Flavour

Cooking is the art of capturing flavours. But we must decide which flavours. Classic cuisine is always distinguished by the use of natural ingredients which leave an aftertaste. Lower orders of cooking rely much more on seasoning, while the cheapest kind of cooking is just a mixture of seasonings. A true flavour can be savoured and mulled over. Because it is composed of natural ingredients, whose make-up is too complex to re-create, all we can do is learn how to handle it. Counterfeit flavours are mixtures of seasoning. A mixture of six seasonings has so many tastes, no more. It arrives suddenly, shows its origins too clearly, and leaves abruptly. One cannot praise these superficial and transient flavours; though they appear so often.