Fifth sense: Embrace the power of umami

January can be a difficult month for cooks: New Year's resolutions mean that patrons feel compelled to seek out lighter, healthier options. One solution is understanding the fifth taste, umami. For years in the west we thought that there were four tastes: sweet, sour, salty and bitter. In 1908, a Japanese scientist discovered a fifth, umami, and so his nation's food developed with this knowledge.