A matter of perception

Multi-sensory dining and neurogastronomy gains momentum

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You walk into a roadside gas station on some random afternoon. You’re busy with chores all day. As you’re paying for a bottle of water you catch a familiar blur of shape and color on the candy rack. You buy it and in the car, before you turn the ignition, you take a bite. It’s not the taste, the texture or the packaging you remember — ingredients have changed over all these years, additives have been included, the package shrunk. But eating that piece of candy momentarily stirs you back into the past.

Without realizing it, our favorite foods from childhood are fondly remembered because of stimuli that enhanced the taste at the time, not the food itself. For example, imagine a couple of kids riding their bikes to the corner store on a bright summer morning. Together they sit on the curb outside the store, plotting their day as they each eat a Banana Flip. Fast forward 30 years, the kids are grown up. When looking back on that summer, it isn’t just the banana cake with the gooey banana filling they’ll remember. Memories of freedom, sunshine and friendship are also wrapped up in those taste buds.

Ambience and food is a powerful combination. Light, sound, smell and texture all play a part in the wonderfully complex world of sensory dining. Currently, there is a growing trend of chefs and food makers taking advantage of these deep connections our brains form with food. Reconnecting these wires, what is called neurogastronomy, can transport diners through time and space simply by altering the environment, scent, texture and taste of dishes.

For instance, would the sound of the ocean enhance the taste of a seafood meal? An upscale restaurant in Berkshire, England called The Fat Duck has taken the sensory meal to the next level. When a patron orders a seafood dish, they are given an iPod loaded with sounds of the ocean before the meal. Customers that participated in the auditory experience found the meal more flavorful with the ocean sounds than without. It’s the same meal with the same ingredients, but one group found food more flavorful simply by listening to waves crashing on the shore.

Charles Spence, a professor of psychology at Oxford University believes that sound is a forgotten flavor sense. In his book The Perfect Meal; The Multi-Sensory Science of Food and Dining, Spence discusses one of the more interesting tests on auditory/ brain stimulation, which highlights how easily the brain can be manipulated. Participants connected to brain mapping equipment were offered a glass of red wine. Sipping on the cheap wine, scientists observed a slight increase in brain waves. Once the participants were informed that it was an incredibly expensive wine, their pleasure and reward sensors spiked dramatically. Consuming a pricey beverage is cause for celebration.

The brain can also be manipulated and turned around to make gross food look appealing and appetizing food appear repulsive. A drippy, clump of green goo, in the right circumstances, may make someone’s taste buds sing. Dining in an upscale restaurant, how appealing would the green goo be if served on an elegant piece of China? Add some fun colors to the room, the smell of waffle cones and happy carnival music playing, would that make the green goo more or less appealing?

Spence spearheaded a multi-sensory experiment in a bar in London, called Diageo. Shifting colors of lights, textural furnishings and décor, customers reported different flavors with the same single malt whisky. A room with green hues and sounds of spring playing in the background, the whisky tasted grassy. A room bathed in red, with curved furniture and the sound of bells tinkling made the single malt whiskey a bit sweeter. So which is it, sweet or grassy… or neither? It’s the same single malt whisky, shouldn’t it have the same taste no matter where it’s consumed?

The bottom line is that taste is a malleable sense, manipulated on a whim to delight or offend with the flick of a light or a jingle of bells.

Gordon M. Shepherd, a neuroscientist at Yale University and author of Neurogastronomy; How the Brain Creates Flavor and Why it Matters writes that it all begins with a thought: “What do I want to eat?” Casting about different items in the mental food bank, the brain locks on a specific food or favorite dish. The thinker begins to taste the food in that instant. Whether the food is home cooked or ordered, the senses begin working overtime. Hunger kicks in and anticipation is heightened. The salivary glands come into play, thinking about the food coming. (Anyone who has taken Psychology 101 is imagining Pavlov’s dogs right about now.) The response is the same: food means expectation and a person drools with the possibility of a tasty reward. When the food is ready for consumption, there is the visual onceover, an involuntary sniff test before the food enters the mouth. Almost all senses are accounted for in the first bite.

Could this science be used to promote healthy eating habits? Several years ago in Spain, Neurologist-turnedchef Miguel Sanchez Romaro, opened his neurogastonomy-themed restaurant to a curious crowd. He promised to stay true to his beliefs and oath as a doctor by serving delicious meals without excess salt or fat. One of his offerings was a round of flavored waters that left the consumer feeling as if they had just consumed an entire meal. The chef explained the flavored water shows the mental process of eating. A part of the brain, the hypothalamus, may be tricked into satiation by manipulating the other senses, in this case the sense of smell and taste.

Restaurants aren’t the only venues capitalizing on this growing trend of sensory eating. Food festivals are beginning to climb on the bandwagon, offering fun exercises to show how the brain and food blend together. The Smell Festival in Bologna, Italy offered a workshop on neurogastronomy. One of the exercises centered on sweetness. Members of the workshop were offered five different sugar solutions infused with five different flavors. The vanillainfused solution was chosen overall as the sweetest by participants. Not surprising since vanilla is often associated with sweet treats. However, all five solutions were equally sweet.

Thinking, craving and excess saliva are only the tip of the iceberg in a world of mindful eating. This foray into experimental cuisine is a growing trend among foodies that are looking to indulge all five senses during a meal. Fruit desserts are reported to taste sweeter when served on white plates and less sweet on black plates. Heavy bowls, plates and flatware leave a consumer more satiated than those who eat off of lighter dinnerware. The brain plays a little sleight of hand with the dining experience and it’s becoming clear that we humans eat it up.