Perfect Meal

Charles Spence is Professor of Experimental Psychology and Head of the Crossmodal Research Laboratory in the Department of Experimental Psychology at Oxford University.Betina Piqueras-Fiszman was Consumer and Sensory Researcher at the Crossmodal Research Laboratory in the Department of Experimental Psychology at Oxford University and is currently Assistant Professor in the Department of Marketing and Consumer Behaviour at Wageningen UR.

"This book is in a class by itself.  If you thought taste was located on your tongue, then this unique book will disabuse you of that notion and reveal how both eating and cooking are extraordinarily rich multisensory experiences." (New York Journal of Books, 1 November 2014)"Their exhaustive analyses of everything from plate size to flavour incongruities are laced with details such as cutlery's evolution from Victorian marrow scoops and chocolate muddlers to today's textured spoons and 'aromatic forks.'" (Nature, 30 October 2014)"The Perfect Meal can't fail to entertain, inform and ultimately to dazzle."—Heston Blumenthal, chef and owner of The Fat Duck"Not many people are as ready to realise the importance of the senses, not only in cooking but in eating, as Charles Spence and Betina Piqueras-Fiszman ...This book demonstrates beyond doubt that gastronomy is the most complex creative discipline that exists."—Ferran Adrià, elBullifoundation"Focusing on the brain's interpretation of our eating experience, pioneers Spence and Piqueras-Fiszman acknowledge the interdisciplinary nature of gastronomy, rendering a complex area of study both digestible and applicable."—Ben Reade, Gastronome and Head of Culinary Research and Development at Nordic Food Lab"The Perfect Meal goes beyond the exotic ingredients and creative insights of the chef and into the realm of the diner’s psychology. Using an accessible writing style that neither talks down to the reader nor dumbs down the science, the authors take us into the relatively unexplored world of the dining context: the gastrophysics of the visual, acoustic, tactile – not to mention taste and smell – influences that we are exposed to in every dining experience.This is a new approach to thinking about dining that will appeal to and inform anyone who has ever been convinced to buy a cookbook by its illustrations or who persists, despite failure, to try to get a booking at The Fat Duck."—John Prescott, Ph.D, author of Taste Matters: Why We Eat the Foods We Do"Nowadays a great many chefs are realising that science also has a place at the table; that a dining experience is made up of far more than just good food. By understanding how we use our senses to interact with and appreciate food we may be able to further enhance our guests' dining experiences. This book looks at many topics which will become increasingly relevant to both chefs and our food culture as a whole in the coming years." — Jozef Youseff, chef and author of Molecular Gastronomy at Home (www.kitchen-theory.com)"...packed with insights that are fascinating to anyone in possession of an appetite."—Amy Fleming, The Guardian"One thing is for sure, after reading this book eating out will never be the same again...."—The Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food

• Foreword xiiiPreface xvii1 Introducing the Perfect Meal 11.1 Introduction 11.2 A brief history of culinary movements 21.2.1 Nouvelle Cuisine 21.2.2 The rise of molecular gastronomy 31.2.3 Molecular gastronomy or modernist cuisine? 51.2.4 On the rise of the celebrity chef 71.3 The search for novelty and surprise 81.3.1 The taste of expectation 101.3.2 Food as theatre: the multisensory experience economy meets cuisine 111.4 The brain on flavour 121.4.1 Neurogastronomy 121.4.2 Do neurogastronomists make great-tasting food? 141.5 Food and the perception of everything else 161.6 Gastrophysics: the new science of the table 181.7 Food perception is fundamentally multisensory 211.8 Isn’t modernist cuisine only for the lucky few? 221.9 Amuse bouche 25References 272 Let the Show Commence: On the Start of the Perfect Meal 372.1 Introduction 372.1.1 Mood food 382.2 On the social aspects of dining 422.2.1 Waiting staff 422.2.2 The company 442.3 On the design of the menu 472.3.1 Scanning the menu: ‘Oysters, steak frites, field greens, oysters…’ 482.3.2 ‘This dessert is literally calling me’ 502.3.3 Images on the menu 522.3.4 On a diet? Does nutritional information help? 542.3.5 Price and behaviour 552.3.6 On the format of the menu 592.4 Conclusions 62References 623 Tastes Great, But What do We Call It? The Art and Science of Food Description 713.1 Introduction 713.2 Snail porridge 733.3 Can labelling enhance the taste and/or flavour of food? 773.4 Interim summary 813.5 On the neuroscience of naming food 813.6 Naming names 843.7 Does food labelling influence the perceived ethnicity of a dish? 853.8 Natural and organic labels 873.9 Health/ingredient labels 883.10 Local labels 903.11 Descriptive food labelling 913.12 Labelling culinary techniques 923.13 Surprise! 953.14 Expectations and reactions 963.15 Conclusions 98References 1004 Plating and Plateware: On the Multisensory Presentation of Food 1094.1 Introduction 1094.2 A potted history of food presentation 1114.3 The plate: the essential element of our everyday meal 1154.3.1 On the colour of the plate 1154.3.2 The shape of the plate 1194.3.3 The size of the plate 1214.3.4 On the haptic aspects of the plateware 1224.4 Interim summary 1284.5 The plate that is not a plate 1284.5.1 Reaching new heights 1294.5.2 On the smell and sound of the plateware 1304.5.3 Camouflage 1324.5.4 Improvised plateware 1334.5.5 Purpose-made plateware 1344.6 On the multiple contributions of the visual appearance of a dish 1354.6.1 On the importance of harmony on the plate 1364.7 Individual diner responses to the visual presentation of food 1414.8 Conclusions 143References 1435 Getting Your Hands on the Food: Cutlery 1515.1 Introduction 1515.2 The story of cutlery 1535.3 The material qualities of the cutlery 1595.3.1 The quality of the cutlery 1605.3.2 Tasting the cutlery 1615.4 Size matters 1655.5 On the texture/feel of the cutlery 1665.6 Colourful cutlery 1685.7 Cutlery that is not 1695.8 Finger food 1745.9 Eating without hands 1755.10 Conclusions 177References 1776 The Multisensory Perception of Flavour 1836.1 Introduction 1836.2 Perceiving flavours 1836.3 Taste 1866.3.1 Are you a supertaster? 1876.4 Olfactory–gustatory interactions 1886.4.1 Cross-cultural differences in multisensory flavour perception 1906.5 Oral-somatosensory contributions to multisensory flavour perception 1916.5.1 Are you a thermal taster? 1936.6 Interim summary 1936.7 The sound of food 1946.8 Visual flavour 1966.8.1 How does colour influence flavour perception? 1966.8.2 Summary of research on visual flavour 2006.9 The cognitive neuroscience of multisensory flavour perception 2006.10 Conclusions 202References 2047 Using Surprise and Sensory Incongruity in a Meal 2157.1 Introduction 2157.2 How did sensory incongruity become so popular and why is it so exciting? 2167.2.1 The search for novelty 2167.2.2 The rise of molecular gastronomy/modernist cuisine 2167.2.3 The rise of sensory marketing and multisensory design 2177.2.4 Globalization 2177.3 Defining sensory incongruity 2187.4 Noticing sensory incongruity 2197.4.1 Disconfirmed expectations 2217.4.2 Hidden and visible incongruity 2227.5 A brief history of sensory incongruity at the dinner table 2247.6 Colour–flavour incongruity 2267.7 Format–flavour incongruity 2277.8 Smell–flavour incongruity 2307.9 Interim summary 2317.10 The diner’s response to sensory incongruity 2327.10.1 Attentional capture 2327.10.2 Surprise 2327.10.3 Memorability 2327.11 Molecular gastronomy and surprise 2337.12 Sensory incongruity and the concept of ‘naturalness’ 2367.13 Individual differences in the response of diners to sensory incongruity 2397.14 Conclusions 241References 2428 Looking for Your Perfect Meal in the Dark 2498.1 Introduction 2498.2 The social aspects of dining in the dark 2518.3 Why are dining in the dark restaurants so popular nowadays? 2528.4 Seeing or not seeing (correctly) the food 2558.4.1 The importance of colour to food 2558.4.2 Do our other senses really become more acute in the dark? 2608.5 Does dining in the dark really capture how the blind experience food? 2648.6 Cooking in the dark 2658.7 Conclusions 265References 2669 How Important is Atmosphere to the Perfect Meal? 2719.1 Introduction 2719.2 Atmospherics and the experience economy 2759.3 The Provencal Rose paradox 2789.4 Does the atmosphere really influence our appraisal of the meal? 2809.5 On the ethnicity of the meal 2809.6 Tuning up how much money and time we spend at the restaurant 2829.6.1 The style and volume of the music 2829.6.2 The tempo of the music 2849.6.3 “Pardon?” 2859.7 Context and expectation 2869.8 The lighting 2879.9 The olfactory atmosphere 2889.10 On the feel of the restaurant 2919.11 Atmospheric contributions to taste and flavour perception 2949.12 Multisensory atmospherics 2989.13 Conclusions 299References 30110 Technology at the Dining Table 31110.1 Introduction 31110.2 Technology on the dining table 31210.3 Transforming the dining experience by means of technology 31510.4 Augmented Reality (AR) food: A case of technology for technology’s sake? 31710.5 Using QR codes to change our interaction with food 31910.6 Fostering healthy eating through the incorporation of technology 32010.7 Technology and distraction 32210.8 Using technology to control the multisensory atmosphere 32310.9 On the neuroscience of matching sound to food (and how technology might help) 32410.10 On the future of technology at the table: digital artefacts 32610.11 The SmartPlate 32810.12 Anyone for a ‘Gin & Sonic’? 32810.13 The tablet as twenty-first century plateware? 32910.14 Tips from the chef at the tips of your fingers 33110.15 Conclusions 331References 33311 On the Future of the Perfect Meal 33911.1 Introduction 33911.2 On the history of predicting the future of food 34111.2.1 A meal (or even a day’s food) in a single dose 34111.2.2 On the mechanization of feeding 34511.2.3 Air ‘food’ 34611.2.4 Artificial flavours 34811.3 From the past to the future of food 35111.3.1 Sous vide as the twenty-first century microwave 35111.3.2 3D printed food: an astronomical idea 35311.3.3 On the future of cultured meat 35511.3.4 Note-by-note cuisine 35611.3.5 Eating insects for pleasure: bug burger with insect paste, anyone? 35811.3.6 The new algal cuisine 36211.4 Anyone for a spot of neo-Futurist cuisine? 36311.4.1 Food theatre: food as entertainment 36411.4.2 Plating art 36511.5 Interim summary 36611.6 Acknowledging our differences 36711.7 The meal as catalyst for social exchange 36711.8 Is it a restaurant or is it a science laboratory? 36911.9 Pop-up dining, story telling and the joys of situated eating 37111.10 Conclusions 372References 374Index 383