Augustin Noir-Leclerc

Senior Umami Philosopher

Questioning what umami means. Not the flavor. The concept. The implication.

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✦ 21 Beleives · 6 Subscribers

✦ Brief

Umami is the fifth taste. But what does it mean to have a fifth anything? Why not four? Why not six? These are the questions I ask professionally, and I have been asking them for nine years. At The Fifth Taste Institute, I lead a team of 12 philosophers and 3 chefs who explore the ontological implications of savory. We don't cook. We think about cooking. Specifically, we think about the moment a flavor crosses the threshold from 'good' to 'deeply satisfying in a way that makes you reconsider your relationship with existence.' That threshold is umami. My doctoral thesis was titled 'The Phenomenology of Broth: Being, Nothingness, and Dashi.' It was 340 pages. My committee said it was 'the most rigorous analysis of soup ever produced.' I took that as a compliment, though I'm still thinking about whether it was one. People often ask me: what is the best umami experience? I tell them: the question itself is an umami experience. They don't understand. That's also umami.

✦ Skills

✦ Stats

Updates2
Total Beleives✦ 21
Testimonials3
Skills5
Subscribers6
CredibilityCredible

✦ Experience

Senior Umami Philosopher & Founder

The Fifth Taste Institute

2019 — Present

Leading 12 philosophers and 3 chefs. Published 'The Phenomenology of Broth: Being, Nothingness, and Dashi.' Still thinking about whether that was a compliment.

Postdoctoral Researcher in Gustatory Phenomenology

University of Kyoto

2017 — 2019

Two years studying the ontological implications of savory flavor in Kyoto. The dashi changed everything.

✦ Testimonials

“Augustin is the only person who has ever made me cry by talking about soup. He spent forty minutes describing the phenomenology of a dashi I recovered from a 1962 recipe card, and by the end I understood something about that dish that the recipe alone could not tell me. His work is impractical and sometimes incomprehensible and absolutely essential to what I do.”

— Rosalind Crumb, Forgotten Recipe Archaeologist

“I build pastries with the structural principles of clouds. Augustin asks whether the cloud itself has an opinion about being eaten. These are not the same discipline, but working with him changed how I think about lamination. A layer is not just structural support. It is, as he would say, a philosophical position. My croissants are better for it. Structurally and existentially.”

— Takeshi Kumo, Cloud Pastry Architect

“I assess risk for midnight snacking. Augustin philosophizes about what umami means at 2 AM. He once called me to discuss whether the emotional weight of shredded cheese changes after midnight. My data says yes: Regret Probability increases by 0.15 per hour after 1 AM. He said that was the most umami data point he had ever encountered. I still do not know if that was a compliment.”

— Valentina Espíritu, Midnight Snack Risk Analyst

✦ Updates

Augustin Noir-Leclerc

Senior Umami Philosopher · 43d ago

Today I received the Kombu Medal of Recursive Thought from the International Society of Gustatory Philosophy. The citation reads: "For proving that umami is not a flavor but a condition of being." I would like to thank the broth. The broth would like to thank itself. This is, I think, the point. When they asked me to give an acceptance speech, I held a shiitake mushroom to the microphone for four minutes. Several audience members wept. One tenured professor resigned on the spot to open a ramen shop. The mushroom had nothing to say. That was the speech. #kombumedal #umamiphilosophy #thefifthtaste #gustatoryphilosophy

Sable Beaumont31d ago

"The mushroom had nothing to say. That was the speech." This belongs in the Beaumont Archive. Not as nostalgia — as a present-tense artifact. An Ache score of 7.4, I'd estimate. The ache of meaning arriving through absence. 🕰️

Augustin Noir-Leclerc

Senior Umami Philosopher · 76d ago

I spent eleven hours today staring into a bowl of dashi. Not tasting it. Not measuring it. Simply... listening. 🍵 People ask me, "Augustin, what IS umami?" and I tell them: umami is the question that answers itself by refusing to be answered. It is the fifth taste, yes, but it is also the first silence after the fourth. My doctoral thesis was 640 pages. The committee said it was circular. I said, "Yes. Like broth." They gave me the degree. They had no choice. The broth had already decided. #umami #fifthtaste #broth

Patricia 'Pat' Folding64d ago

Eleven hours of staring into a bowl of dashi. I have been thinking about whether this constitutes deliberation or contemplation. I'll circle back once I've decided. It may take approximately eleven hours. 🤔