We’re all familiar with the essential flavour profiles: sweet, salty, sour, bitter – and more recently, umami. But food scientists and chefs are now exploring another dimension of flavour, one that doesn’t fall into traditional categories but is changing the way we experience food.
Introducing kokumi, the often-overlooked enhancer that’s gaining traction as a game-changing element in gastronomy. Touted as the “secret ingredient”, kokumi is redefining how we create complexity and richness in food.
Experts at The Wasabi Company, renowned for their Japanese ingredients, take us through what kokumi is and how it can be used to add extraordinary depth to your dishes.
Understanding kokumi
With linguistic roots in the Japanese words ‘koku’ (richness) and ‘mi’ (taste), kokumi has long played a subtle role in Japanese cuisine. However, it’s not officially classified as a taste like umami or sweetness. Rather, kokumi is best described as a taste enhancer – a modifier that brings roundness, mouthfeel, and continuity to other flavours.
It’s found naturally in foods like aged cheese, miso, fermented sauces, and yeast extracts – those ingredients we often turn to when we want more “depth”. While kokumi has no flavour of its own, it can elevate everything else on the plate, making sweet things taste sweeter and savoury notes feel fuller.
If umami is the ‘bass note’, then kokumi is the amplifier.
The chemistry of kokumi
Kokumi’s unique sensory impact comes from glutamyl peptides – compounds that form during protein breakdown in fermentation or ageing. These peptides bind with calcium-sensing receptors on the tongue, essentially turbocharging the flavour signals that get sent to the brain.
As a result, ingredients taste more intense. The umami of beef deepens, broths become more layered, and vegetables cooked with care take on an extraordinary richness.
Practical ways to add kokumi to your cooking
1. Choose fermented and aged ingredients
Miso, soy sauce, aged cheeses, and yeast extracts all naturally contain the peptides associated with kokumi. Even nutritional yeast, popular in plant-based diets, provides that desirable ‘fullness’ of flavour.
2. Embrace slow cooking
Stews, braises, and low-and-slow methods such as sous vide allow time for kokumi-enhancing compounds to develop. The result? More complex, richer flavours with minimal effort.
3. Use with umami-rich foods
Since kokumi enhances umami, pairing them creates synergistic results. Combine with tomatoes, mushrooms, anchovies, or cured meats for intensified savoury depth. Plant-based cooks can turn to fermented ingredients and umami-rich veg.
4. Add indulgence to healthier meals
With a growing trend towards low-fat and low-sodium cooking, kokumi offers a smart way to keep flavours satisfying. Ingredients like aged vinegar and nutritional yeast can bring that luxurious feel without the extra salt or fat. Ongoing research into isolating kokumi peptides will continue to expand its use in healthy food alternatives.
