Umami

Cooks everywhere have been using the taste of umami in their food for millennia without even knowing it. From the Roman use of fermented fish sauce to modern French stocks, umami-rich ingredients give their dishes an extra depth and a fuller flavour. However, it is only in the past 100 years that the source of this savouriness has been properly identified as umami, the fifth basic human taste. This is thanks to Professor Kikunae Ikeda of Tokyo Imperial University. Following his discovery in 1908 of the presence of the umami-providing amino acid glutamate (glutamic acid) in kombu, much research has been done into umami substances.