The perfect meal : the multisensory science of food and dining

Content: 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 --
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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 --
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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 --
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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 --
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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 --
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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 --
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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 --
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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 --
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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 --
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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 --
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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.