crapulous

Из статьи Питера Херцмана в Petits Propos Culinaires об эссенциях, придающих блюдам высокой кухни неповторимую прелесть; проще говоря об усилителях вкуса; точнее о глутамате натрия.

When I was stage-ing in restaurants in France and Switzerland, something I had occasion to do a dozen times between 1997 and 2006, almost all the restaurants I worked in had at least two things in common: at least one Michelin star and a large container of Maggi-brand instant chicken-soup powder on a high shelf in the kitchen. (even if the restaurant used a different brand of chicken-soup powder, the cooks still referred to the powder simple as ‘Maggi’)

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I asked a few of the cooks why they used the Maggi instead of salt. The reply was always that the powder in that package seemed to bring out some flavours better. I would point out to them that one of the primary ingredients was exhausteur de goût (taste enhancer), another term for glutamate monosodique (monosodium glutamate). They would shrug their shoulders.