what do you call a person who can distinguish between different tastes in the same food?

My first thought was connoisseur, which is a borrowed word from French. It's not exactly what you mean though, it would more mean an expert in taste (and can also apply to art or anything subjective). Saying they have "a strong taste" doesn't sound right to me. Maybe "sensitive taste"? It's still not a set phrase though, but in context it might be understood.

Supertaster https://www.healthline.com/health/food-nutrition/supertaster#:~:text=A%20supertaster%20is%20a%20person,brain%20what%20you're%20eating.

He/she has a discerning palate.

They have a refined or discerning palate

My husband has an exceptional ability to smell things that other people cannot smell. I say he is a super smeller. I would use the same word for someone who could taste things. I would say they were a super taster. When describing his abilities, I tell people he can smell as good as a wolf. However, the concept you describing might have more to do with the fact that they are paying attention and not that their sensory organs are actually more powerful. In that case, I don’t think there would be a simple word to describe it. I might say “he has the ability to pick up subtle flavors“ or something like that, I guess you could describe him as a attentive taster.

I would say they have a good palate. As a noun, “palate” means the roof of the mouth, but it also means ability to discern the sense of taste. This is also where we get the word “palatable,” which means something is acceptable for eating or other consumption.

It definitely doesn’t have a definite term. Well I should say it doesn’t have a layman’s term, but a chef or cook may know a common use. Connoisseur is the word I thought of first, but usually that is pretty focused on specific types of food/drink like a coffee connoisseur. Another commenter said a “discerning” or “refined” palate, which is probably the most accurate. Discerning palate is, but refined means something a *little* different to me. Like refined is more of a skill, whereas someone might just be able to pick up hints of flavors without any experience cooking/eating high end food. The problem is that the question is asking for a word that describes the person, not their palate, so I’d be willing to say connoisseur is the most accurate answer to the question, but the appropriate answer is “someone with a discerning palate.”

Colloquially I've heard it called a "Chef's Palette"

There is something called a supertaster but nobody actually uses that word. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supertaster

"Normal." Is this a thing most people can't do? I suppose at some level, it becomes a trained palate. A sommelier usually has this to an unusual degree of training, but specialized in wine.

I bet this guy would know. https://youtu.be/EYtFH2bFCfg?si=ZkwroWJKj1A1Zzo5

The most technical term I've heard from the culinary world is that they're a high taster. Some people have more taste buds per area in their tongue than other people. You can do a test- take a hole punch and punch a hole in a piece of paper. Put it over your tongue and look in a mirror, and count the number of taste buds you see. If it's over than... 25(?) (I forget the exact number, you can look it up(, then you'rea high taster. If not- low taster.

To be honest we don't really have a special word for that because most people can do that. Some people are suggesting the word connoisseur but that implies a specialized enjoyment of some category of thing. It implies a focus that your question doesn't seem to require. Most people can taste multiple things in their food and can identify many common spices.

I’d say they have a sensitive palate. You wouldn’t know if someone had a “strong taste” unless you licked them. 🙂

A term that is very accurate for this and used to be far more common is "discriminating palate" but in the past couple of decades, the word "discriminate" has picked up a negative connotation because of sociopolitical dynamics, even though it simply means being able to tell the difference between things It's still modern enough to be understood, but people who have never heard it in that context might be a little weirded out by it

A food connoisseur. The word ‘connoisseur’ has French origins but is used in English.

There are “super tasters,” but that’s more a science term. There are connoisseurs, which implies that the person has a lot of experience and discernment in that particular item. There are people who have “sensitive palates.”