Anyone can easily describe what a particular dish has to look like to be considered perfect. For example, the beautiful deep green colour of broccoli or the crisp, not too thick crust of a piece of bread. But are we really impartial and our palate is impartial when we sit in a restaurant? Most people would definitely say yes. Since we have our doubts, we're going to shed some scientific light on the subject.
In fact, we are influenced by many things, and therefore our tastes, without even realising it. We call this multi-level influence.
A NAGYMAMA RECIPE MADE FOR YOU ALWAYS BETTER
As soon as you enter a restaurant, already influences our taste - without us even noticing. For example, a team of US researchers looked at how restaurant decor and theme affect the taste of food. The result: the same lasagne tastes much better if it is served in a “real Italian” in a restaurant. Another group carried out a simple but effective test: half of the customers in a restaurant were given a „normal” menu, the other half the same menu but with more impressive names. For example, when the first group pie for dessert, with the second group being offered a fancy name of ”pie the way my grandmother makes it”. The result was clear: the second test group rated the food much more positively than the first.
STUDIES SHOW THAT SOUND AND LIGHT AFFECT TASTE
Of course, music also plays a role. Pia Hauck and Heiko Hecht from the University of Mainz had test subjects taste red and white wine. They were able to prove that wine evaluation depended on whether the tasting was done in silence or to the music of Berg or Tchaikovsky.
An Argentinian integrative neuroscience team has even been able to compose music specifically designed to support one of the five basic senses. British Airways has also thoroughly investigated the effect of aircraft engine noise on taste perception. We know, for example, that under certain conditions we perceive the umami flavours. Some restaurant owners deliberately take advantage of these effects. Perhaps the most famous of these is Heston Blumenthal, who, when serving sashimi at The Fat Duck restaurant in Windsor, gave diners an iPod to listen to the sound of the sea while they ate.
Another influencing factor is the intensity and colour of the lighting. A Murray University study found that diners preferred food served under subdued lighting.
COLOUR AND PERCEPTION affect the taste
At the table plates and cutlery are also affected our senses. Canadian psychologists discovered that food served in round white plates seemed sweeter. Restaurant customers rated food on rectangular black plates better than on round black plates. Coffee in a white cup is perceived as more intense than coffee in a blue cup. And probably to no one's surprise, several studies have found that having a cork stopper on a wine glass instead of a “screw top” significantly increases consumers' perception of the contents.
But it's not just the environment that affects us, it's the food itself. The presentation of the food plays a big role in its perceived quality. Colour also matters. In a famous and fascinating experiment, the University of Bordeaux had a panel of experts taste the same wine twice. The first tasting was the original white wine, the second the same, but with red colouring. When the second wine was described, flavours typical of red wine were used to characterise it.
The BEST LAST LAST LEFT?
There is another particularly strange effect on our taste, discovered at the University of Philadelphia. The more a restaurant's customers like the starter, the more critical they are of the main course. Specifically, this means that between a diner with an excellent starter and a diner with an average starter, the diner with the excellent starter will have a more negative view of the whole meal than the diner with the average starter. Crazy, right?
