How to Train Your Palate: Tasting Schools and Lessons

Take your palate to school: special academies take courses that help you train and develop your sense of taste.

A piece of 70% cocoa chocolate can hide up to 400 different flavours within it, and in order to taste most or all of them you have to keep it in your mouth for 40 minutes. But even a French baguette, in the sound it makes when broken, can hide a subtle appeal, inviting us to enjoy its smell and taste.

Special academies exist where you can learn how to recognize the tastes of the world’s various cuisines, and take courses that help you train and develop your palate. In London, the Academy of Culinary Arts also organizes courses for children, while in the United States the American Masters of Taste organization runs many programs throughout the USA.

In Montmartre, Paris, a cooking school teaches students to recognize ingredients by taking them shopping at the market, while all over the world the best chefs and restaurants organize tastings aimed at teaching you to recognize the secret ingredients used in their dishes.

But the best way to educate your palate – all chefs agree – is to practice at home in your own kitchen.

Photo courtesy of Academy of Culinary Arts