For instance, "vanilla is here thanks to a 12-year-old slave who figured out a botanical secret no one else knew. Chili powder spread across the country because of entrepreneurial Texan-Mexican women who fed soldiers and tourists — and a clever German immigrant who was looking for a culinary shortcut," she writes.
Japanese chemist Dr. Kikunae Ikeda is credited with discovering MSG — one of the eight ingredients Lohman explores in her book. Photo by Peter Van Hyning. Image sourced from NPR. Available at: https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2016/12/02/1_wide-408eb395952a7cfcba24e3f4c5f4ab15d1f663d2.jpg?s=800&c=85&f=webp