How should i start a course ?

What is the best way to start a course ? Which taste should you start with ? What stimulates the apetite(sweet,sour,fatty,dcrispy etc..)) ? Is it any rule of thumb or it strongly depends on what comes next ? Is there any taste psychology book ?

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Afonso_Tito_de_Morais_164825

Chefsteps has a few classes on how to design a dish and building a multi-course dinner, check it out! It's not set in stone, but it's a good guideline to start, but it really depends on where you wanna go with it.

tshewman

Chef's choice. Some prefer a cleanser, some something simple and clean (eg consomme), some a powerful wake up. Is your goal to grab the diner, ease them into the meal? Only you can answer that question.

ejf12009

Good question, and one I'm wondering about as well! I'm doing a dinner party tomorrow that will start with some plated play on the gin and tonic. Cucumber planks compressed in gin, maybe a little gin gel but not much? Mango sphere? Lime fluid gel? The thought is that it's not heavy and fatty but the strong flavors of citrus and gin wake up the palate. Fingers crossed.

If anyone reads this in the next day: will lime work with kelcogel LT100 or is it too acidic? The Khymos hydrocolloid guide suggests that lime juice with a bit of dilution is right on the edge of too acidic.

Brendan_Lee_56950

Aside from taste there is the practicality of the opening course. If you start with something that is not temperature dependent you can plate ahead and buy yourself time later in the meal. I tend to like to start with something acidic that doesn't need to be warm and won't destroy someone's palate for the rest of the meal.

Too fatty and it lingers into the next course, too spicy and you have a burned out palate, too sweet and it can throw off what you crave next.

Padurescu_Vlad_49119

So the whole idea is : start however you want. It's enough to avoid overwhelming the real attraction . But scientifically ? The acidic opens up the palate right ?

Brendan_Lee_56950

Well it will definitely generate a larger salivary response which is probably a good thing to start a meal. You also have to remember this can all be ruined by what someone is drinking too.

Padurescu_Vlad_49119

You talk here about the wine pairing ?