Umami Bomb

We've all been there. As 5 o'clock rolls around, we rack our brains thinking of what to serve for dinner. Elevating a meal does not have to be challenging – sometimes simply adding new flavours or trying a different cooking style can easily expand your weeknight dinner repertoire.

Award-winning Canadian chef, Danny St Pierre, recommends trying new trends to spice up your meal routine. “An easy trend to incorporate into your recipes is adding a distinctive finishing 1lavor just before serving. Sour and salt was identified in the 2015 McCormick Flavour Forecast as one of the top trends for this year and it's one I love to use in my cooking because it really helps bring out the flavours in the dish in an unexpected way.”

St Pierre says that combining coarse salt with sour flavours, like pickled ginger, sour cherry or citrus, creates lively finishing flavours that bring brightness and texture to dishes.

“Umami, or the 'fifth taste', is another trend for 2015,” says St Pierre. “It's what makes so many foods taste so good. You might recognize it by the pleasant texture found in ingredients like mushrooms and tomatoes but can be enhanced further with balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, or fish sauce.”