--- title: One Taste Samin Nosrat Would Give Up If She Absolutely Had to Live Without It description: Samin Nosrat, the chef behind cookbook and Netflix series Salt Fat Acid Heat, talked about which one she's give up. canonical: https://time.com/collections/time-100-gala-2019/5574466/samin-nosrat-time-100/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-04-23T23:30:54.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-07-21T07:21:55.070Z og:title: One Taste Samin Nosrat Would Give Up If She Absolutely Had to Live Without It og:description: Samin Nosrat, the chef behind cookbook and Netflix series Salt Fat Acid Heat, talked about which one she's give up. og:url: https://time.com/collections/time-100-gala-2019/5574466/samin-nosrat-time-100/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8b37ca62ca74e45f/6989489f457a520393d60e63/samin-nosrat-time-100.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: One Taste Samin Nosrat Would Give Up If She Absolutely Had to Live Without It og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: One Taste Samin Nosrat Would Give Up If She Absolutely Had to Live Without It twitter:description: Samin Nosrat, the chef behind cookbook and Netflix series Salt Fat Acid Heat, talked about which one she's give up. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8b37ca62ca74e45f/6989489f457a520393d60e63/samin-nosrat-time-100.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Apr 23, 2019 # One Taste Samin Nosrat Would Give Up If She Absolutely Had to Live Without It by [Jamie Ducharme](/author/jamie-ducharme/) ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME.  Chef Samin Nosrat attends the Build Brunch to discuss "Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat" in New York City on Nov. 30, 2018. Chef Samin Nosrat attends the Build Brunch to discuss "Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat" in New York City on Nov. 30, 2018.Jim Spellman—Getty Images Samin Nosrat’s Netflix show focuses on the the four essential flavors of salt, fat, acid and heat – but pressed on which one she would give up if she had to, she picked salt. “Fat gets all the textures. Acid gives dimension. Heat is cooking. But salt is kind of an acquired palate… I like to think that I would forget how delicious salt tastes,” the [TIME 100 honoree](http://time.com/collection-post/5567705/samin-nosrat/ "undefined") said at the [TIME 100](http://time.com/collection/100-most-influential-people-2019/ "undefined") Gala on Tuesday. When the chef, food writer and cookbook author turned her award-winning cookbook _Salt Fat Acid Heat_ into [a Netflix series](http://time.com/5421575/samin-nosrat/ "undefined"), it didn’t take long for viewers to fall in love as they watched her travel the world, dispensing tips and schooling viewers on the four fundamental elements of flavor. The Netflix series, which premiered last fall, brought Nosrat to Italy, Japan, Mexico and her adopted hometown of Berkeley, Calif. Along the way, she ate everything from miso eggs to aggressively spicy tacos. Nosrat, who is Iranian-American, has also long been passionate about increasing diversity in the food industry, and bringing opportunities to other brown chefs. Nosrat came from Chez Panisse, one of the most prestigious restaurants in the United States – but her fight to improve diversity and representation in the restaurant industry isn’t just focused on elite kitchens. “We can’t invent a generation of leaders, we have to raise them,” she said. “We’re not done until we’re really, really done, until a server at Applebee’s or a cook at Red Lobster \[gets the same treatment as those at the top\].” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time-100-gala-2019/5574466/samin-nosrat-time-100/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time-100-gala-2019/5574466/samin-nosrat-time-100/"},"headline":"One Taste Samin Nosrat Would Give Up If She Absolutely Had to Live Without It","datePublished":"2019-04-23T23:30:54.000Z","dateModified":"2026-07-21T07:21:55.070Z","description":"Samin Nosrat, the chef behind cookbook and Netflix series Salt Fat Acid Heat, talked about which one she's give up.","url":"https://time.com/collections/time-100-gala-2019/5574466/samin-nosrat-time-100/","keywords":["Living","Food","TIME 100","onetime","2019 TIME 100"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8b37ca62ca74e45f/6989489f457a520393d60e63/samin-nosrat-time-100.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jamie Ducharme","jobTitle":"Ducharme is a contributor to TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/"}],"creator":"Jamie Ducharme","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8b37ca62ca74e45f/6989489f457a520393d60e63/samin-nosrat-time-100.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/time-100-gala-2019/5574466/samin-nosrat-time-100/","name":"One Taste Samin Nosrat Would Give Up If She Absolutely Had to Live Without It"}}]}] ```