GAZOO.com invited the leading food and beverage manufacturers in Japan, Nissin Food and Suntory to the “1st Seasoning Round-table Discussion” to learn from them the secret to creating seasoning. At the discussion, held in July 2008, the participating taste-makers from both companies exchanged opinions with Toyota’s meister of “automotive seasoning” Hiromu Naruse regarding the difficulties and efforts that went into seasoning, the passing on of seasoning traditions, and the cultivation of one’s successors.

The discussion affirmed the following points:
• Machines can’t surpass human sensibility when it comes to “seasoning”.
• The culture and environment of every country develops flavors and the participants want to convey a sense of Japan through flavor.
• Successors will naturally emerge through involvement in the process of matching the sense of texture as a master craftsman and his/her subordinates are working together.
• Intuition is essential to “seasoning”; it can’t be created solely from knowledge and data.

Then, in late 2008, the “2nd Seasoning Round-table Discussion” was held at the Lexus Aoyama Gallery, under the theme of “selling flavor.” This time Naruse welcomed the guests (listed below) and spoke with them about how professionals create and commercialize flavors, and how they convey those flavors to consumers.