M: This has happened often enough that I'm curious if there's a term for it. It's when you cook something or try something that is yours and yours alone and love it, but then the second or third time, it seems adequate. Now, sometimes that might be because the first time was because you hit the accidental sweet spot, but after multiple repetitions, I feel like psychologically there is the existence of a some kind of effect that would explain why the novelty seems so good.

G: TL;DR:
Yes. There isn’t one perfect kitchen-specific term, but the effect is very real. It’s a mix of novelty reward, hedonic adaptation, and expectation inflation. The first hit feels magical because your brain is doing extra work; later repeats feel flatter because that bonus disappears.

The core psychological pieces

1. Novelty effect / novelty reward

Your brain gives a dopamine bonus for new, self-generated experiences—especially ones that feel clever or personal.

Once it’s no longer new, that extra reward vanishes.

日本語（にほんご）:
新（あたら）しい 体験（たいけん） は 脳（のう） に ご褒美（ほうび） を 与（あた）える。
— New experiences give the brain a reward.

2. Hedonic adaptation

This is the big one.

Your nervous system is designed to normalize repeated pleasure so it can stay sensitive to change.

The food didn’t get worse.
Your reference frame moved.

3. Expectation inflation

The first time, expectations are low or undefined.
The second time, you’re unconsciously chasing the memory of the first experience.

That’s a losing game.

This is especially strong with self-created food, because:

4. Authorship bias (first-creation glow)

There’s a mild, well-documented bias where people value things they made themselves more highly the first time—sometimes called the IKEA effect, though that term is broader and not perfect here.

The act of creation is part of the pleasure. Once the process becomes procedural, that layer fades.

Why this feels stronger with “yours and yours alone”

This effect is amplified when:

You’re not just tasting food.
You’re tasting a moment of originality.

That moment is, by definition, non-repeatable.

What this is not

It’s your brain doing exactly what it evolved to do.

A clean way to name it (informally)

If you wanted a compact, accurate phrase:

Novelty-weighted pleasure with hedonic normalization

Less formally:

The first-hit effect of self-discovered food

Or, kitchen-practical:

You’re chasing the discovery, not the flavor.

If you want, next step we can talk about: