Cheat Sheet

New York Times scent critic Chandler Burr will host a scent-based food event to benefit the LGBT community on November 2. Burr will pair a "Master Class in Scent" with a decadent six-course dinner, and proceeds from the event, which will be held at New York's Four Seasons Restaurant, will go to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center. What is a “scent dinner,” you might ask? Burr, whose passion for the science of scent has led him to throw similar dinners at the Rosewood Mansion in Dallas, among other places, has collaborated with master chefs from the Four Seasons to design six courses, each of which reflect a particular parfums gourmands, or culinary-based perfume. Burr chose raw elements of vanilla, cinnamon, bergamot, along with the ingredients perfumers use to create the smells of bread, salt, smoke, and cotton candy. Burr, who is also a science writer, will teach the evening’s diners the links between science and scent and then everyone will, well, chow down. In addition to penning the New York Times Scent Notes column, Burr is the author of A Separate Creation, a book about the biological links between sexual orientation and the gay gene.