The perfect meal : the multisensory science of food and dining /

• Main Author: Spence, Charles
• Other Authors: Piqueras-Fiszman, Betina
• Format: eBook
• Language: English
• Published: Chichester, West Sussex, UK ; Hoboken, NJ : Wiley Blackwell, 2014.
• Subjects: Gastronomy.; Dinners and dining.; Food > Sensory evaluation.; Senses and sensation.; Intersensory effects.; TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING > Food Science.; Electronic books.

"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 f...

Table of Contents:

• 1. Introducing the Perfect Meal
• 2. Let the Show Commence: On the Start of the Perfect Meal
• 3. Tastes Great, But What do We Call It? The Art and Science of Food Description
• 4. Plating and Plateware: On the Multisensory Presentation of Food
• 5. Getting Your Hands on the Food: Cutlery
• 6. The Multisensory Perception of Flavour
• 7. Using Surprise and Sensory Incongruity in a Meal
• 8. Looking for Your Perfect Meal in the Dark
• 9. How Important is Atmosphere to the Perfect Meal?
• 10. Technology at the Dining Table
• 11. On the Future of the Perfect Meal
• 1. Introducing the Perfect Meal
• 1.1. Introduction
• 1.2. A brief history of culinary movements
• 1.2.1. Nouvelle Cuisine
• 1.2.2. The rise of molecular gastronomy
• 1.2.3. Molecular gastronomy or modernist cuisine?
• 1.2.4. On the rise of the celebrity chef
• 1.3. The search for novelty and surprise
• 1.3.1. The taste of expectation
• 1.3.2. Food as theatre: the multisensory experience economy meets cuisine
• 1.4. The brain on flavour
• 1.4.1. Neurogastronomy
• 1.4.2. Do neurogastronomists make great-tasting food?
• 1.5. Food and the perception of everything else
• 1.6. Gastrophysics: the new science of the table
• 1.7. Food perception is fundamentally multisensory
• 1.8. Isn't modernist cuisine only for the lucky few?
• 1.9. Amuse bouche
• 2. Let the Show Commence: On the Start of the Perfect Meal
• 2.1. Introduction
• 2.1.1. Mood food
• 2.2. On the social aspects of dining
• 2.2.1. Waiting staff
• 2.2.2. The company
• 2.3. On the design of the menu
• 2.3.1. Scanning the menu: 'Oysters, steak frites, field greens, oysters ...
• '
• 2.3.2. 'This dessert is literally calling me'
• 2.3.3. Images on the menu
• 2.3.4. On a diet? Does nutritional information help?
• 2.3.5. Price and behaviour
• 2.3.6. On the format of the menu
• 2.4. Conclusions
• 3. Tastes Great, But What do We Call It? The Art and Science of Food Description
• 3.1. Introduction
• 3.2. Snail porridge
• 3.3. Can labelling enhance the taste and/or flavour of food?
• 3.4. Interim summary
• 3.5. On the neuroscience of naming food
• 3.6. Naming names
• 3.7. Does food labelling influence the perceived ethnicity of a dish?
• 3.8. Natural and organic labels
• 3.9. Health/ingredient labels
• 3.10. Local labels
• 3.11. Descriptive food labelling
• 3.12. Labelling culinary techniques
• 3.13. Surprise!
• 3.14. Expectations and reactions
• 3.15. Conclusions
• 4. Plating and Plateware: On the Multisensory Presentation of Food
• 4.1. Introduction
• 4.2. A potted history of food presentation
• 4.3. The plate: the essential element of our everyday meal
• 4.3.1. On the colour of the plate
• 4.3.2. The shape of the plate
• 4.3.3. The size of the plate
• 4.3.4. On the haptic aspects of the plateware
• 4.4. Interim summary
• 4.5. The plate that is not a plate
• 4.5.1. Reaching new heights
• 4.5.2. On the smell and sound of the plateware
• 4.5.3. Camouflage
• 4.5.4. Improvised plateware
• 4.5.5. Purpose-made plateware
• 4.6. On the multiple contributions of the visual appearance of a dish
• 4.6.1. On the importance of harmony on the plate
• 4.7. Individual diner responses to the visual presentation of food
• 4.8. Conclusions
• 5. Getting Your Hands on the Food: Cutlery
• 5.1. Introduction
• 5.2. The story of cutlery
• 5.3. The material qualities of the cutlery
• 5.3.1. The quality of the cutlery
• 5.3.2. Tasting the cutlery
• 5.4. Size matters
• 5.5. On the texture/feel of the cutlery
• 5.6. Colourful cutlery
• 5.7. Cutlery that is not
• 5.8. Finger food
• 5.9. Eating without hands
• 5.10. Conclusions
• 6. The Multisensory Perception of Flavour
• 6.1. Introduction
• 6.2. Perceiving flavours
• 6.3. Taste
• 6.3.1. Are you a supertaster?
• 6.4. Olfactory-gustatory interactions
• 6.4.1. Cross-cultural differences in multisensory flavour perception
• 6.5. Oral-somatosensory contributions to multisensory flavour perception
• 6.5.1. Are you a thermal taster?
• 6.6. Interim summary
• 6.7. The sound of food
• 6.8. Visual flavour
• 6.8.1. How does colour influence flavour perception?
• 6.8.2. Summary of research on visual flavour
• 6.9. The cognitive neuroscience of multisensory flavour perception
• 6.10. Conclusions
• 7. Using Surprise and Sensory Incongruity in a Meal
• 7.1. Introduction
• 7.2. How did sensory incongruity become so popular and why is it so exciting?
• 7.2.1. The search for novelty
• 7.2.2. The rise of molecular gastronomy/modernist cuisine
• 7.2.3. The rise of sensory marketing and multisensory design
• 7.2.4. Globalization
• 7.3. Defining sensory incongruity
• 7.4. Noticing sensory incongruity
• 7.4.1. Disconfirmed expectations
• 7.4.2. Hidden and visible incongruity
• 7.5. A brief history of sensory incongruity at the dinner table
• 7.6. Colour-flavour incongruity
• 7.7. Format-flavour incongruity
• 7.8. Smell-flavour incongruity
• 7.9. Interim summary
• 7.10. The diner's response to sensory incongruity
• 7.10.1. Attentional capture
• 7.10.2. Surprise
• 7.10.3. Memorability
• 7.11. Molecular gastronomy and surprise
• 7.12. Sensory incongruity and the concept of `naturalness'
• 7.13. Individual differences in the response of diners to sensory incongruity
• 7.14. Conclusions
• 8. Looking for Your Perfect Meal in the Dark
• 8.1. Introduction
• 8.2. The social aspects of dining in the dark
• 8.3. Why are dining in the dark restaurants so popular nowadays?
• 8.4. Seeing or not seeing (correctly) the food
• 8.4.1. The importance of colour to food
• 8.4.2. Do our other senses really become more acute in the dark?
• 8.5. Does dining in the dark really capture how the blind experience food?
• 8.6. Cooking in the dark
• 8.7. Conclusions
• 9. How Important is Atmosphere to the Perfect Meal?
• 9.1. Introduction
• 9.2. Atmospherics and the experience economy
• 9.3. The Provencal Rose paradox
• 9.4. Does the atmosphere really influence our appraisal of the meal?
• 9.5. On the ethnicity of the meal
• 9.6. Tuning up how much money and time we spend at the restaurant
• 9.6.1. The style and volume of the music
• 9.6.2. The tempo of the music
• 9.6.3. "Pardon?''
• 9.7. Context and expectation
• 9.8. The lighting
• 9.9. The olfactory atmosphere
• 9.10. On the feel of the restaurant
• 9.11. Atmospheric contributions to taste and flavour perception
• 9.12. Multisensory atmospherics
• 9.13. Conclusions
• 10. Technology at the Dining Table
• 10.1. Introduction
• 10.2. Technology on the dining table
• 10.3. Transforming the dining experience by means of technology
• 10.4. Augmented Reality (AR) food: A case of technology for technology's sake?
• 10.5. Using QR codes to change our interaction with food
• 10.6. Fostering healthy eating through the incorporation of technology
• 10.7. Technology and distraction
• 10.8. Using technology to control the multisensory atmosphere
• 10.9. On the neuroscience of matching sound to food (and how technology might help)
• 10.10. On the future of technology at the table: digital artefacts
• 10.11. The SmartPlate
• 10.12. Anyone for a 'Gin & Sonic'?
• 10.13. The tablet as twenty-first century plateware?
• 10.14. Tips from the chef at the tips of your fingers
• 10.15. Conclusions
• 11. On the Future of the Perfect Meal
• 11.1. Introduction
• 11.2. On the history of predicting the future of food
• 11.2.1. A meal (or even a day's food) in a single dose
• 11.2.2. On the mechanization of feeding
• 11.2.3. Air 'food'
• 11.2.4. Artificial flavours
• 11.3. From the past to the future of food
• 11.3.1. Sous vide as the twenty-first century microwave
• 11.3.2. 3D printed food: an astronomical idea
• 11.3.3. On the future of cultured meat
• 11.3.4. Note-by-note cuisine
• 11.3.5. Eating insects for pleasure: bug burger with insect paste, anyone?
• 11.3.6. The new algal cuisine
• 11.4. Anyone for a spot of neo-Futurist cuisine?
• 11.4.1. Food theatre: food as entertainment
• 11.4.2. Plating art
• 11.5. Interim summary
• 11.6. Acknowledging our differences
• 11.7. The meal as catalyst for social exchange
• 11.8. Is it a restaurant or is it a science laboratory?
• 11.9. Pop-up dining, story telling and the joys of situated eating
• 11.10. Conclusions.