How to balance flavours in cooking

Sweet, salty, bitter, sour and umami – is getting taste right an art or a science?

HEINZ is not the market leader in tomato ketchups for nothing. In his exhaustive New Yorker essay on why no other make can compete for the ketchup crown, Malcolm Gladwell concludes that Heinz’s secret lies in its perfect balance of the five basic tastes: sweet, salty, bitter, sour and umami. Granted, branding is influential, but you don’t shift 650 million bottles each year unless it tastes good. There’s no doubt that a perfect balance of tastes is essential in achieving ultimate deliciousness.