Cognitizing taste

I work with a gal who is quite adept at talking about food. Discussing the culinary arts is one of my favorite pastimes, except of course on the occasions when I skip breakfast. On those days such a conversation feels like a strange mix between enlightenment and torture (which combination as it turns out feels alot like eating shredded wheat). We were discussing recipes one morning when I had a glorious realization.

Great cooks/chefs/bakers/etc. have the uncanny ability to 'cognitize' tastes. Much like a good photographer knows what the shot will look like before actually taking a picture, these marvels of culinary kind can accurately think what the taste will be like before the food is finished or even sometimes before being prepared. They are able to envision amazing things, like what two flavours will do when they meet each other in a stew. They seem to be able to predict the difference one ingredient will make in the food without having to give it an entire test run first. I submit this is a great ability nigh unto super-human.

Many people can't do this very well if at all. For example, I have a sister. She loves to eat yummy food. She also likes to cook the yummy food. The problem is that she only likes to cook the yummy food only when she is absolutely sure that it will turn out yummy. Thus, she lives and dies by recipes. I told her once about a fabulous chicken/rice dish my old roommates and I used to make (which we affectionately called Vomit) and how tasty it was. She calls me up later that month, really excited for a new cooking adventure, and asks me what the recipe is for Vomit. I responded by listing off

• Chicken
  
• Tomato Sauce
• Salsa
  
• Cream Cheese
• Onions
• and on and on down the list...
  

She was appalled. "But HOW MUCH of all of that do you put in?" she immediately pressed. Came my unhelpful reply, "I don't know, just whatever you feel like until it suits you." Needless to say, she didn't try out our Vomit 'recipe' that weekend. Why? Because she just can't cognitze tastes!

Others in the world can cognitize tastes quite well however. I'm sure you know one or two in your life. Treat them well. Or if you aren't opposed to breaking one of the Ten Commandments, worship them even. They may at some point bestow upon you a scrap of food that falls from their mythical dinner table, or give you a slice of dessert that slightly fails to meet their omniscient gourmet standards. I guarantee you such an experience will be way better than eating shredded wheat.