Background: While recent studies demonstrate the unexpected influence of plate shape and abstract names on the taste and flavour of foods, it is still challenging to derive more specific rules about how to use verbal and visual presentation to affect the experience of a complex dish. Findings: In the present study, we paired with the Experimental Kitchen at The Fat Duck to manipulate both plate shape and serving presentation of a complex dish and to investigate the relative contributions and interaction of these two factors on the naming and sensory evaluation of the food. The results confirm that certain visual presentations of food, but not plate shape, were associated with unfamiliar names if they respected sound symbolic associations. By contrast, the change in the perceived sweetness of the dishes was driven by the interaction between the shape of the plate and the presentation of the dish. Conclusions: The study therefore allows us to disentangle the effects of plate shape and dish presentation on the diner's expectations and experience and shows how fundamental research on crossmodal effects can inform the creative process in the kitchen.

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