As it happens, my desk in the office is located close to the super-secret double doors that lead into our R&D wing. Unfortunately, my job does not allow me to roam around the test kitchens or poke my head into the super-secret flavor development meetings (um, chime in here, R&D people – you do have super-secret flavor development meetings, don’t you? don’t you???).

So, when I saw the name for the panel was ‘Cooking For Geeks,’ I obviously had to check it out.

And let me tell you, this certainly did not disappoint. The audience got to figure out if they were ‘Super-Tasters’ – i.e. people with more taste buds than others. Alas, I was not – it seems that I am not destined to become a master chef.

The news is not all bad though. If you are not a super-taster, you require less salt and less sugar on your food. This, of course got me thinking – how do we account for people’s differing taste buds in our product development? R&D people, chime in here? What kind of super-secret taste tests do you guys perform? And can I participate even though I’m not a super-taster? Pretty please?