Exit Interview

Content
(1) Essential Question, answers, and best answer.

• EQ: What is the most effective way for a culinary artist to enhance the flavor of a dish?

• Answer 1: The most effective way for a culinary artist to enhance to flavor of a dish is by multiple tastes perceived by the human tongue.

• Answer 2: The most effective way for a culinary artist to enhance to flavor of a dish is to utilize all natural ingredients.

• Answer 3: The most effective way for a culinary artist to enhance the flavor of a dish is to use salt and proper seasoning while cooking.

• Best Answer: Answer 3, because: it is the only answer that, once explained, includes multiple senses, which inherently goes best with my definition of flavor; all but one of the cooks and chefs I have asked came to the same conclusion without my help; salt is universally agreed to be a "flavor enhancer."

(2) Arriving at my answer

I thought of all of these answers at one point or another between finalizing my essential question and February. I often went back and forth between wanting to use any of these answers, or picking a few others I'd come up with along the way. I also kept changing which was my best answer. I believe it went something like.. "My answer 1 sucks... No, I love it, it's my best!..actually, I think salt is the answer, but I don't have enough support... You know what? I think Answer 2 is my best answer! It all makes sense!... No, Answer 1 for sure... No, Answer 3, that's it. That's definitely it." This took place over the course of about four and half months. At a couple of points I got really stressed out. I felt like I had so much supposrt for my Answer 1, and after having my Finding 1 peer edited, I realized my first answer was probably the least developed

(3) Problems
I feel like my biggest problems were research based. I've wanted salt to be one of my answers for six months, but never could find the proper research to support this. It seemed more philosophy than science. Then I expanded salt to include seasoning and looked through past research. It seemed every book I'd read had said one thing or another about salt, pepper and seasoning, even if it was just in passing. I used these little notes as my base for creating the answer, then started researching more deeply to find specifics. I ended up with multiple books on how herbs and spices work, and why they add flavor. Also, in looking up my first answer, I found many examples of how salt can help a meal. It was clear that even though salty is a taste, salt is something independent of that. In this way, the two answers are related.

(4)
Dornenburg, Andrew, Karen Page. The Flavor Bible. New York: Little Brown and Company, 2008. Print.
McGee, Harold. On Cooking and Food. New York: Scribner, 2004. Print. pgs. 397-399

The Flavor Bible is one of my most important sources because it helped me develop my question and helped me decide on all three answers, in some way at least. It has become my Bible.
On Cooking and Food helped me realize my idea for a third answer was plausible; it gave me scientific explanation as to how it would be possible for seasoning to truly affect a meal. Without this book, I don't think my third answer would've been my best answer.