Arielle Johnson is a food scientist whose book, Flavorama, which debuted in March, highlights how to harness flavor science to make delicious food. (Courtesy Nicholas Coleman)
Arielle Johnson might have the ultimate food nerd’s dream job.
With credentials from New York University and UC Davis, the flavor scientist regularly collaborates with the world’s top chefs and mixologists, including Rene Redzepi at the legendary Noma, where she co-founded its Copenhagen fermentation lab. With a foreword by Redzepi and her own illustrations, her book, “Flavorama: A Guide to Unlocking the Art and Science of Flavor” (Harvest, $40), hit bookstores this spring with 320 pages devoted to the science of flavor and its expression via nearly 100 recipes.
We recently connected with her via email from Copenhagen to learn more about her work. Given the time of year — tomato season! — we peppered her with questions to discover what, exactly, makes tomatoes so special.
Q: Tell us about your background as a flavor scientist. What does your day-to-day look like?
A: I (studied) chemistry at NYU, where I did projects on food wherever and however I could, then I went to UC Davis to do a Ph.D. in agricultural and environmental chemistry, where I specialized in flavor chemistry.
My job is great because my day-to-day is never the same. As an academic, it could look like analyzing flavor molecules on the gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer, training or collecting data about flavor sensation with volunteer tasters on a sensory panel, or analyzing data using multivariate statistical models similar to those used in econometrics.
I might be looking through academic papers to find the answer to a flavor question or help develop a new technique. I might be getting my hands dirty doing more tangible food and drink R&D with those ideas, either in a restaurant or for a company. I might be teaching a class of culinary or science students in a guest lecture. Or I might be writing or making illustrations about flavor.
Q: Tell us about your work with Noma! What projects or collaborations are you most proud of?
A: I started working with Noma in 2012, when I more or less talked my way into a summer doing research at their Nordic Food Lab. I did a few collaborative trips like that, then worked there as a full-time employee 2014-2016 where I focused on R&D at the fermentation lab — and, as our first project, literally building the original fermentation lab from shipping containers, begging and borrowing electronics for temperature and humidity control, and on education and outreach through the MAD symposium.
There were plenty of cool products and dishes I played a part in, but I’m really most proud of the functional design of the fermentation lab, the way that created a really special and unique place to walk the line between science and cuisine and the work we did to codify and understand the whole landscape of fermentation techniques at Noma. Doing that was a big inspiration for the ideas that eventually became “Flavorama.”
I kept in touch with Noma after I left. (I moved back to the U.S. because I missed my New York-based boyfriend, now husband, and had a fellowship offer from MIT.) Did some work for projects like MAD (a Noma program) and the fermentation book, then came back on more formally at the beginning of last year to help fuel the fires of innovation with the wild card of a deeper dive into science.
Q: Your new book, “Flavorama,” talks about the art and science of flavor. What’s the one lesson or idea you hope people come away with after reading it?
A: I would say most of all that flavor isn’t an impossible enigma. It’s taste and it’s smell, and the things we do to ingredients change it in predictable ways on a molecular level.
I think science-based work on food can easily veer too far into telling people what’s correct and what they should like. I’m interested in helping people build their intuition and their experience, so they can use it to cook however they want.
Q: In the book, you use the tomato as an example to help explain some of the flavor concepts you write about. What makes tomatoes special or unique in the flavor/culinary world?
A: Well, it’s sort of a cliche that a tomato is technically not a vegetable, it’s a fruit — but then so are eggplants, pumpkins, peppers and anything else with seeds. But as fruits go, tomatoes are surprisingly high in umami, giving them a really savory and satisfying flavor in a fresh and acidic package with a little sweetness and just enough bitterness to give it some gravitas. So it’s a journey through almost all the tastes, in one package, as well as feeling really substantial from all that umami in particular.
Q: Given the season, what are your favorite ways to prepare tomatoes? What flavors go well with them and what should we keep in mind when pairing them with other foods?
A: So, the only taste a tomato doesn’t produce itself is salty—and the best way to finish off a tomato effortlessly is to top it with a little salt.
I also like to build on the familiar combination of tomato and basil to explore and understand other herbs in an easy and delicious way — it’s sensory education that doesn’t feel like work. So tomato and other light and fragrant herbs, like tarragon or shiso, is a really nice way to broaden your culinary knowledge of herb flavors in a low-stakes environment. Or go in a resinous direction and try fresh thyme or marjoram. It’s pretty difficult to mess up!
Q: What’s next for you after Noma closes at the end of the year? Any details you can share about the food lab that’s in the works?
A: Innovation really never stops at Noma — or perhaps they have managed to bring together a team of people, myself included, that literally cannot stop themselves from investigating and trying out new things. So whatever bit of what’s brewing that jumps to the front of the line — we’re ready to attack it.
I have a great working relationship with Kevin Jeung, who’s been doing a ton of innovation in the fermentation lab over the last few years and was actually one of our interns when we were starting the lab back in 2014. And Thomas Frebel, Noma’s creative director, and I also go way back — he was running the test kitchen at that same time and we were even, briefly, housemates — so I’m really excited. It’s a real privilege to be working with them on a constantly evolving slate of projects and questions.
Q: Constant change might make some people anxious, but it sounds like you thrive on that…
A: I think one of the best things about Noma — and one of its greatest strengths creatively — is its willingness to embrace imperfect control, open-endedness and evolution through iteration and improvisation.
It means you don’t necessarily know where you’ll end up when you start something, but since you are confident in your skills and intuition and ability to observe and notice, you know it’s a process that will take you somewhere robust and impactful. And at least in my role, that’s where I’m pleased to see things going as the next phase evolves.
I’m also working on some fun stuff of my own — flavor-driven exploration with friends like Ryan Chetiyawardana at his highly lauded bars in London, like Lyaness and Seed Library, and Victoria Blamey at Blanca in New York, as well as some cool collaborations with food and drink companies that will be more public-facing over the next year.
Originally published at Kate Bradshaw