Overview

Taste has long been considered the most basic of the five senses because its principal mission is a simple one: to discern food from everything else. Taste is a whole-body experience, and breakthroughs in genetics and microbiology are casting light not just on the experience of french fries and foie gras but the mysterious interplay of body and brain. Tasty explains the scientific research taking place on multiple fronts: how genes shape our tastes, how the mind assembles flavors from the five senses and signals from the body's metabolic systems, why something disgusts one person and delights another, and what today's obsessions with extreme tastes tell us about the brain. Brilliantly synthesizing science, ancient myth, philosophy, and literature, Tasty offers a delicious smorgasbord of where taste originated and where it's going--and why it changes by the day.

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Reviews

"McQuaid is an enthusiastic writer undisturbed by dead ends, and he provides an entertaining exploration of 'the mystery at the heart of flavor, ' which 'has never truly been cracked.'-- ""Kirkus"" ""[A] thoroughly investigated work...McQuaid unpacks with appealing gusto the reasons for the wide variety of human reactions to taste."" -- ""Booklist"" ""A fascinating blend of culinary history and the science of taste."" -- ""Publishers Weekly (starred review)"" ""A fascinating story with a beginning some half a billion years ago...McQuaid's tale is about science but also about culture, history and, one senses, our future."" -- ""Scientific American"" ""An excellent and absorbing investigation into the origin and nature of taste...[McQuaid] distills and presents in lively and entertaining prose a dizzying amount of scientific and cultural research throughout."" -- ""Boston Globe"" ""An exploration of taste in all its complexity and contradiction...McQuaid is a deft writer with a talent for vivid metaphors."" -- ""Business Week"" ""Narrator Tom Perkins' delectable performance highlights the multiple aspects of taste. Moving the listener fluidly through this detailed examination...Perkins conveys reports on scientific studies in a clear voice coupled with precise diction. To keep things entertaining, he even delivers individual voices for some of the experiments' subjects. Navigating the dynamic text with credible accents and well-timed inflections, Perkins brings out the elusive and surprising qualities of taste and how they relate to the range of human emotion."" -- ""AudioFile"" ""Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist McQuaid offers up with gusto this fascinating and meticulously researched consideration of flavor and the sense of taste...Tasty is an appetizing and satisfying chronicle of what we know of taste, so far. An excellent (and relatively agenda-neutral) choice for those who enjoy Michael Pollan and Gary Paul Nabhan."" -- ""Library Journal"""

Author Information

John McQuaid's journalism has appeared in Smithsonian magazine, the Washington Post, Wired, forbes.com, and EatingWell magazine. His science and environment reporting for The Times-Picayune anticipated Hurricane Katrina, explored the global fisheries crisis, and divulged the problems of invasive species. His work has won a Pulitzer Prize, as well as awards from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Institute for Biological Sciences, and the International Association of Culinary Professionals. John is a graduate of Yale. He lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, with his wife and two children. Tom Perkins, an award-winning audio engineer for over forty years, has expanded his skills to narrating and has earned an AudioFile Earphones Award. He learned by working with the world's best voice talent during his career, and he continues to engineer a variety of projects.

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