Chefs have to taste everything. So do scholars.

On the reality tv show Top Chef, the competing chefs can’t refuse to work with a particular ingredient.

The chefs that have the most “well-developed palettes” are the ones who go on to win the competition.

Over my years of academic teaching, I’ve sometimes had Ph.D. students who resisted reading some of the literature I assigned. They wanted to read the easy stuff, not the books or articles that require more rigorous effort and thought.

Chefs have to taste everything. So do budding scholars.