In 1907 a professor of chemistry at Tokyo Imperial University named Kikunea Ikeda was eating dinner when he noticed that his broth was particularly delicious. A year later, on July 25, 1908 he determined why. Professor Ikeda had identified a chemical compound that today represents a nearly seven billion dollar industry, and one of the world’s most common, and controversial food additives. The complex history of the sodium salt of gluconic acid called "monosodium glutamate" deserves to be remembered.
On Louisiana highway 1, just south of the leeway bridge in Jefferson parish, not far from where the road ends, is a marker for the Cheniere Caminada cemetery, all that remains of a once thriving town that disappeared virtually overnight.