Flavour Talks – Details, episodes & analysis

Paola Totaro is an award-winning journalist, editor and author covering global issues including politics, health, social policy, indigenous rights, arts and culture. She has written for major publications and is passionate about storytelling, engaging diverse audiences and mentoring young journalists. When award-winning reporter Paola Totaro lost her sense of smell to Covid in March 2020, her world changed and dulled in an instant. Her latest book, On the Scent, is a memoir/scientific detective story that explores the mysterious sense of smell and its impact on emotional wellbeing, relationships and interpretation. It explores the experiences of patients and scientists and highlights its potential as a health indicator.

Host: Trevor Groome and Seán Ryan, Music: Aidan Kirkwood, Editing: Maria Palassarou, Publishing: Ján Peťka

© 2024 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠British Society of Flavourists⁠

Professor Thomas Hummel is a renowned expert in the field of smell and taste. He supervises work area and outpatient clinic "Smell and Taste" at the Department of Otorhinolaryngology at the TU Dresden and heads the interdisciplinary centre "Smell and Taste", where he studies the physiology and pathophysiology of smell and taste. His work includes the diagnosis and treatment of olfactory and gustatory disorders.

Host: Trevor Groome and Michel Aubanel, Music: Aidan Kirkwood, Editing: Maria Palassarou, Publishing: Ján Peťka

© 2024 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠British Society of Flavourists⁠

Listen to a new episode of Flavour Talks podcast, this time with John Forbes, a renown expert on raw materials for flavour and fragrance industry.

Host: Trevor Groome, Andrea Albertino, Séan Ryan, Music: Aidan Kirkwood, Editing: Mark Millward

© 2023 ⁠⁠⁠⁠British Society of Flavourists⁠⁠

Join us on a journey through the life and work of Professor Don Mottram, the eminent English flavour chemist from the Department of Food and Nutritional Sciences at the University of Reading. He began his career in colour chemistry and was one of the pioneers of chromatography. He then moved into flavour research and was one of the first to carry out fundamental research into meat flavour. Working with Professor Bronek Wedzicha at the University of Leeds, Mottram made a major breakthrough in understanding the origin of acrylamide in fried and cooked foods.

He retired as Head of the Flavour Chemistry Research Group in October 2010, but continues to work with the group on a number of projects, most notably the Flavourist Training Course in conjunction with the BSF.

Host: Trevor Groome, Sean Ryan, Music: Aidan Kirkwood, Editing: Britta Nobis © 2023 ⁠⁠⁠⁠British Society of Flavourists⁠⁠

Listen to a new Flavour Talks podcast episode, this time with Dr Nancy E. Rawson, Acting Director & President of the Monell Chemical Senses Center. Accompanied by our hosts, Dr. Rawson explains Monell’s vision on advancing the scientific understanding of taste & smell, where research discoveries can lead to improving nutritional health, diagnosing & treating disease, addressing smell & taste loss, as also digitizing chemosensory data. 

As part of Monell’s mission, we encourage listeners to sign the petition posted by The Smell and Taste Association of North America (STANA), which advocates for universal smell & taste testing, on the link below:

https://www.change.org/p/support-the-grassroots-effort-to-make-smell-and-taste-testing-universal

Host: Trevor Groome, Sean Ryan, Music: Aidan Kirkwood, Editing: Maria Palassarou © 2023 ⁠⁠⁠British Society of Flavourists⁠⁠

Listen to a new episode of Flavour Talks podcast, this time with Michel Aubanel, Global development director for flavour ingredients at Kerry. Our hosts, Andrea and Sean delve into the life of this industry veteran who has extracted and tasted many of the most prized aromas in the world. We learn his perspective on the perfume and flavour world and get to sample some valuable philosophical insights. Host: Andrea Albertino, Sean Ryan, Music: Aidan Kirkwood, Editing: Mark Millward © 2023 ⁠⁠British Society of Flavourists⁠⁠

Listen to a new episode of Flavour Talks podcast, this time with Marie Wright, President of Creation, Design & Development and Chief Global Flavorist at ADM Nutrition.

After graduating from King’s College in London, Marie was trained as a Flavourist with Bush Boake Allen, advancing to Senior Flavorist and moving to the US as the Flavor Creation Manager for Latin America. Marie joined IFF playing a leadership role in innovation as Vice President, Senior Flavorist. In 2012, Marie moved to Wild Flavors as Chief Global Flavorist and shortly after she was promoted to the leadership position of Vice President.

Marie has mentored many young flavorists, continuing to lead the ADM’s Academy of Future Flavorists, having also shared her passion for flavor creation through many presentations all over the world of food, fragrance and wine.

Accompanied by our hosts Trevor & Sean, Marie elaborates on her passion of leading & motivating a talented creative team, building a culture where people can grow, where diversity of thinking inspires innovation & success.

Host: Trevor Groome, Séan Ryan, Music: Aidan Kirkwood, Editing: Maria Palassarou

© 2023 ⁠British Society of Flavourists⁠

Listen to a new episode of Flavour Talks podcast, this time with Prof. Dr. Andrea Büttner.

One of Professor Schieberle's phenomenal disciples, Andrea soon attracted attention in her academic career at the Technical University of Munich with unique research topics such as: aroma of citrus fruits, development of buccal odor screening system, studies of maternal milk or smell of toys.

Andrea has been Executive Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging since April 2020, where she is also responsible for the Freising site.

Furthermore since 2017, she has headed the Chair of Aroma and Smell Research at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg and is part of the Odeuropa team.

Accompanied by our host Trevor, Andrea will give holistic insights as an aroma professional, diving deep into anthroposophical topics related to food, about generating research topics in daily life and beyond.

Host: Trevor Groome, Jan Petka, Music: Aidan Kirkwood, Editing: Britta Nobis

© 2023 British Society of Flavourists

We are starting the season 2 of Flavour Talks podcast with a well known personality: Danny Hodrien. Born and educated near Liverpool before attending Reading University for a Degree and a life in the Food Industry. Starting his flavour life with Unilever he was immediately captivated by the magic of a flavour laboratory. Now 51 years later and after senior positions in the corporate world of flavours with the major players such as Givaudan and companies that became Sensient and Symrise then latterly with Frutarom (always as a Flavourist)-he has found his personal niche through his own business – F&F Projects Ltd - incorporated in 2006. Our guest Danny tries to unravel the flavour secrets of nature, which remains one of his great passions. Host: Trevor Groome, Music: Aidan Kirkwood, Editing: Britta Nobis © 2023 British Society of Flavourists.

Listen to a new episode of Flavour Talks, this time with Marianne Martin, creative perfumer and president of the British Society of Perfumers. Marianne’s perfumery and chemistry experience spans nearly 50 years in the fragrance industry. She is a respected perfumery tutor with a global outlook, known for her perfumery teaching in the courses for the Society of Cosmetic Scientists. This exciting podcast is discussing topics from both flavourist and perfumer perspective.

© 2022 British Society of Flavourists.
Music by Aidan Kirkwood