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If I were to put together a shortlist of my favourite foods - cured ham, Parmesan cheese, mushrooms and just about anything with tomato sauce - they would all have one thing in common: umami.

Umami is a Japanese word that means "yummy" or "delicious". It was first identified in 1908 by Kikunae Ikeda at Tokyo Imperial University, when he was studying what made dashi, a seaweed broth, so tasty. Ikeda found that glutamate, which is in high concentration in seaweed, was responsible for that satisfying savoury taste. He went on to isolate monosodium glutamate (MSG), but that's a whole other story.

In 1996, researchers at the University of Miami found the tongue had separate taste receptors that detected umami, thereby establishing a "fifth taste" to join salty, sour, sweet and bitter.

Glutamates are naturally present in most foods, but they tend to be higher in protein-rich foods such as meat, seafood, cheese and soybeans. Mushrooms, tomatoes and potatoes are also high in glutamates.

Processes such as drying, cooking, ripening and fermentation will concentrate the glutamates in foods and heighten the umami experience. It explains why cured ham is tastier than roast pork and dried shitakes are more flavourful than fresh. It also provides some insight into the popularity of ketchup.

Salted anchovies, while an acquired taste, are like little sticks of umami dynamite. They are essential for a proper Caesar dressing and are a key ingredient in Worcestershire sauce. Anchovy extract (a.k.a. Asian fish sauce) gives Thai cuisine that certain "je ne sais quoi".

Whether they are conscious of it or not, chefs are always playing around with umami to make food taste better. Meat stock is reduced and concentrated for an intense jus; a bland winter tomato from Florida is oven-dried to become sweet as candy; or a mild fish like halibut is wrapped in prosciutto before roasting.

Chinese cooks hold black belts in umami, which they call "xian wei". The humble soybean and a little fermentation have created an arsenal of umami-rich condiments such as soy sauce, salted black beans, yellow bean sauce and chili bean paste. Other umami-packed ingredients at their disposal include dried shrimp and scallops, salted fish, Yunnan ham and dried mushrooms.

Xian wei is usually applied to foods that are low in glutamates. Green beans get a serious boost when stir-fried with ground pork and XO sauce, a condiment of chilies, garlic and dried seafood that is essentially liquid umami. And tofu is rescued from its vapid state with a spicy black bean sauce.

So the next time you are in the kitchen, make sure umami is given the same consideration as salt and pepper. Tomato sauce tastes weak? Add a blob of tomato paste and cook it down. Bean soup is a little wimpy? Chorizo to the rescue!

Umami may be the fifth taste, but it's always the first on my mind.