Taste shapes evolution, microbes make tasty food, and humans and microbes have been shaping each other for a long while. Yet anthropological accounts of evolution and domestication have given little consideration to taste, microbes, or fermentation. In this paper we develop the concept of “taste-shaping-natures”—natures shaping and shaped by taste—to highlight these multispecies interactions, based on practices of translated fermentation in the New Nordic Cuisine. Here, chefs combine Japanese microbes and fermentation techniques with Scandinavian substrates to create new products and flavors. Focusing on novel misos made with the kōji fungus (Aspergillus oryzae), we illustrate how chefs sense their microbes through smell and taste, and identify the sources of kōji’s exceptional microbial charisma. We situate the rise of kōji’s allure in the context of New Nordic Cuisine, framed as a high-end response to anxieties about globalization and subsequent nationalisms, a reworking of the scientism of molecular gastronomy, and a postpastoral mobilization of different natures for the reconstruction of regional identity. The analysis traces the natural history of kōji’s taste-shaping powers through the biogeographical, ecological, and evolutionary consequences of New Nordic fermentation experiments. The conclusion reflects on how this nascent microbiology of desire revises prevalent understandings of domestication.

中文翻译：

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品味塑造自然

味道决定进化，微生物做出美味的食物，人类和微生物一直在相互塑造。然而，人类学对进化和驯化的描述很少考虑味道、微生物或发酵。在本文中，我们基于新北欧美食中翻译发酵的实践，提出了“品味塑造自然”的概念——自然塑造和由品味塑造——以突出这些多物种相互作用。在这里，厨师将日本微生物和发酵技术与斯堪的纳维亚基质相结合，创造出新的产品和口味。专注于用曲霉( Aspergillus oryzae)制作的新型味噌)，我们说明了厨师如何通过嗅觉和味觉感知微生物，并确定 kōji 特殊微生物魅力的来源。我们将 kōji 魅力的兴起置于新北欧美食的背景下，作为对全球化和随后民族主义的焦虑的高端回应，对分子美食科学主义的改造，以及对不同性质的后田园动员以重建区域身份。该分析通过新北欧发酵实验的生物地理、生态和进化结果追溯了 kōji 味道塑造能力的自然历史。结论反映了这种新生的欲望微生物学如何修改对驯化的普遍理解。