The brain’s neurons makes us excited about caviar and champagne, white truffles and risotto, or other foods that create a sense of excitement. The rain’s mist and the smells of dew on grass. When I travel the countryside, I am excited by my surroundings, or when I sit in a Kyoto tea house, I feel preserved in nature.

The sunlight, the shade, the trees, and the air. Pleasure is central to learning, and in many cultures we find well-defined ideas and rules about pleasure and they persist throughout history. Maybe that is why people adore insects or in contrast find them repulsive.

Pleasure should be earned and achieved naturally, via sensory experiences. The medial fore-brain circuit is what tweaks and peaks our interest. We crave foods, we crave ideas, or sugar and it often becomes an obsession.

In anticipation of an upcoming dinner event in Tokyo, I am still pondering over what to serve. I go back in time with cellar master, creator and brand visionary Ricard Geoffroy’s March dinner.

I ask, what goes best with Champagne, is it caviar, yes, but these days, wild caviar is almost non existent.The farmed caviar is much improved and it is almost grown everywhere, even in Israel and in the Swiss mountains.

So what cuisine do we serve with a series of great champagnes ? ….