Culinary arts and meal science – a new scientific research discipline*

Abstract

A new scientific research discipline has been accepted at the Department of Restaurant and Culinary Arts at Örebro University. The subject area definition of Culinary Arts and Meal Science , as opposed to Culinary Science, was chosen. This is because Culinary Arts places great emphasis on practical skills, aiming to combine these with science as well as with working methods with an artistic content. Thus its scientific approach is a multidisciplinary one, joint efforts with other sciences being necessary, for instance by maintaining a scientifically varied tutorship. Research areas such as ethnology, sociology, anthropology, business economics, nutrition, domestic science and public health all constitute adjacent branches. These areas treat the meal from various aspects, which are examined in this paper. During the course of our educational endeavours at the department, we studied the meal from a five-aspect viewpoint with the following main elements: the room, the meeting, the product, the atmosphere and the management control system, which also constitute the framework within which we formulate our issues and questions. First, this five-aspect approach is a constructive and all-inclusive aid for those who plan and produce meals, especially in restaurants -all with the ultimate aim to achieve maximum satisfaction among the guests in different meal situations. If, then, the guest/diner evaluates the meal with something like these five aspects in mind is the subject of our research! At present, seven PhD students have been admitted to the postgraduate course in Culinary Arts and Meal Science. These students will study the meal, or certain parts of it, and the importance of the various components are presented from a number of perspectives.

Expectations and surprise in a molecular gastronomic meal

“…It is a dynamic phenomenon affected by a variety of other factors (Carlsen, 2006;Gustafsson, 2004;Pierson, Reeve, & Creed, 1995). Factors such as descriptive food names, the eating location and situation, and social factors have been found to have an effect on the consumers' perception.…”

“…For success in food service, the waiter who is in contact with the guest must be able to perform a rapid evaluation of the customers' special identity and fulfill the personal requirements of that particular guest, making him or her satisfied and at ease. The importance of the interaction between waiter and customer in different meal settings such as restaurants is probably vastly underestimated and also unexplored (Gustafsson, 2004). One of the major interactions between waiter and guests is the verbal presentations of the dishes served.…”

Resolving the conundrum of superior performers in organizations with the utilization of competency profiling

“…Culinary professionals are found to have difficulty in assenting that this statement reflects their competencies in culinary science. As mentioned earlier by Gustaffson [20], the acquiescent towards scientific culinary is important in understanding the meal sciences. Behind the cooking process, there are various chemical excitations that drive the transformation from raw ingredients into cooked meals.…”

“…Another difficult item is "knowledge of molecular cuisines", which measure science in culinary. Several authors [20,38] highlighted on the importance of understanding meal sciences among todays' culinary professionals. Traditionally, emphasis was given only on the artistic element of the cuisines.…”

Fotografi som visuel metode i ernærings- og sundhedsfaglige studier

“…Billederne blev indledningsvis taget med inspiration hentet fra FAMMmodellens fem elementer (Gustafsson, 2004) og derefter udvalgt med inspiration hentet fra patienters tre tilgange til hospitalsmåltidet fundet i Justesens studie af måltidsoplevelser (Justesen et al, 2014). Billederne blev valgt således, at hvert billede indeholdt elementer fra to eller alle tre tilgange.…”