The 5th Element - Escoffier

High School Biology Class was a long time ago, basically a figment of my imagination at this point. That's when I learned that my tongue has 4 sets of taste buds: salty, bitter, sweet and sour. There's a Fifth Flavor now, though, that's how old I am. Turns out we have Genes that are constantly yearning looking for a little protein called Glutamine that it wants to lock on to the end of its chain. Glutamine is considered the 5th Flavor. This Taste Sense is called "Savory" or "Umame." It's the Milla Jovavich of the Taste Receptors. It is Delicious. It is Deliciousness.

I learned this because I went to a book signing last night for a Science Writer named Jonah Lehrer. He has written a book called Proust was a Neuroscientist where he discusses instances where Creative people have figured out basic scientific ideas through their work that are in turn discovered by Scientists many years later.

Lehrer talked about the discoveries of Auguste Escoffier, the great French Chef of the 19th Century. Escoffier's two great contributions to Cooking involved development of cooking techniques involved in ramping up the flavor glands to maximum capacity. His broths took 12 hours to create through constant stirring and reducing until the liquid was condensed down to the most intense flavor possible. His sauces were created from the leavings in the pans after the food had been cooked.



With Mouth watering & Nostrils flaring, I sat at the talk wondering if Escoffier were a Scorpio. The guy just sounds so intense. All the emphasis on flavor and intense concentration and distillation and unremitting labor to extract the greatest sensation possible seemed totally Scorpionic. I mean you walk into most restaurants these days and you smell close to nothing.

Auguste Escoffier
b. Oct. 28, 1846 Villeneuve-Loubet (near Nice), France

Sun 5 Scorpio, Moon in Aquarius, NN 29 Libra

Yes! Escoffier's Sun was in Scorpio. It could be squaring his Moon. If not, it is unaspected expect for a wide conjunction to his Libra North Node. Determined, isolated Scorpio endlessly stirring that pot to capture its essence, a Scorpio Sun completely and utterly unaspected.

But then, it is the Libra North Node in this chart which is truly awe-inspiring. Escoffier opened and ran the Ritz and Carlton Hotels so he was in the Leisure Business, a Libra past-time. His North Node is conjunct Venus and Mars in Libra and this conjunction is opposing his Pluto in Aries, trining his Saturn-Neptune conjunction in Aquarius (maybe also Moon) and trining Jupiter in Gemini. Mars is also opposing Uranus in Aries. Libra is the sign of pleasure and the two planets of Love are locked together here with his North Node in that sign and aspecting the Wisdom of all the outer planets. Now, this is the foundation that all good Science should be based on.





Jonah Lehrer, who is an editor for SEED Magazine has a really interesting blog called "The Frontal Cortex."
http://scienceblogs.com/cortex/