Confusing Tastes with Flavours

Self Cite

121

Background: Researchers have demonstrated that a variety of visual factors, such as the colour and balance of the elements on a plate, can influence a diner's perception of, and response to, food. Here, we report on a study designed to assess whether placing the culinary elements of a dish in an art-inspired manner would modify the diner's expectations and hence their experience of food. The dish, a salad, was arranged in one of three different presentations: One simply plated (with all of the elements of the salad tossed together), another with the elements arranged to look like one of Kandinsky's paintings, and a third arrangement in which the elements were organized in a neat (but non-artistic) manner. The participants answered two questionnaires, one presented prior to and the other after eating the dish, to evaluate their expectations and actual sensory experience. Results: Prior to consumption, the art-inspired presentation resulted in the food being considered as more artistic, more complex, and more liked than either of the other presentations. The participants were also willing to pay more for the Kandinsky-inspired plating. Interestingly, after consumption, the results revealed higher tastiness ratings for the art-inspired presentation.

Section: A Taste Of Kandinskymentioning

confidence: 99%

A taste of Kandinsky: assessing the influence of the artistic visual presentation of food on the dining experience

Michel

Velasco

Gatti

et al. 2014

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121

“…Only then is the food ready to eat. In this case, notice how the sealed bag in which the dish is presented not only preserves the smoky aroma for the benefit of the diner's nostrils but also helps to smoke the food (thus serving a functional purpose, as well as bringing a memorable, 5 and quite possibly theatrical, element to the proceedings).…”

Section: Designing Dishes To Enhance the Olfactory Hitmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…He continues as follows: 'It is, in fact, responsible for 80 percent of food flavour, a fact that is largely unknown and elicits a degree of disbelief'. Now, as stressed by Spence [4] recently in this journal, delivering a precise, quantitative figure concerning olfaction's relative contribution to multisensory flavour perception may not be possible, especially given the difficulty associated with trying to define flavour in the first place [5]. Nevertheless, that said, what the majority of contemporary researchers do broadly seem to agree upon is the fact that it plays a dominant role in flavour perception, not to mention olfaction's role more generally in our enjoyment of food and drink (and in the setting of flavour expectations).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Olfactory dining: designing for the dominant sense

Spence

Youssef²

2015

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The majority of researchers agree that olfactory cues play a dominant role in our perception and enjoyment of the taste (or rather flavour) of food and drink. It is no surprise then that in recent years, a variety of modern (or dare we say it, modernist) solutions have been developed with the explicit aim of delivering an enhanced olfactory input to the diners/dishes served in the restaurant, and occasionally also in the home setting too. Such innovations include everything from aromatic cutlery and plateware through to the use of atomizers and dry ice. A few augmented reality (AR; i.e. an experience of a physical, real-world environment whose elements have been augmented, or supplemented, by computer-generated sensory input) solutions have also made their way out from well-funded technology labs, and scent-enabled plug-ins for mobile devices are slowly being commercialized. The latter could potentially be used to enhance the orthonasal olfactory component of our multisensory food experiences in the years to come. Ultimately, though, there is an important question here as to the authenticity of those food and flavour experiences that have been augmented/enhanced by aroma and fragrance cues that are not integral to the food or drink itself. It is this lack of authenticity that may, at least in your authors' humble opinion, limit the more widespread uptake of such a sense-by-sense approach to the contemporary construction of multisensory gastronomic experiences. The challenge, as always, remains to find the unique selling point (USP) of such approaches to olfactory stimulation, over and above their mere feasibility and inherent theatricality.

“…It is, however, not always so easy to ascertain exactly which sense is actually doing the work in terms of giving rise to specific aspects of our multisensory experience of food and drink (see [61]). For example, take attributes such as carbonation, fattiness, and astringency.…”

Section: The Multisensory Aspects Of Texturementioning

confidence: 99%

A touch of gastronomy

Spence¹,

Hobkinson²,

Gallace

et al. 2013

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The last few years have seen a rapid growth of research interest in the study of the role of touch and oralsomatosensation in the experience of eating and drinking. The various ways in which the sense of touch can be used to enhance the diner's/consumer's experience in both everyday eating and drinking, as well as in the context of experiential dining, is also gaining ever more attention from professionals in a variety of disciplines. In this review, we highlight the importance that everything that we perceive via the sense of touch, from the weight of the menu to the feel of the tablecloth, tableware, cutlery, and even the food itself, has on our eating experience and food and beverage-related behaviors. Everything we feel, be it the weight, the temperature, or the texture of whatever we happen to come across while eating appears to matter. In addition, we also highlight the relevance of oral-somatosensory cues to our sensory and hedonic perception of foods. A number of examples are given to demonstrate some of the many ways in which chefs, designers, and artists are now exploiting these findings in order to change and, hopefully, to enhance the diner's eating experience in innovative ways.