Your Kitchen Is Your Laboratory

Think of your kitchen as a lab. But unlike a pristine and sterile medical lab, your kitchen lab is a place to play and experiment, often with tasty outcomes. It’s where you can develop a deeper understanding of the ingredients and spices that go into your food.

It’s important to understand your spices and other ingredients before you incorporate them into your cooking. The best way I know to do this is to jump right in. Smell the spice (or ingredient), and taste it. Decide whether it has salty, sour, sweet, bitter, or savory notes. See whether it also produces a cooling or warming sensation. Some foods even evoke pleasant or unpleasant emotions or memories. Whenever I smell freshly grated coconut, I think of the sweet coconut cakes of my childhood.