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 acid,” said Jaclyn Reutens, a clinical dietitian with Aptima Nutrition & Sports Consultants.
“When a protein that contains glutamic acid is broken down through fermentation, it becomes glutamate,” she said. “Glutamate activates our taste receptors, eliciting the savoury response that we know as umami.”
Even if you don’t add MSG to your cooking, it is already naturally present in many foods such as meat, tomatoes, cheese, seaweed and mushrooms, according to Diane Seto, a senior dietitian at Mount Elizabeth Hospital.
“MSG activates umami taste receptors on the tongue,” she said. “Umami or ‘savoury deliciousness’ adds depth and savouriness to food, making dishes like soups and stews richer and more satisfying.”
It explains why cooks treasure the liquid in which dried shiitake mushrooms or seaweed has been soaked in. Or why everything tastes better with cheese.
The vilification of MSG goes way back. And it might have begun in the US when the “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome” was coined by, ironically, a Chinese doctor and researcher.
“In the late 1960s, following reports that people had bad reactions to food in Chinese restaurants, MSG was suggested to be the culprit,” said Nadia Liu Spellman, an American restaurateur and cookbook author on Food Network.
“MSG became a vilified ingredient in America, creating a cultural fear and backlash against American Chinese food that still persists to some degree to this day.”
It also doesn’t help when studies conducted around those times were “biased” and had “methodological flaws, small sample sizes, extremely high dosages and being administered intravenously instead of orally”, said Reutens.
“After numerous years of better-quality clinical studies, international food safety organisations such as Food And Drug Administration, and European Food Safety Association have now considered MSG to be Generally Recognised As Safe or GRAS,” she said.
MSG doesn’t have it easy in Singapore either. Local chefs don’t like to admit to using MSG – not just because diners don’t appreciate it in their food – but also because it makes the chef look bad. The white stuff is like the cook’s cheat code to level up a dish’s umami-ness without tedious flavour-extraction processes.
“Many chefs may avoid admitting its use due to a desire to maintain a perception of using only ‘natural’ ingredients, or to circumvent potential customer concerns,” said Sandra Sim, the chef behind private dining outfit Ladyboss Dining Club.
But there has been a sea change in the culinary scene. American chefs such as David Chang of Momofuku and J Kenji Lopez-Alt, an author and culinary consultant of Serious Eats, make no bones about proclaiming their love of MSG.
“Chinese kitchens have a saying, no MSG, no MasterChef,” said Eric Low, the aforementioned food-tech chef. “This is quite true. A good chef should have mastered the skill of balancing flavours, and know the right amount and situation to use MSG or glutamate-rich seasonings.”
And it’s not just Chinese or Asian restaurants that use MSG, said Hong Kong’s Leonard Cheung, who admits to adding MSG to some of his fine-dining creations for Cultivate.
“I have worked and staged at many famous Michelin-starred restaurants across the world,” he said in an interview with CNA Luxury. “And I kid you not, some of those kitchens would add an excessive amount of MSG into purees, reductions, and even inside sous vide liquids.
“If Americans believe only Chinese and Southeast Asian restaurants use MSG, then they would be shocked to know that many Western restaurants and processed foods also contain a crazy amount of MSG.”
“It may be surprising but MSG contains 12 per cent sodium compared to 40 per cent sodium in salt,” said Reutens. Here’s another perspective: A teaspoon of MSG has 615mg of sodium as opposed to 1,960mg of sodium in the same amount of table salt, said Seto.
What about the side effects of MSG? You know, the thirstiness, headaches and tingly cheeks? According to a report by the Federation Of American Societies For Experimental Biology (or FASEB), a typical serving of food contains less than 0.5g of MSG, “which is far below the level that might trigger symptoms in sensitive individuals”, said Seto, “which has been found to be 3g or more consumed without food”.
“The mechanism between MSG, headaches and numbness is not fully understood,” said Reutens. “It could be that the amino acid found in MSG binds to certain receptors in the brain that release nitric oxide, which then leads to the dilation of blood vessels around the skull causing headaches. However, these reactions are often mild and do not need to be treated.”
On those counts alone, MSG seems like a winner. Unfortunately, MSG can’t be wholly used to replace salt, at least taste-wise.
“MSG is technically classified as a flavour enhancer, not a flavour replacement or seasoning ingredient,” said Low. “So, it cannot replace salt and neither can salt replace MSG.”
Instead, “MSG must be used together with salt in order for the glutamates to have an impact on our taste buds when we taste,” he said.
Even in home cooking, MSG shouldn’t be used to replace salt, said Sim. “Both can be used together, but adjusting each to taste is crucial. Salt is essential for seasoning, while MSG is used for deepening flavour profiles.”
You wouldn’t drown your salad in olive oil just because it’s a heart-friendly oil, or add an extra packet of artificial sweetener to your coffee because it’s better than regular sugar.
Neither should you go crazy with MSG – especially when “there is no set limit for MSG per se” said Reutens. “We should use the same common-sense approach when adding salt, sugar and oils to our foods.”
You could, said Seto, replace some salt with MSG to reduce your daily sodium intake (which, by the way, should be less than 2,000mg, less than 5g or less than 1 teaspoon of regular salt per day), but she cautioned you may miss out on salt’s roles in flavour and texture.
“People with sodium-sensitive conditions such as hypertension and kidney disease should be mindful of their total sodium intake, including MSG,” said Seto.
On social media, whole steaks have been encased in an MSG crust like a salt-baked chicken and cooked in a covered grill.
“I’ve seen people adding MSG to watermelon or mixing it with popcorn,” said Jesper Chia of private diner The Wood Ear.
You could also, suggested Low, add the flavour enhancer to scrambled eggs, already-salted fries, curries and in fried rice – but maybe not the way comedian Nigel Ng champions it in his Uncle Roger skits.
Try MSG in spice blends for rubs on roasted vegetables, recommended Sim, to “enrich their natural flavours”.
Chia suggested checking against ratio guides online. “Another way is to start with a small amount of MSG and adjust the amount of salt required by tasting.”
But don’t fret over the perfect ratio of MSG and salt, said Sim. “There isn’t a strict proportion rule as flavour perception can vary,” she said.
A common guideline, Sim said, is to use one third MSG to every portion of salt used. “For example, if you’re using a quarter teaspoon of salt, try around one eighth teaspoon of MSG, and adjust based on personal preference and the dish’s needs.”
When making liquid-based items such as stock, broth, marinades, sauce or gravy, Low suggested using about 6g to 10g of MSG per litre of liquid. And don’t forget the salt.
“Such sauces can be used with MSG, in moderation, as they all have different taste profiles that elevate a dish,” said Chia. “The general guide is to use seasoning with umami notes sparingly, in order not to complicate the flavours of the dish.”
Sim suggested that you might want to reduce the sauce’s amount slightly to avoid overwhelming the dish’s complexity. “Balance and taste-testing are vital to ensure the dish remains harmonious.”
Other than those sauces, said Low, ingredients that can also be flavour enhancers include fermented bean paste, fermented shrimp paste, fermented or pickled vegetables, stock concentrates, bouillon cubes, seafood-based sauces and ready-to-use commercial spice pastes.
“These ingredients have natural or added MSG, and their levels are sufficient to be a taste booster,” said Low, whose practice is to add MSG to a dish only after ascertaining that there are no other flavour enhancements used.
Still not sold on MSG? There are other ingredients to use to introduce umami bombs to a dish, including dried shrimp, dried scallops and dried Chinese mushrooms, said Low. “But the dishes must still be seasoned with salt or something salty.”
The caveat with these dried flavour enhancers? They need to be used in very large amounts to achieve the taste expectations that we have come to in regular cooking, said Low, recommending slow cooking in the form of gentle simmering or braising for a couple of hours for maximum flavour extraction.
If you lack the patience, Chia recommends blending dried porcine mushrooms into powder and making it into a spice rub by adding other seasonings.
“Concentrated through drying or roasting, tomatoes can also provide a rich umami boost, whether used pureed in sauces or as a dried additive in spice mixes,” said Sim.