Want Tasty Food, DIY Buddy? Why we cannot make Food more Tastier?

Food and drinks have been a primordial habit with us? And, after we are weaned of ‘mothers’ milk, it is as ‘Sadguru’ would put it ‘What goes into us come from the mother earth (including the five basic elements – water, fire, air, aakash (ether) and will after a certain period of time return to earth.’ While the basic philosophy and dogmas related to it can be questioned and argued, the, basic question remains as to why some food🍲 is tastier than others. So, here I am going to argue purely from an operational point of view as to what are variables involved and how many different permutations are possible, and, is it possible to make the best (tastiest) food?

Let us see (stereotypes) – Food made by mother always tastes best, Grandmas make the best savories, pickles, jams, marmalades; Wines think French, and, whiskeys, brandys from England etc. etc. Today I will take just one of these stereotypes and leave my readers to contribute the rest and maybe peace will prevail. So here we begin….With basic ingredients for a basic disk, vegetable stew – (Hope all of us can relate)…..The numbers at the end relate how many possible methods/ options are possible….

Sl. No.	Activity in Cooking	Number of ways to do the same
1	Raw Vegetable/ Other veg ingredients	5
2	Method of slicing/ Dicing/ Cutting	2
3	Way of cooking – Sauté, Deep Fry, Micro, Bake, Grill	5
4	Water added (at which stage, how much, how frequently)	2
5	Spices (number, types, powder or whole)	3
6	Temperature (High, Low, Constant, Variation throughout etc.)	3
7	Medium of cooking (Oil, Water, Steam etc.)	3
8	Medium of heating (Gas, Microwave, Induction, Barbeque etc.)	4
9	Serving (Hot, Cold, Garnishing, Vessel etc.)	3
10	Accompanied by Sauce/ Wine/ Dips/ Chutney etc.	3
11	Taste and background of the eater (Native, First time, Culture etc.)	2
12	Ambience (Formal Dining, Non formal setting, Snacking etc.)­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­	2
13	Way of – (bare hands, fine dining, limited cutlery etc.)	2
14	Popular Culture and acceptability (Many combinations)	3

We’ve just identified and mentioned numbers in a conservative way- one may add or modify any/ all of these variables.

Now, the combination of these will give us (5 x 2 x 5 x 2 x 3 x………x 3 =) 2,332,800 ways…..AND ONLY ONE METHOD OF IT IS GOING TO GIVE THE RIGHT/ DESIRED TASTE….

So, the Probability of getting it right is = 1/ 2,332,800= 4.287 x 10-7or 0.0000004287 or it you make the dish 2,332800 or 2.3 million times there is only once that you can get it correctly (probably once in a life time). So that is why professional chefs or multi chain outlets standardize things so this probability goes up and you can guarantee the same taste more often (like it or not?).

So, chefs of the world, TAKE HEART, no one is perfect including your Mother-in-Law, or the PYT who has just moved into your neighborhood.

As consumers we have to DEVELOP THE TASTE, or, Learn to Like it!!! So, kudos to all the non-professional chefs (you tubers included)… YOU ARE DOING A GREAT JOB…

(Looking forward to your comments and appreciation for the one who’s doing the cooking for you, and, we are not even talking of complex recipes yet)…Bye, for now…

SEE YOU AGAIN!!!