Close your eyes and think of the most satisfying meal you’ve ever had. Maybe it was a perfectly aged steak. A rich, slow-cooked stew. A slice of ripe tomato with sea salt. What is it that makes certain foods feel so deeply satisfying — so complete?

The answer lies in a taste you’ve likely heard of but perhaps never truly understood: umami.

The Fifth Taste

For centuries, Western cuisine recognised only four basic tastes: sweet, sour, bitter, and salty. Then, in 1908, a Japanese chemist named Kikunae Ikeda identified a fifth taste present in kombu (kelp) broth. He called it umami — from uma (delicious) and mi (taste).

It took nearly a century for science to catch up. In 2000, umami receptors were discovered on the human tongue, confirming what Ikeda had suspected: this wasn’t a combination of other tastes. It was something entirely new.

Umami is now recognised globally as the fifth basic taste.

What Does Umami Taste Like?

Describing umami is tricky because it’s not a flavour you typically taste on its own. Instead, it’s a background sensation — a rich, savory, deeply satisfying quality that makes other foods taste more complete.

Think of the difference between a plain boiled potato and one that’s been mashed with butter and aged cheese. The potato is fine, but the second version is satisfying in a way that’s hard to put into words. That’s umami.

Where Does Umami Come From?

Umami appears naturally in foods that contain glutamate — an amino acid that forms when proteins break down. Some foods are naturally high in umami; others develop it through aging, fermentation, or cooking.

High-Ubami Foods

Kombu (kelp) — The original source; used to make dashi
Dried shiitake mushrooms — Used in Japanese and Chinese cooking
Parmesan and aged cheeses — The reason pasta carbonara is so addictive
Soy sauce and miso — Fermented soybeans, packed with umami
Fish sauce — A staple in Southeast Asian cuisine
Tomatoes — Especially sun-ripened or sun-dried
Mushrooms — Especially dried or aged varieties
Anchovies and cured meats — The umami bomb in many European dishes

Umami in Japanese Cuisine

Japanese cooking is essentially umami engineering. Almost every signature element of the cuisine is designed to maximise this fifth taste:

Dashi — The Umami Foundation

Dashi is the cornerstone of Japanese cooking — a simple broth made from kombu (kelp) and katsuobushi (dried, fermented skipjack tuna). When kombu steeps in hot water, it releases glutamates. When katsuobushi is added, it brings nucleotides that amplify those glutamates by up to eight times.

This synergy — glutamates from plants + nucleotides from fish — is why dashi tastes so much richer than the sum of its parts. And it appears in everything from miso soup to noodle broth to the cooking liquid for vegetables.

Miso Paste

Miso is fermented soybean paste — and fermentation is umami’s best friend. The longer the fermentation, the more glutamate accumulates. A white miso (short fermentation) is mild and sweet; a red miso (long fermentation) is deep, earthy, and intensely savory.

Soy Sauce

Similarly, soy sauce is fermented soybeans and wheat. The fermentation creates a complex, savory liquid that’s become indispensable in kitchens worldwide. A few drops can transform a bland dish into something satisfying.

Mirin and Sake

Even the cooking alcohols contribute. Mirin, a sweet rice wine, contains umami compounds. And when sake is used in cooking, it adds depth and rounds out flavours.

Why Umami Satisfies

There’s a physiological reason umami feels so rewarding. Our bodies recognise glutamate as a signal of protein — essential for survival. When we taste umami, our brain registers “this food is nutritious.” The response is satisfaction.

This is why foods high in umami tend to be the ones we crave. It’s also why Japanese cuisine — built on umami-rich foundations — feels so instinctively satisfying, even before you consciously think about it.

Umami at Kyoto Garden

Every dish at Kyoto Garden is designed with umami in mind:

Our dashi is made fresh daily from kombu and katsuobushi
Our miso is aged and imported from specialist producers in Japan
Our soy sauce is premium Japanese, used both in cooking and as a condiment
Our dishes combine multiple umami sources — dashi + miso + shiitake + aged fish — for maximum satisfaction

Even our simplest dishes — a bowl of noodles, a piece of grilled fish — carry this depth of flavour that comes from understanding and respecting umami.

Cooking with Umami

Want to bring more umami into your home cooking? Here are a few principles:

Start with dashi — Even a quick dashi made with kombu and hot water (steeped for 10 minutes) transforms a dish
Add aged cheese — Grated parmesan or aged gouda lifts pasta, soups, and sauces
Use fermented condiments — Soy sauce, miso paste, fish sauce — a little goes a long way
Don’t fear salt — Umami and salt work together; properly seasoned food tastes less salty because the umami fills the gap
Cook long and slow — Breakdown of proteins creates umami; a two-hour stew will always taste richer than a ten-minute one

The Takeaway

Umami isn’t a magic trick or a flavor enhancer in the way MSG sometimes gets unfairly painted. It’s a fundamental taste — as real as sweet or bitter — and it’s been hiding in plain sight in the foods we love all along.

Japanese cuisine simply figured this out first.

Next time you visit Kyoto Garden, pay attention to how satisfying the meal feels. That deep, lingering satisfaction — that sense that the flavours have depth — is umami. And now that you know it’s there, you’ll taste it in everything.

Experience the depth of umami at Kyoto Garden. Book your table online and discover what true satisfaction tastes like.