The Perfect Meal - The Multisensory Science Of Food And Dining

This book aims to summarize the huge body of research that has emerged recently documenting the effect that each one of the diner’s senses has on their perception and enjoyment of a meal. The authors will look at all of the elements that contribute to the diner’s experience of a meal (primarily at a restaurant, though we will make sure that wherever possible the implications of the findings/insights for at-home dining will also be made clear) and investigate how each of the diner’s senses contributes to their overall multisensory experience. The principal focus will not be on flavour perception (which is the more traditional path of sensory analyses of food and drink experiences), but rather on all of the non-food and beverage factors that have been shown to influence the diner’s overall experience. Factors like the colour of the plate (visual), the shape of the glass (visual/tactile), the names used to describe the dishes (cognitive), and the music that is playing in the background inside the restaurant (aural) will be considered. Novel approaches to understanding the diner’s experience in the restaurant setting based on decision neuroscience, marketing, design, and psychology will also be covered. The book will describe all the exciting research in this area in an accessible style for a wide general readership.

Charles Spence is Professor of Experimental Psychology and Head of the Crossmodal Research Laboratory in the Department of Experimental Psychology at Oxford University.

Betina Piqueras-Fiszman was Consumer and Sensory Researcher at the Crossmodal Research Laboratory in the Department of Experimental Psychology at Oxford University and is currently Assistant Professor in the Department of Marketing and Consumer Behaviour at Wageningen UR.