Bite: Flavours and their impressions

While the title, A Taste of Molecules, may sound technical or overly scientific, it is in fact a very pleasant and easy read filled with anecdotes from the author’s youth, her travels and her relationships with food as well as people. It’s the story of how she followed the journey of a young Brussels beekeeper as he tried to give mead a taste makeover with the help of a food scientist.

From a foodie perspective, however, the book is much more than that. It’s an introduction to some fascinating local experts and their secrets, such as the Au Vatel bakery in Etterbeek and Brussels’ best places for slow food and dining in the dark. At the end there are a handful of recipes, including hop shoots from Hommelhof restaurant in Watou and sabayon made with Musa Lova, a banana liqueur from Leuven developed with the director of Leuven University’s in vitro banana species collection (the largest in the world).

A theme throughout the book is not only the science behind flavours but how flavours have the power to provoke memory. Once, while tasting a particularly malty beer at family brewery De Ryck in East Flanders, Fresquez is reminded of malted milk balls, a favourite sweet from her childhood. “Our favourite foods from childhood are accompanied by colourful back stories, are as personal as a fingerprint,” she writes, “and are introduced to us at a time when we are as impressionable as bread dough.”

Fresquez continues in this nostalgic spirit throughout the 210-page book, conjuring up images of warm family dinners, long hours spent gathered around the table and, of course, scrumptious dishes. Just in time for the holidays, I’d say.

www.tasteofmolecules.com