MSG’s bad rap: Why don’t chefs admit they use it? Is it better than salt? What’s the best way to use it?

Want to know why Japanese mayonnaise tastes so much better than the regular kind? That’s because it has MSG – well, at least according to a local R&D chef I spoke to. If you’re now pausing that mayo-dipped fry midway to your mouth, yup, MSG is that taboo. Bet your mum blamed your premature hair loss on too much MSG-laden instant noodles during your university hall days.

Got nausea, heart palpitations, headaches, numbness or excessive thirst after a meal? That's apparently the MSG having its devious ways with you. And as I also found out recently, the flavour enhancer has the same repelling effect on chefs and private dining cooks as garlic on vampires. My emails and DMs to talk MSG went largely rejected or unanswered.

Crowdsourcing responses through foodie colleagues and friends elicited the same results. “Many Chinese and Peranakan cooks use it but they’ll never admit lah!” read one forwarded message. The origin story of the flavour enhancer can be traced to a Japanese professor in 1907 but as my CNA Insider colleagues found out, MSG or monosodium glutamate isn’t derived from combining specific levels of chemicals in the lab, despite its very technical name.

Rather, MSG is extracted from a fermented tapioca broth, then heated and dried to form the crystals. In some cases, other plant ingredients such as beets, sugarcane or corn may be used instead. No Frankenstein business here.

“MSG is the sodium salt of glutamic acid, which is a naturally occurring amino ac.