BBC Learnings · Section 1

Meet the flavourists

In this programme, we're finding out all about food flavours. Although everyone knows what food they like the taste of,

Level: B1 · 103 sentences

Transcript

  1. In this programme, we're finding out all about food flavours.
  2. Although everyone knows what food they like the taste of,
  3. the science behind flavours is complex.
  4. Flavour involves much more than tasting with the tongue.
  5. It's also influenced by how food looks,
  6. smells and even how it's described.
  7. In this programme, we'll be meeting the flavourists,
  8. scientists who combine different natural and artificial ingredients
  9. to create the flavours we love to taste in our food.
  10. And of course, we'll be learning some new vocabulary as well.
  11. Sounds delicious, Neil, but first I have a question for you.
  12. No-one really knows why, but certain flavours seem to work well together.
  13. Some scientists think classic combinations like lemon and lime
  14. or strawberries and cream are so popular
  15. because their chemicals overlap in special ways.
  16. Sometimes this creates new, interesting and unusual flavours.
  17. So what weirdly popular combination was invented by British chef Heston Blumenthal?
  18. Was it A, dark chocolate and sea salt, B,
  19. milk chocolate and chilli or C, white chocolate and caviar?
  20. Well, I've tried sea salt and chocolate.
  21. I think it tastes great, so I'll say A. OK, Neil.
  22. I'll reveal the correct answer at the end of the programme.
  23. Nowadays, the flavour industry is big business.
  24. Flavourists work in high-tech laboratories and every new ice cream,
  25. crisp or toothpaste flavour is the result of years of scientific research.
  26. But it wasn't always like that.
  27. Here's food historian Dr Nadia Berenstein
  28. describing the beginnings of the flavour industry
  29. in the 19th century to Ruth Alexander,
  30. presenter of the BBC World Service programme, The Food Chain.
  31. There's really only a handful of people
  32. and maybe a dozen or so companies that are really involved.
  33. And at that point,
  34. they really are kind of working with secret recipes
  35. that were kept very secure and sometimes passed down
  36. within families from father to son.
  37. So it really seemed like a guild structure from the Middle Ages
  38. at that point.
  39. Was it seen as some kind of dark art?
  40. Yes, the term black art does come up
  41. in some of the early writing
  42. of people who were producing flavours at this point.
  43. To begin with, there were only around a dozen,
  44. that's 12, companies experimenting with food flavours.
  45. The recipes they used were kept secret
  46. and only shared with family or trusted friends.
  47. Dr Berenstein compares these companies to a guild.
  48. An organisation of people who do the same job
  49. or have the same interests.
  50. Because it was so secretive and mysterious,
  51. people saw making flavours as a dark art
  52. a method of achieving something in a clever
  53. but dishonest or wicked way.
  54. But all this changed after the Second World War,
  55. when the invention of processed food,
  56. which could be bought in supermarkets
  57. and kept fresh at home in the fridge,
  58. increased the demand for new and exciting flavours.
  59. Here's Dr Berenstein again explaining the work of present day flavourists
  60. to BBC World Service programme, The Food Chain.
  61. So essentially becoming a flavourist today is still an apprenticeship process.
  62. There's no academic path to it, right?
  63. Your training is on the job working alongside
  64. a master flavourist at a flavour and fragrance company
  65. or at some of the bigger
  66. food companies will have their own flavour divisions.
  67. It's a scientific profession for sure.
  68. You have to know a lot about chemistry,
  69. but it is a creative profession.
  70. At the very heart of this industrial food system,
  71. there's these craft artisans who are essentially designing molecule by molecule
  72. the flavors that shape the way that food is made to taste.
  73. Today's flavourists learn their art by serving an apprenticeship
  74. a period of time spent working for a skilled master,
  75. often for low payment, in order to learn their skills.
  76. Although a background in chemistry is important,
  77. you can't study flavours at university the training happens on the job,
  78. at your place of work, while you are working.
  79. Dr Berenstein calls flavourists craft artisans.
  80. People doing skilled work with their hands.
  81. And she describes their creations as the marriage of science and art.
  82. Yes, I love the idea of the flavourist as a magician,
  83. adding a pinch of this flavour
  84. or a drop of that oil to create the perfect, magical taste.
  85. I wonder if that's what British chef Heston Blumenthal was trying to do.
  86. In my question I asked what popular flavour combination was invented by chef Heston Blumenthal?
  87. And I said it was a dark chocolate and sea salt.
  88. So was I right?
  89. It's true that sweet and salty flavours go together well,
  90. but the correct answer was white chocolate and caviar
  91. a combination described by Swiss master flavourist Francois Benzi
  92. as weird but wonderful.
  93. Right, let's recap the vocabulary we've learned,
  94. starting with a dozen, which means twelve.
  95. Something described as a dark art
  96. refers to a method of achieving something in a clever
  97. but dishonest way.
  98. A guild is an organisation of people who do the same job.
  99. An apprenticeship is the period of time an apprentice spends watching
  100. and working with a skilled master in order to learn their skills.
  101. When you do something on the job,
  102. it happens in the workplace while you're working.
  103. And finally, an artisan is a person doing skilled work with their hands.