Season to Taste

From a young chef who suddenly lost her sense of smell, a fascinating personal exploration of this most nebulous of senses and the role it plays in how we eat, how we perceive the world, how we remember the past, and how we attract each other.

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At the age of 22, Molly was an aspiring chef. She was spending her nights reading cookbooks and her days working at a bistro in preparation for training at the prestigious Culinary Institute of America. But then one day while out running, she was hit by a car. The accident fractured her skull, broke her pelvis, tore her knee to shreds - and destroyed her sense of smell. As the weeks went by, the flesh and bones began to heal, but she still couldn't smell a thing.And not being able to smell meant not being able to taste or cook, and suddenly her restaurant job, her cookery school plans, and her future as a chef were all over. SEASON TO TASTE follows what came next: how Molly picked herself up and set off on a quest to learn to smell again.
Writing with emotional honesty, intellectual curiosity, and a foodie's feel for descriptive precision, she explores the science of olfaction, pheromones, and Proust's madeleine; she meets leading experts, including the writer Oliver Sacks, scientist Stuart Firestein, and perfumer Christophe Laudamiel; and she visits a pioneering flavour laboratory, eats at Grant Achatz's legendary Chicago restaurant Alinea, and enrolls at a renowned perfume school in Grasse, all in an effort to understand and overcome her condition. From cinnamon and cedar wood, to bacon and her boyfriend's shirt, Molly Birnbaum gradually rediscovers the scented world and captures in words - apt and piquant words - the rich layer of life that tends to be wordless.