Time to get smart about your relationship with food?
We all know ‘we are what we eat’. But what if it weren’t necessarily true or at least if things like where we eat, how we eat and what we eat with have more of an effect on us than we previously thought.
“There’s a lot more to food than food itself,” says Professor Charles Spence of Oxford University. “And it’s the same for drink.”
Professor Spence is the head of the Crossmodal Research Laboratory at Somerville College, Oxford. His research examines how people perceive the world around them, how our brains manage to process the information from each of our different senses and how those same senses interact and affect each other.
In recent years his focus has been on food and drink, the tools we use to consume it and the environment we consume it in.
“Everyone has their favourite mugs or cups and we’d all agree that tea tastes better out of that mug or that cup but we want to know why,” he says.
“We’ve found things generally taste better in heavier receptacles, although tea seems to be an exception. It’s the same with cutlery, the heavier the cutlery the better the taste. It shouldn’t make a difference but it does.
“We did an experiment in a hotel in Edinburgh where we served the exact same food to people in a room but half had heavy cutlery and the other half had lighter cutlery. Those that were eating with the heavy cutlery liked the food that much more.
“We don’t know why that happens but it might have something to do with associating weight with quality.”
Another experiment showed that ordering first in a restaurant means you are more likely to enjoy your food more. The theory being that a person who orders first is asking for the dish he or she really wants and therefore is not trying to avoid copying others or trying to be original.
According to Spence music can have a profound effect on our enjoyment of food. The “more tinkly” the music the sweeter something tastes.
“At birth humans, chimps, rats all stick out their tongues to taste food,” he explains.
“If somebody puts a bitter taste on a newborn’s tongue, it goes out and down because it’s saying ‘ugh’ [I don’t like that] whereas if you put a sweet taste on the tongue, it goes out and up as you try to lick it in.
“So the theory is, if you think about the different gurgles a baby makes in reaction to the taste, a low pitch ‘ugh’ for the bitter stuff and a high-pitched, happy ‘goo-goo’ for the sweet stuff there’s your correlation.”
And it doesn’t stop at music. According to Professor Spence our brain is constantly picking up correlations in the environment. Lighting, temperature, the numbers of people we eat with and even the shape and colour of a plate can effect the taste of something.
“The exact same strawberry ice-cream will be rated as tasting 10% sweeter out of a round white plate as opposed to a black angular one,” he says.
Professor Spence has collaborated with some well-known celebrity chefs such as Heston Blumenthal and he does admit to having “lots of fun”. But while at first his research might seem to involve all play and no work, it’s worth bearing its potential in mind.
If something tastes 10% sweeter because of the type of bowl you use perhaps it means you can reduce the amount of sugar in a dish and therefore make it healthier.
Much of his research investigates ways of getting people either to eat more or less depending on the environment and stimuli around them; research that might help with the treatment of eating disorders.
For now, Professor Spence is simply hoping to promote the enjoyment of food.
“In these new fancy restaurants it’s about the whole experience,” he says. “The sights, the sounds, the smells. I don’t see why we can’t do some of it at home and make meal times more engaging and more sensory stimulating.”
For Galway restaurateur, JP McMahon, surroundings help to shape the eating experience and convey a philosophy. Nothing in his Michelin star restaurant, Aniar, is left to chance.
“We think about what sort of message we are trying to send out,” he explains. “And every dish is a different message.
“Aniar has a kind of a wild forage feel to it but the restaurant is quite clean and minimal, even the menu is. So the plates that we use aren’t very busy.
“We use white plates and they’re very clunky but with very clean lines so they allow the food to articulate itself better; each element stands out and we don’t want the plate to take away from the food. Nothing is hidden, people can see it straight away.”
“About 60% or 70% of eating is done with our brain and our eyes before we even get something into our mouth,” says McMahon. “So you’ve already judged something before you’ve sat down because you’re used to certain things. As restaurateurs, we have to think about that.”
The more they do, the more fun diners are likely to have in restaurants of the future.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
