A feast in every sense

After reading Gastrophysics: The New Science of Eating, you might, as I did, sit for a bit wondering what a chef is, exactly. We think of chefs as cooks, people in charge of a kitchen, ingredients, pan and heat, who hopefully produce great dishes of food. But this is apparently an outdated concept. For chefs who want to make their name in the world now, the expression of their art must exceed the nourishment on the plate. Cooking can only take a dish so far in order to make it memorable, claims Professor Charles Spence. ‘No matter how exquisitely executed,’ he adds. Whoa! I can still recall the taste of my mother’s sublime steak-and-kidney pudding from 20 years ago.

Spence is an eminent scientist at the department of experimental psychology at Oxford University. His interests include studying how the mind manages to process different information from all the senses and he has lent his expertise in ‘multi-sensory experience’ — gastrophysics — to the food industry. He has worked with Unilever, Britvic, Starbucks, McDonald’s and the Fat Duck restaurant.

Heston Blumenthal’s acclaimed establishment dangles oddly on the end of that list. Yet Spence is known for research resulting in the ‘sonic chip,’ a study which found that by boosting the high-frequency sounds people hear when they bite into a Pringle, the chips seemed markedly fresher and crunchier. This gave rise to the concept of ‘sound as an ingredient’. Spence was then approached by Blumenthal, who went on to create a fish course, ‘the Sound of the Sea’. This is served with a pair of ear-bud speakers, so diners can hear waves crashing and the call of gulls, enhancing the sensory effect as they eat. Some have been known to break down in tears at the experience.

Blumenthal has since gone much further with what Spence calls ‘experiential dining’, or eating-out-as-an-experience, rather than simply being sated.