The authors of The Perfect Meal examine all of the elements that contribute to the diner?s experience of a meal (primarily at a restaurant) and investigate how each of the diner?s senses contributes to their overall multisensory experience. The principal focus of the book is not on flavor perception, but on all of the non-food and beverage factors that have been shown to influence the diner?s overall experience.
Examples are:
the colour of the plate (visual)
the shape of the glass (visual/tactile)
the names used to describe the dishes (cognitive)
the background music playing inside the restaurant (aural)
Novel approaches to understanding the diner?s experience in the restaurant setting are explored from the perspectives of decision neuroscience, marketing, design, and psychology.
2015 Popular Science Prose Award Winner.
Foreword xiii
Preface xvii
1 Introducing the Perfect Meal 1
1.1 Introduction 1
1.2 A brief history of culinary movements 2
1.2.1 Nouvelle Cuisine 2
1.2.2 The rise of molecular gastronomy 3
1.2.3 Molecular gastronomy or modernist cuisine? 5
1.2.4 On the rise of the celebrity chef 7
1.3 The search for novelty and surprise 8
1.3.1 The taste of expectation 10
1.3.2 Food as theatre: the multisensory experience economy meets cuisine 11
1.4 The brain on flavour 12
1.4.1 Neurogastronomy 12
1.4.2 Do neurogastronomists make great-tasting food? 14
1.5 Food and the perception of everything else 16
1.6 Gastrophysics: the new science of the table 18
1.7 Food perception is fundamentally multisensory 21
1.8 Isn't modernist cuisine only for the lucky few? 22
1.9 Amuse bouche 25
References 27
2 Let the Show Commence: On the Start of the Perfect Meal 37
2.1 Introduction 37
2.1.1 Mood food 38
2.2 On the social aspects of dining 42
2.2.1 Waiting staff 42
2.2.2 The company 44
2.3 On the design of the menu 47
2.3.1 Scanning the menu: 'Oysters, steak frites, field greens, oysters...' 48
2.3.2 'This dessert is literally calling me' 50
2.3.3 Images on the menu 52
2.3.4 On a diet? Does nutritional information help? 54
2.3.5 Price and behaviour 55
2.3.6 On the format of the menu 59
2.4 Conclusions 62
References 62
3 Tastes Great, But What do We Call It? The Art and Science of Food Description 71
3.1 Introduction 71
3.2 Snail porridge 73
3.3 Can labelling enhance the taste and/or flavour of food? 77
3.4 Interim summary 81
3.5 On the neuroscience of naming food 81
3.6 Naming names 84
3.7 Does food labelling influence the perceived ethnicity of a dish? 85
3.8 Natural and organic labels 87
3.9 Health/ingredient labels 88
3.10 Local labels 90
3.11 Descriptive food labelling 91
3.12 Labelling culinary techniques 92
3.13 Surprise! 95
3.14 Expectations and reactions 96
3.15 Conclusions 98
References 100
4 Plating and Plateware: On the Multisensory Presentation of Food 109
4.1 Introduction 109
4.2 A potted history of food presentation 111
4.3 The plate: the essential element of our everyday meal 115
4.3.1 On the colour of the plate 115
4.3.2 The shape of the plate 119
4.3.3 The size of the plate 121
4.3.4 On the haptic aspects of the plateware 122
4.4 Interim summary 128
4.5 The plate that is not a plate 128
4.5.1 Reaching new heights 129
4.5.2 On the smell and sound of the plateware 130
4.5.3 Camouflage 132
4.5.4 Improvised plateware 133
4.5.5 Purpose-made plateware 134
4.6 On the multiple contributions of the visual appearance of a dish 135
4.6.1 On the importance of harmony on the plate 136
4.7 Individual diner responses to the visual presentation of food 141
4.8 Conclusions 143
References 143
5 Getting Your Hands on the Food: Cutlery 151
5.1 Introduction 151
5.2 The story of cutlery 153
5.3 The material qualities of the cutlery 159
5.3.1 The quality of the cutlery 160
5.3.2 Tasting the cutlery 161
5.4 Size matters 165
5.5 On the texture/feel of the cutlery 166
5.6 Colourful cutlery 168
5.7 Cutlery that is not 169
5.8 Finger food 174
5.9 Eating without hands 175
5.10 Conclusions 177
References 177
6 The Multisensory Perception of Flavour 183
6.1 Introduction 183
6.2 Perceiving flavours 183
6.3 Taste 186
6.3.1 Are you a supertaster? 187
6.4 Olfactory-gustatory interactions 188
6.4.1 Cross-cultural differences in multisensory flavour perception 190
6.5 Oral-somatosensory contributions to multisensory flavour perception 191
6.5.1 Are you a thermal taster? 193
6.6 Interim summary 193
6.7 The sound of food 194
6.8 Visual flavour 196
6.8.1 How does colour influence flavour perception? 196
6.8.2 Summary of research on visual flavour 200
6.9 The cognitive neuroscience of multisensory flavour perception 200
6.10 Conclusions 202
References 204
7 Using Surprise and Sensory Incongruity in a Meal 215
7.1 Introduction 215
7.2 How did sensory incongruity become so popular and why is it so exciting? 216
7.2.1 The search for novelty 216
7.2.2 The rise of molecular gastronomy/modernist cuisine 216
7.2.3 The rise of sensory marketing and multisensory design 217
7.2.4 Globalization 217
7.3 Defining sensory incongruity 218
7.4 Noticing sensory incongruity 219
7.4.1 Disconfirmed expectations 221
7.4.2 Hidden and visible incongruity 222
7.5 A brief history of sensory incongruity at the dinner table 224
7.6 Colour-flavour incongruity 226
7.7 Format-flavour incongruity 227
7.8 Smell-flavour incongruity 230
7.9 Interim summary 231
7.10 The diner's response to sensory incongruity 232
7.10.1 Attentional capture 232
7.10.2 Surprise 232
7.10.3 Memorability 232
7.11 Molecular gastronomy and surprise 233
7.12 Sensory incongruity and the concept of 'naturalness' 236
7.13 Individual differences in the response of diners to sensory incongruity 239
7.14 Conclusions 241
References 242
8 Looking for Your Perfect Meal in the Dark 249
8.1 Introduction 249
8.2 The social aspects of dining in the dark 251
8.3 Why are dining in the dark restaurants so popular nowadays? 252
8.4 Seeing or not seeing (correctly) the food 255
8.4.1 The importance of colour to food 255
8.4.2 Do our other senses really become more acute in the dark? 260
8.5 Does dining in the dark really capture how the blind experience food? 264
8.6 Cooking in the dark 265
8.7 Conclusions 265
References 266
9 How Important is Atmosphere to the Perfect Meal? 271
9.1 Introduction 271
9.2 Atmospherics and the experience economy 275
9.3 The Provencal Rose paradox 278
9.4 Does the atmosphere really influence our appraisal of the meal? 280
9.5 On the ethnicity of the meal 280
9.6 Tuning up how much money and time we spend at the restaurant 282
9.6.1 The style and volume of the music 282
9.6.2 The tempo of the music 284
9.6.3 "Pardon?" 285
9.7 Context and expectation 286
9.8 The lighting 287
9.9 The olfactory atmosphere 288
9.10 On the feel of the restaurant 291
9.11 Atmospheric contributions to taste and flavour perception 294
9.12 Multisensory atmospherics 298
9.13 Conclusions 299
References 301
10 Technology at the Dining Table 311
10.1 Introduction 311
10.2 Technology on the dining table 312
10.3 Transforming the dining experience by means of technology 315
10.4 Augmented Reality (AR) food: A case of technology for technology's sake? 317
10.5 Using QR codes to change our interaction with food 319
10.6 Fostering healthy eating through the incorporation of technology 320
10.7 Technology and distraction 322
10.8 Using technology to control the multisensory atmosphere 323
10.9 On the neuroscience of matching sound to food (and how technology might help) 324
10.10 On the future of technology at the table: digital artefacts 326
10.11 The SmartPlate 328
10.12 Anyone for a 'Gin & Sonic'? 328
10.13 The tablet as twenty-first century plateware? 329
10.14 Tips from the chef at the tips of your fingers 331
10.15 Conclusions 331
References 333
11 On the Future of the Perfect Meal 339
11.1 Introduction 339
11.2 On the history of predicting the future of food 341
11.2.1 A meal (or even a day's food) in a single dose 341
11.2.2 On the mechanization of feeding 345
11.2.3 Air 'food' 346
11.2.4 Artificial flavours 348
11.3 From the past to the future of food 351
11.3.1 Sous vide as the twenty-first century microwave 351
11.3.2 3D printed food: an astronomical idea 353
11.3.3 On the future of cultured meat 355
11.3.4 Note-by-note cuisine 356
11.3.5 Eating insects for pleasure: bug burger with insect paste, anyone? 358
11.3.6 The new algal cuisine 362
11.4 Anyone for a spot of neo-Futurist cuisine? 363
11.4.1 Food theatre: food as entertainment 364
11.4.2 Plating art 365
11.5 Interim summary 366
11.6 Acknowledging our differences 367
11.7 The meal as catalyst for social exchange 367
11.8 Is it a restaurant or is it a science laboratory? 369
11.9 Pop-up dining, story telling and the joys of situated eating 371
11.10 Conclusions 372
References 374
Index 383
