Just Wright: The Flavorist Behind Your Favorite Foods

By Lily Haley

Have you ever stopped to think about why your favorite snacks taste so good? Why your favorite coffee has a subtle vanilla aftertaste? How your crackers have the perfect amount of garlic and rosemary? Most of you probably haven’t questioned it, but there are scientists who specialize in answering these exact questions.

Meet Marie Wright. She’s the Chief Global Flavorist at WILD Flavors, a branch of Archer Daniels Midland, a global scale food processing company. She has helped to develop over 1,000 new flavors, and while she tends to avoid mentioning specific companies she has worked with, chances are she has had an impact on the food we eat every day.

Influenced by the flavors found in dishes from her family’s Turkish and Italian heritage, as well as the fragrant memories from her vacations in southern France, Wright ended up studying food science and chemistry at King’s College London. There, she found that her passions were in perfumery and flavoring. After becoming a flavorist, rather than sticking to one flavor profile, such as sweet or savory, Wright works across many categories, often within the same day!

Wright is able to keep track of over 4,000 compounds that contribute to flavors and aromas, remembering their chemical structure and similarities to other compounds. After taking organic chemistry, I can confidently say that this is a very impressive feat!

Not only is Wright proud to be one of the estimated 340 licensed flavorists in the US, but she also leads a mentorship program to help guide people through the challenging process of getting certified. She recognizes that flavorists not only need a strong understanding of chemistry, but also need to have the ability to have fun and be creative with their knowledge. She encourages her mentees to push the boundaries of what they know about flavors, showing them how to recognize the different chemicals in certain mixtures and how to enhance those flavors.

As an aspiring flavor chemist, Marie Wright has been a big inspiration to me. Not only is she incredibly successful in her career, but she is also refreshingly humble about her accomplishments. To see a woman thrive in such a niche and challenging career gives me the confidence to believe in my abilities as a scientist.

So next time you are enjoying your favorite snack or drink, take the time to appreciate the thought that goes into every product. Not only the science, but the scientists, behind every bite.