Palate expansion and discovering how ingredients transform in different environments is a culinary education cornerstone. The walnut is an accessible ingredient that can be a great example of discovering an item’s aroma profile, physical texture, primary taste and visual appearance. Students can begin to understand how each element goes through flavorful transformations from ingredient to component.

California Walnuts has created a lesson plan that takes students on a 15- to 30-minute flavor journey. Lesson objectives include: 

• List the four senses used to evaluate and experience the flavor of walnuts. 
• Select specific attributes they can see, smell, feel, and taste on the CA Walnut Flavor Wheel. 
• Explain how walnuts go through a three-stage evolution of texture: Initial Bite, Chewing/Mastication, and Finishing Mouthfeel. 
• Understand how an ingredient like walnuts goes through a flavorful transformation from ingredients into useful components that can be utilized to create innovative menu items and consumer product goods.

Additionally, instructors may round out the lesson with information from “Cracking Open the Culinary Potential of Walnuts: Journey from Orchard to Plate.”

Click here the lesson plan objectives and slide information. 

Click here for a PDF of the PowerPoint presentation.