Name: Maricruz Iiguez

Class: Reading & Writing Workshop II 9184

Section: 002
Professor: Barbara Schreiber
Date: 11/23/2024

Tasting With Our Eyes

Over the years there has been much research done to better understand the sense of taste.

These studies have led researchers to make a connection between the sense of taste and

the remaining four senses, sight, smell, touch, and sound. The sense that has created

many debates and led to many experiments is the sense of sight. It is believed that the

way food and drinks are presented influences the tasting process and consequently affects

the dining experience.

To understand the influence of the senses on taste, it is important to first understand taste.

The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines taste as the action to put a small amount of

(food or drink) in your mouth in order to find out what its flavor is. Brillat Savarin, a

French lawyer and author of one of the most recognized gastronomic books The

Philosophy of Taste, also provides a definition of taste. He states, taste is the sense

which puts us in contact with savorous or sapid bodies, by means of the sensation which

they cause in the organ destined to appreciate them (1999, p. 34). The sense of taste is

commonly related to the tongue and the five flavors that it can identify sweet, salty,

bitter, sour and umami. Every person is taught that the tongue is divided in areas and that

each area identifies a specific flavor. However, many studies prove this to be incorrect. In

fact, Brillat Savarin himself acknowledged that taste is not only produced by the

tongue; he states, it is not easy to determine precisely what parts make up the organ of

taste. It is more complicated than it seems (1999, p. 35). Gordon Shepherd, professor of

Neurobiology at the Yale School of Medicine, also explains that the sense of taste is

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Name: Maricruz Iiguez
Class: Reading & Writing Workshop II 9184
Section: 002
Professor: Barbara Schreiber
Date: 11/23/2024

much more complicated. Shepherd in his book Neurogastronomy argues that all the

senses come together to produce what is taste but is really flavor, one of the most

complex of human sensations (2012, p. 2). He uses the expression flavor instead of taste

because he believes that since taste has always been related to just the tongue this term

does not embody all the senses that participate in creating flavor.

Nowadays people understand that flavor is created by all the senses. However, much of

the research done to understand the sense of taste has been primarily focused on the sense

of smell. Even though it is true that the sense of smell is crucial for taste many

experiments have also determined that sight is influential. Professor Charles Spence, who

studies the impact of all the senses when creating flavor, argues that sight is crucial for

any dining experience. The way the food is plated and the colors of the food can affect

the final flavor perception of the diner. Spence believes that other researchers like

Shepherd have been only focused on the participation of the sense of smell on taste and

have neglected the participation of the other senses like sight (Spence, 2012). He argues

that sight can be even more influential than smell, and states, the identification of odors

has often been shown to be impaired when they are presented without color cues or when

paired with an inappropriate color (Auvray & Spence, 2008, p. 1024). This has been

proven with an experiment involving professional sommeliers who, when given a white

wine colored red, describe the wine as having more red wine odor properties (Auvray &

Spence, 2008, p. 1024). The experiment demonstrates the influence of the color the

sommeliers were viewing made them have a different flavor experience.

2
Name: Maricruz Iiguez
Class: Reading & Writing Workshop II 9184
Section: 002
Professor: Barbara Schreiber
Date: 11/23/2024

Research has proven that the colors of food can change the intensity of flavor of a dish.

COLOR is an extremely important attribute of most food products because it usually

influences the consumers first judgment of the product and also provides sensory

information which may interact with gustatory, olfactory, and textural cues to determine

the overall acceptability of the product (DuBose, Cardello & Maller, 1980, p. 1393). Just

as the sommeliers were influenced by the color of the wine when evaluating it, people are

constantly being influenced by the color of food before tasting it. The color seen will

make a person believe that the dish has a certain flavor, and if the color is paired with the

believed taste, the final flavor will be enhanced (DuBose, Cardello & Maller, 1980).

Dish plating can also be influential to taste. Chef Charles Michel, who studies the effects

of the senses on flavor alongside Professor Charles Spence at Oxford University, used a

simple salad to show how sight is influential to taste. He presented the salad in 3 different

presentations. Each one had the same amount of ingredients, however, one of them was

plated imitating one of Kandinskys paintings (refer to appendix 1). The result of this was

that people claimed the salad that was plated like Kandinskys painting as more flavorful.

Plating at some point was done only for an aesthetic factor. Now with these studies

demonstrating that plating can influence the final taste of the dish, chefs spend much

more time considering how to plate their dishes.

All these studies are done to better understand the role of the senses on flavor creation.

This is where neurogastronomy comes in. Neurogastronomy is a term that Shepherd

developed to explain how the brain works in creating the sensations of the food (2012,

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Name: Maricruz Iiguez
Class: Reading & Writing Workshop II 9184
Section: 002
Professor: Barbara Schreiber
Date: 11/23/2024

p. 5) through the senses. Many chefs like Ferran Adri use neurogastronomy to develop

their modernist cuisine dishes. Modernist cuisine is based on using different colors,

textures, and even sounds, to create a unique dining experience. Neurogastronomy is also

being used by researchers like Spence to eat healthier without having to compromise the

sensory pleasure of the experience (Spence & Piqueras-Fiszman, 2014). Spence and his

team work with many processed foods brands to lower the salt, sugar and fat content of

the product without compromising the essential flavor created by the senses (Fleming,

2014). Adri and Spence, while working for different purposes, seek to create food that

embodies all of what flavor truly is, and to achieve this they spend a lot of time

considering the right visual cues of their products.

There is a popular saying in Spanish, "la comida entra por los ojos" (food enters through

sight). Carolyn Korsmeyer, who is a professor at the University of Buffalo and focuses

her research on aesthetics and emotion theory, states, vision and taste play roles in

arousing the desire to eat and the experience that follows (2011, p. 467). Sight is the first

sense involved in the eating experience; it creates an anticipated expectation of the food

that is about to be eaten. Sight is an essential sense for food, it influences choices and

flavor, and it is most of the time is taken for granted.

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Name: Maricruz Iiguez
Class: Reading & Writing Workshop II 9184
Section: 002
Professor: Barbara Schreiber
Date: 11/23/2024

Appendix 1

(Fulton, 2014)

(Fulton, 2014)

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Name: Maricruz Iiguez
Class: Reading & Writing Workshop II 9184
Section: 002
Professor: Barbara Schreiber
Date: 11/23/2024

References:

Auvray, M., & Spence, C. (2008). The multisensory perception of flavor. Consciousness
And Cognition, 17(3), 1016-1031. Retrieved 22 November 2014.
doi:10.1016/j.concog.2007.06.005
Brillat-Savarin, & Fisher, M. (1999). The physiology of taste, or, Meditations on
transcendental gastronomy. Washington, D.C.: Counterpoint Press.
DuBose, C., Cardello, A., & Maller, O. (1980). Effects of Colorants and Flavorants on
Identification, Perceived Flavor Intensity, and Hedonic Quality of Fruit-Flavored
Beverages and Cake. Journal Of Food Science, 45(5), 1393-1399. Retrieved 22
November 2014. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2621.1980.tb06562.x
Fleming, A. (2013). How we taste different colours. The Guardian. Retrieved 22
November 2014, from
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2013/mar/12/how-taste-
different-colours
Fulton, A. (2014). Kandinsky On A Plate: Art-Inspired Salad Just Tastes Better. NPR.
Retrieved 22 November 2014, from
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/06/25/325189711/kandinsky-on-a-plate-art-
inspired-salad-just-tastes-better
Korsmeyer, C., & Sutton, D. (2011). The Sensory Experience of Food. Food, Culture
And Society: An International Journal Of Multidisciplinary Research, 14(4), 461-
475. Retrieved 22 November 2014. doi:10.2752/175174411x13046092851316
Ri Channel,. (2013). RI Channel: Food, the brain and us. [Video]. Retrieved 22
November 2014, from http://richannel.org/food-the-brain-and-us
Shepherd, G. (2012). Neurogastronomy. New York: Columbia University Press.
Spence, C. (2012). Book Review: Neurogastronomy: how the brain creates flavor and
why it matters by Gordon M. Shepherd. Flavour, 1(1), 21. Retrieved 22 November
2014, from http://www.flavourjournal.com/content/1/1/21
________. (2013). Multisensory flavour perception. Current Biology, 23(9), R365-R369.
Retrieved 22 November 2014. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2013.01.028