Aroma in Cooking

In Bombay, every Saturday I’d go with my dad to the market near our home. Spectacular displays of fresh fruits and vegetables in various shapes and colors would be arranged in wicker baskets or wooden crates in stalls, while patrons like my dad haggled and bargained with the sellers for the best price possible (a skill I’ve yet to develop). But even before the bargaining began, my dad would pick up the vegetables he wanted to purchase, carefully inspect them for any physical damage, and bring them close to his nose and smell them. Anything that smelled funky, he’d put back. This was my first important lesson in understanding the importance of aroma: It could be used as a measure of quality to decide what was good to buy or not.