This Blog is brought to you by the founder of House of Wolf’s culinary collaborators, Kitchen Theory….
At Kitchen Theory we are fascinated by food from its many perspectives; it is an historical object with economic value, it is a cultural object, with chemical and perceptual properties and for this reason it brings together the sciences arts and humanities. How it is presented, its aesthetics, how we enjoy it, how it works on us and how we grow it are all important elements which contribute to how we enjoy food. As part of our collaboration with The House of Wolf we want to spread the knowledge by writing articles for The House of Wolf’s blog which we hope you will enlighten its followers and give you a better idea on what it is our culinary odyssey is all about.
The House of Wolf prides itself on hosting weird and wonderful multisensory dining events and has successfully developed a following of food enthusiasts who are seeking a different type of dining experience, one which stimulates their senses and leaves them with a unique experience! Are you one of those ‘foodies’ and how much do you actually understand about the topic of multisensory flavour perception? To help you answer that I thought I’d take this opportunity to share a bit of knowledge about what it is that gives us pleasure in food by use of our senses.
Given today’s fast paced lifestyle we often neglect to acknowledge many of the multisensory aspects which alter and guide our food preferences, choices and even enjoyment. How often have you eaten food without really doing anything more than perceiving the flavour (the combination of taste and smell). In many cases you may even only take note of the taste (sweet, salty, sour, bitter and umami) and neglect the smells – which contribute massively to flavour; during his talk at the Royal Institute Charles Spence noted that some scientists claim as much as 80% to 90% of taste comes from smell. In order to truly enjoy food it must be savoured.
We are more likely to be conscious of this when dining out in a nice restaurant, as we are in an environment for which our reason for being there is to dine and our attention is more likely focused on the food – as we look at the menu, as we make a decision, as we see the food arrive to the table, as we take the first bite and make that instant judgment on how much we like it, whether we made the right decision while looking at the menu, and of course as we eat the dish and perhaps even discuss it with the people we are dining with.
But is it only flavour that we appreciate about food? Is our enjoyment of food based solely on our olfactory and taste senses (smell and taste)? I think we can all appreciate there is more to it than that.
So let’s take a brief look at our other senses; sight (our dominant sense) plays a massive role, in many cultures around the world there are phrases along the lines of ‘we eat with our eyes first’, and it is undeniable that unless a food is presented in a manner which is appealing to us we cannot always enjoy it. This is a highly subjective issue too, as different people find different presentations of food appealing. Then you have your sense of hearing; although this may not be in the forefront of your mind when you eat, what you hear while eating (the sizzle of a steak on a hot plate or the crunch of a potato crisp) will affect your perception and subsequent enjoyment of the food. Your sense of hearing also impacts our understanding of sensorial issues such as texture, crispness, freshness etc. A stick of celery only tastes as fresh as its crunch! – no one wants a soggy celery stick, it is an indication of freshness and quality.
This brings us on nicely to the sense of touch (and also our trigeminal sense), which before we have even bitten into a food will give us an indication as to the texture (upon which we base many of our initial expectations). That crispy duck skin may look beautifully, glazed and crisp, but it’s not until you break the skin with a knife and feel that crisp skin shattering that your brain actually confirms its initial observations. Again I’ll use the example of a celery stick, if it feels limp and soft, you will have already made up your mind about how it will feel in your mouth and the quality of the product.
This is a really brief introduction to a subject which is as fascinating to scientists and artists as it is to chefs and those who just enjoy a great bite to eat. So next time you join us at House of Wolf be prepared to enjoy your food in its entirety!
Jozef Youssef