what drives the chef to constantly improve, assess, taste, try, and try again. Flavor memory is built around the whole package of senses. Memory is both tactile and surreal – some of it easy to define and build while much of it is nearly impossible to figure out.

When a guest is seated and begins to study a menu, he or she is becoming one with the story of the chef’s life and one with the flavor memories that are imbedded in the chef’s subconscious mind. There is a vision that drove the construct of the menu and its dishes and an expectation that each guest has – anticipation of wow! Sometimes the planets are aligned, and it works, other times, a hard to define component is missing and the dish fails to meet expectations. Back to the drawing board – the chef must re-visit the memories and pick it apart one more time – looking for the key to unlock the secret of memorable flavor.

What is most challenging to the chef is not recall – the memory is quite vivid. It is the execution that fails, and execution depends on others to understand how the chef’s memory can translate to the plate.  You see, if the line cook, the vendor providing the supplies, the baker or pastry chef, or the service staff in the dining room do not have the same flavor memories as the chef, it will be impossible to bring that experience to the guest. But the chef and the staff will try and try again – working towards that flavor outcome.

You see, when the restaurant experience is designed to be more than preparation and delivery; when all parties are united in trying to build special moments, then something magical can occur. When the experience is an accumulation of flavor memories and the execution is built on embracing all the components, then a good restaurant becomes a great restaurant, and the guest is left with an indelible impression that will remain a part of who they are – forever. This is the chef’s quest.

“The place where you eat is as important as the meal itself! Everything you add to something beautiful makes it even more beautiful! Add a nice place to a nice meal, add music, add candles, add poems, the flavor of that meal will constantly increase!”
― Mehmet Murat ildan

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