If you pinch your nose when you eat, you wouldn't taste much flavors. The role of smell is quite crucial in cookery, because 70 % of tasting is said to be smelling.
Why do we, for example, sautee' garlic and red pepper in oil as a first step when making Spaghetti Aglio Olio e Peperoncino? Heating them at relatively low temperature allows the flavor molecules to travel from the cells to the oil. It's the process of penetrating the molecules equally in oil. The same principle is applied for making fragrant oil in the ancient perfumery.
Why do we close the pan with a lid when making a soup? What would happen if we don't do that? You might find an answer in this dish.
articles of my blog on Open Sauces http://scent-lab.blogspot.com/search/label/%5BOpen%20Sauce%20%2F%20FoAM%5D
Maki Ueda (NL/J)
Is an artist who in her current practice incorporates the olfactory sense in art. She is one of the few artists using smell as a creative medium. She has developed a unique combination of chemical and kitchen skills in order to extract scents of daily life, ranging from food, space, to bodily scents. She has participated art exhibitions concerning smell, such as “If There Ever Was” (U.K., 2008). She also attended courses at the Grasse Institute of Perfumery in France.
artist's portfolio: http://www.ueda.nl
artist's up-to-date(blog): http://scent-lab.blogspot.com
email: witchlab@gmail.com