Umami

[FoodZealot]

Chef, thank you for participating.

Would you please discuss your ideas about umami in your cooking? Do you consider it as a separate "vector" when designing dishes? Or merely incidental to the process?

~Tad

[Ferran Adrià]

Tad, umami is something that I haven't mastered and I would like someone to explain it thoroughly to me. Candidly speaking, I believe that for someone with Occidental background it’s hard to understand what umami is.

To me, right now it's just salted, so that's why I'd like some day to discuss it at some length with someone knowledgeable about it.