Why do we consume 35 percent more food when eating with one other person, and 75 percent more when dining with three? How do we explain the fact that people who like strong coffee drink more of it under bright lighting? And why does green ketchup just not work?
The answer is gastrophysics, the new area of sensory science pioneered by Oxford professor Charles Spence. Now he's stepping out of his lab to lift the lid on the entire eating experience—how the taste, the aroma, and our overall enjoyment of food are influenced by all of our senses, as well as by our mood and expectations.
The pleasures of food lie mostly in the mind, not in the mouth. Get that straight and you can start to understand what really makes food enjoyable, stimulating, and, most important, memorable. Spence reveals in amusing detail the importance of all the “off the plate” elements of a meal: the weight of cutlery, the color of the plate, the background music, and much more. Whether we’re dining alone or at a dinner party, on a plane or in front of the TV, he reveals how to understand what we’re tasting and influence what others experience.
This is accessible science at its best, fascinating to anyone in possession of an appetite. Crammed with discoveries about our everyday sensory lives, Gastrophysics is a book guaranteed to make you look at your plate in a whole new way.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
June 20, 2017 -
Formats
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9780735223486
- File size: 15266 KB
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9780735223486
- File size: 14647 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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Kirkus
May 1, 2017
A spry book of cutting-edge food science.We taste sweet at the front of the tongue and bitter at the back, right? Wrong. Thanks to what Spence (co-author: The Perfect Meal: The Multisensory Science of Food and Dining, 2014) characterizes as "the general neglect of the 'lower' senses by research scientists," we're brought up on all kinds of misinformation about food and the way our bodies respond to it. Enter "gastrophysics," a new blend of various sciences with cultural and psychological elements of food preparation and presentation, which, in Spence's hands, yields all sorts of aha moments--e.g., if they're playing fast music in the restaurant you enter, it means they're trying to get you out of there quickly. Part of this book seems an extended advertisement for Oxford's Crossmodal Research Laboratory, which Spence, an experimental psychologist, directs and which conducts probes and disquisitions in what he calls "neurogastronomy." But part is a disinterested--and highly interesting--examination of the widely diverse food domains we inhabit, the recognition of which should help chefs put aside the notion that anyone who tinkers with their spicing by adding salt at the table is an evil creature. They're not, and seasoning a dish differently from how the chef prepared it is not an insult but, instead, "a form of customization that recognizes the very different taste worlds in which we all live." Spence has a light touch and a knack for framing research questions in provocative headings: "What's the link," he asks, "between the humble tomato and aircraft noise?" It's a question worth pondering should you have the dubious pleasure of being served an in-flight meal, just as you'll learn here why the barista at Starbucks puts your name on the cup (hint: it's not really a memory aid for said barista). A sharp, engaging education for food consumers and a font of ideas for restaurateurs and chefs as well.COPYRIGHT(2017) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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Formats
- OverDrive Read
- EPUB ebook
subjects
Languages
- English
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