There's a lot of chemistry that goes into how and what we taste.

There's some aroma compounds in bell peppers and sulfur compounds and wine and garlic that we're almost

ridiculously sensitive to. It's Tuesday March 19th and would you look at that?

Today is science Friday.

I'm Cyfry producer Kathleen Davis.

Flavor is arguably the most important part of a meal.

If the flavor of something is off or undetectable, it can jeopardize your enjoyment.

There's so much science that goes on behind our sense of taste.

Flavor scientist Ari L Johnson knows all about this and she wrote a book

Flavorama unlocking the art and science of flavor. She joins Ira Flato to talk about it.

You're quite a resume I I mean, you have a PhD in flavor chemistry.

You've worked at some of the best restaurants in the world,

including Noma in Copenhagen, that is something.

How did you get interested in the chemistry behind flavor?

Well, I was always like pretty interested in science generally

and you know pretty interested in food and I guess eventually well I was in high

school for Ron Adria the chef at El Blee which was like a super influential experimental Spanish restaurant.

So he was on the cover of the New York Times magazine and he was like holding this like little

container of like carrot foam and I was like what is that and it was a whole article about how like they were they were using you know a sort of scientific

understanding of food to make insane novel

completely out there cuisine and I was like I'll clear that's that's what I need to

be doing. Yeah well that's what I want to get into you being a chemist and a flavor specialist I want to

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