September 2012

The 2012 Asian Food Heritage Forum was held for two days, August 21 and 21 of 2012, at the Imperial Queen's Park Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand.

Takashi Yamamoto, vice-president of the Umami Information Center gave a presentation entitled "Umami: a critical role in the palatability of food" for the participants.

He talked plainly about the characteristics of the traditional Japanese cuisine that used soup stock, the difference between soup stocks used for Japanese cuisine and those used for Western or Chinese dishes, discovery of the "umami" ingredients, our physical system that senses "umami", the roles and functions of "umami", and the fact that "umami" was used for cooking in many countries throughout the world as well as in Japan. The listeners commented that his talk was very impressive, enlightening them much about "umami".

The Forum was held jointly by the Institute of Thai Studies, Chulalongkorn University (Thailand) and the Institute of Chinese Food Culture, Zhejiang GongShang University (China). It was held last year, too, in Hangzhou City, China.
It focused on the sub-thesis, "Harmonizing Culture, Technology and Industry" this year, and the participant researchers and experts in foods in the countries in South-east Asia and East Asia and the U. S. gave presentations.

The Forum was graced with the presence of Princess Sirindhorn, a member of the Thai royal family, who gave a greeting for the Forum and listened to the presentations earnestly.
Our Center will participate in meetings of this kind in the future, too, to further promote global recognition of "umami".