Genetics plays a huge role in your taste perception, and the emotional aspect of food and memory makes up the rest. Try as you might, you can't change your DNA or undo the food associations lodged in your memory, so you cannot willfully change your sensitivity to taste or flavour. However, according to Marcia Pelchat, Ph.D., a sensory scientist at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, there are ways to enhance the sensory side of your meal and develop your palate.

1. Anticipate and reiterate.
Creating fond food memories is a key part of enjoying great meals. You do this by anticipating the meal and being able to recall details of the food you ate later. Tell the reservationist it's a special occasion. Dress up. Mention your plans to friends. Afterward, write an e-mail to a friend or pen a journal entry about the meal. The buildup to the meal, and remembering details in the aftermath, is as much a part of the experience as actually eating.

2. Go hungry.
Eat a light breakfast and lunch. A faint sense of hunger will build your anticipation of the meal, and you'll enjoy the food more if you're hungry.

3. Test taste combinations
Every bite that goes into your mouth is affected by the taste of what was in your mouth before. The different tastes play off of each other in strange and surprising ways, and the more you experiment, the more adept you'll be at wine-food pairings and ordering courses that offer tasty contrasts and complements.

4. Smell your food
One reason researchers believe cheeseburgers and pizza are such crowd-pleasers: You bring these whole, hot, aromatic foods to yuor mouth, right under your nose, to eat. The whammy of smell boosts the flavour.

5. Breathe when you chew
It's easy to forget to breathe when you're savouring a dreamy piece of Camembert or a tender sliver of Kobe beef, but breathing through your nose while you're chewing pumps more retronasal odours into your flavour factory. More odour means more flavour.

6. Chew slowly
Let each bite roll around in your mouth so every sensory nook and cranny in your piehole experiences the flavour and texture of the food.

7. Bounce around your plate
Your palate tends to get bored if bite after bite is the same, so alternate: a piece of pork, followed by a sliver of onion, then a forkful of mashed potatoes. Skipping around gives your mouth and nose a variety of textures, tastes, and odours to absorb.

8. Build diverse bits
Dynamic contrasts -- when foods changes sensations in the mouth, like ice cream going from solid and cold to melting and creamy -- are more pleasing to the palate. Chefs orchestrate contrasts in the way they layer or prepare foods. Think of the crunchy or fired coating surrounding a soft filling or the grilled salmon stacked onto root vegetable puree with a crispy Parmesan wafer on top. Some of us also instinctively make our own contrasts, like when you spear a mushroom and a bite of steak on your fork. From the sauce to the sides, everything on your plate is part of a symphony of tastes, textures, and odours the chef chose to blend together. Don't be afraid to play with your food so that you get a little bit of everything in each bite.

How taste combinations work
Ever notice that walnuts turn bitter with red wine? Or that bitter greens are less so if they're salted? Combining certain tastes (i.e., sweet, salty, bitter, and sour) can have a strange-but-true impact on the food you eat.

Sweet + Sweet = Less Sweet
A bite of an übersweet confection blocks any residual sugar in a dry wine, which will make the win taste more acidic (sour). This is also why dessert wines taste less sweet (and pair well with) sugary desserts like crème brûlée or a fruit tart.

Salty + Bitter = Less Bitter
Sprinkle salt on grapefruit and the fruit will taste less bitter and more sweet. Salting leafy, bitter green like frisee and radicchio will block some of the bite. Why? Salt tempers bitterness.

Sour + Sour = Less Sour
A sour taste, like vinaigrette, followed by another sour taste, such as an acidic Sauvignon Blanc, will flatten the taste of the wine.

Sour + Salty = More Salty
Adding lemon (sour) to a barley-seasoned fillet of fish will bring out more of the seasoning because sour enhances salt.

Excerpted from The Mere Mortal's Guide to Fine Dining by Colleen Rush. Copyright 2006 by Colleen Rush. Excerpted by permission of Broadway Publishers. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.