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Rev up flavor to create kitchen success

Photo by Michelle Baker

These roasted vegetables touch on the five basic tastes that chefs target in composing their dishes.

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By GREG and MICHELLE BAKER

Tribune correspondents

Published: July 2, 2009

We're going to let you in on a secret - a big one: how chefs make food taste good.

Sure, there's technique and experience involved, but there's a key that even a novice can put to use right now.

Let's take a really simple dish, like maybe some roasted vegetables, and break down how a chef would put it together.

In general, there are five tastes: savory, sweet, salt, bitter and tart. OK, that's really oversimplifying things, because scientists have identified 21 taste receptors for bitterness alone in the human tongue, but we'll stick with the basic five for brevity. What a chef tries to do in composing a dish is to hit on as many of the flavor elements as possible, which makes the tongue - and by proxy, you - happy to eat that dish.

Back to the roasted vegetables. First, why roast them? Roasting intensifies the natural savory flavors of the vegetables and browns them a bit. That browning is the natural sugars in the veggies turning to caramel, which of course is sweet.

Some herb would also add to the savory element, so how about some thyme? It's earthy, but not too strong. Then of course we need some salt (it's not a bad thing, we use it with great abandon) to accent both the savory and the sweet elements and hit on - wait for it - another flavor element.

We toss our vegetables together with salt, thyme, and maybe some nice, fruity olive oil and roast them. Great as is, but why not look at adding another layer of flavor? Maybe tart?

Adding lemon juice before roasting adds a citrus element, but the tartness will dissipate as the lemon juice cooks. Not to mention, the addition of liquid to the equation at this point will prevent the sugars from browning.

Add that juice after cooking for a bright punch of acidity that accentuates the other three elements and ultimately stimulates more flavor receptors, making the taste buds, and their owner, even happier.

The next time you're cooking and find your dish just doesn't have any oomph to it, step back and think about how many flavor cylinders you're hitting on. One or two - kinda boring. Three or more - now you've got a party.

ROASTED VEGETABLES

1 sweet potato, peeled

4 carrots, peeled

1 red pepper

1 red onion

1 fennel bulb

1 teaspoon fresh thyme

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 lemon, juiced

Kosher or sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Chop all of the vegetables into pieces that are about the same size and place in a bowl. Add the olive oil and fresh thyme, season with salt and pepper and toss well.

Spread the vegetables into an even layer on a baking sheet and place in a preheated 400 degree oven for 25 to 30 minutes, until they're tender, but still firm.

Remove the vegetables from the oven, allow them to cool for 4 to 5 minutes, drizzle with lemon juice, and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Makes 4 servings

Visit the Sherpas at www.cooksncompany.com and www.culinarysherpas.com.

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