Season to Taste Quotes

“Each and every signal from each and every neuron is important to create the coherent whole. The difference between the smell of sweaty socks and Parmesan cheese, after all, is only one carbon atom of change. The signals create a pattern—of perception, the symphony read by the brain.”
― Molly Birnbaum, Season to Taste: How I Lost My Sense of Smell and Found My Way – A Funny, Joyous, and Inspiring Memoir of Life in the Kitchen

“She wanted any words but the one from the label: lavender, the only one I knew. I waved the strip under one nostril and then the other, inhaling again. I thought of the bright purple bars of soap in my father’s home, the ones collected by my stepmother, Cyndi. I thought of the pillow that had slowly deflated at Alinea those months before, the one under a plate of deconstructed rhubarb, a scientific coda to a symphonic meal.”
― Molly Birnbaum, Season to Taste: How I Lost My Sense of Smell and Found My Way – A Funny, Joyous, and Inspiring Memoir of Life in the Kitchen

“we smelled the blotter of lavender a second time. I was surprised to find that it had changed. Most materials do, Fauvel explained. Some burst into the nose immediately and leave just as fast, ones like lemon, like orange, like ginger. Those, she said, are called top notes. Middle notes, like geranium and rose, linger but not for the long term. Base notes like sandalwood or musk stick around a while.”
― Molly Birnbaum, Season to Taste: How I Lost My Sense of Smell and Found My Way – A Funny, Joyous, and Inspiring Memoir of Life in the Kitchen

“It is possible that the olfactory neurons die and regrow because they are exposed so intensely to the environment, he explained. These are the only cranial nerve cells that actually make contact with physical stimulus directly from the outer world, interacting directly with odor molecules on each inhale. They aren’t in the possession of that buffer of skin.”
― Molly Birnbaum, Season to Taste: How I Lost My Sense of Smell and Found My Way – A Funny, Joyous, and Inspiring Memoir of Life in the Kitchen

“The olfactory stem cells replenish constantly even in a healthy nose. They are some of the only neurons in the human body with the ability to regenerate from scratch. And they do so constantly, growing like the perennial flowers in my mother’s garden but on warp speed.”
― Molly Birnbaum, Season to Taste: How I Lost My Sense of Smell and Found My Way – A Funny, Joyous, and Inspiring Memoir of Life in the Kitchen

“Emerging from the womb a blank slate, nothing is positive or negative until they learn it to be that way. The scent of a dirty diaper bears as much pleasure as a rose.”
― Molly Birnbaum, Season to Taste: How I Lost My Sense of Smell and Found My Way – A Funny, Joyous, and Inspiring Memoir of Life in the Kitchen