A table with various dishes including a slice of cheesecake with cream sauce, a pan-fried fish fillet, a bowl of spaghetti with meat sauce, a bowl of seasoned rice, and a plate of fried chicken wings with dipping sauces. There is also a lemon cocktail, a glass of red wine, and a person opening a bottle of wine.

Taste.

Systems Intelligence applied to gastronomy.

An ode to understanding through flavor

AI-generated image using Gemini. See the prompt here.

Flavor carries information about chemistry, culture, time, geography, technique, and memory.

It’s not just about what tastes good,
but why it feels right when it does.

I grew up watching food the way some people watch sports.

SisiYemmieTV, Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, Top Chef, MasterChef, Mark Wiens, Drink Masters, Chopped, and (more recently) Culinary Class Wars

Each taught me something beyond taste itself.

My mom never liked eating the same thing twice.
Her kitchen was an ongoing experiment in flavor: new ingredients, new methods, new moods.

That curiosity rubbed off on me.
I became drawn to dishes, techniques, and traditions from around the world.

Hosting dinner parties, taking cooking classes, visiting restaurants,
eventually starting Muno the Gastronomist (IG & TK) to document what I was learning.

The more I paid attention,
the more I realized: taste is a perceptual system;
a feedback loop between body, memory, and environment.

Every bite is data.
Every flavor is a form of memory.

When you understand flavor as information,
eating becomes a form of intelligence.

Systems intelligence begins in curiosity; the willingness to taste before you define.
To sense how ingredients, memory, and culture interact is to understand feedback through flavor.

How Taste Connects to the Other 7

SCENT → Aroma is a large part of flavor.

TOUCH → Texture matters. Crunch, creaminess.

SIGHT → Plating directs attention. “Aesthetics”

SOUND → Changes the experience of the taste.

SPACE → Where you eat shapes what you perceive.

TIME → Aging, pace of a meal, season of ingredients.

SYSTEM → Supply chains, farming methods, traditions.

Where Taste Becomes Experience

These aren't sponsorships, just examples:

Restaurants & Chefs:

  • Cranes (Washington DC)

  • L’effervescence (Tokyo Japan)

  • Pusadee's Garden (Pittsburgh PA)

Wine & Beverage:

  • Local/regional wine makers

  • Vivino

  • Empirical Spirits

Learning & Media:

  • Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat

  • Next Gen Chef

  • Hudson Table (New York)