With his students, Mr. Winnegrad uses drills that involve smelling vials of raw materials over and over again until identification becomes ingrained. Many of the fragrances he uses can be found in a home kitchen, including clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, celery and carrots. Pencil shavings can provide a cedar note. A leaf broken off a house plant can provide a green, herbal note.
Mr. Winnegrad suggests keeping each ingredient in a separate small jar and smelling the collection once a day for about a half-hour. Rather than take one deep sniff, take two or three short inhalations and then exhale. "That way you will avoid nose fatigue," he says.
Scott Carney, master sommelier and director of wine education at the International Culinary Center based in New York, teaches students to visualize the scent notes found in wine. If someone is struggling to identify an individual note—say, guava—he will send the student to the grocery-store produce aisle to find a guava. "Go smell it," Mr. Carney will say. "See what you can invoke when smells come close to that one again."
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