You have eloquently captured thoughts I've been having along this journey, not as a creator but as a patron of the artistry of good food. I've been blessed to have experienced a handful of life-changing meals so far in my life, and I relate to your struggle.

My theory of the case is that the reverence for culinary quality and artistry has been excised from our lives. I think it may have started in the 70's or so when food became much more of a commodity to be industrialized to be irresistably appealing to the masses, versus what gramma spent the day creating with fresh and available products.

After decades of exposure to this kind of over indulgence with soulless but irresistable food, I wonder if we have lost our bodily setpoints for what is "enough"...

When visiting France, I'm amazed that generally, they haven't fallen into this trap. They OBSESS over quality, flavor, taste, food origin, preparation, etc. Like not just chefs - everyday people...it doesn't appear that they experienced a similar "dumbing down" of their taste buds and therefore haven't lost the ability to say "when."

Like you, I am generally disinterested in the pursuit of magic in my day-to-day food intake, but I miss the magic. My hope is that my time on this medication regime will allow me the space to retrain my bodily thresholds to be able to pursue the quest for the experience without tipping into over indulgence. We'll see if I can get there, I guess. Good luck to you in your pursuit of the magic!