Why are animate dishes so disturbing?

Taste in Motion: The Effect of Projection Mapping of a Boiling Effect on Food Expectation, Food Perception, and Purchasing Behavior

The appearance of food affects its taste. Many studies have examined how to improve the taste of foods by manipulating their appearance. Most of those studies have focused on static appearances, such as color and texture; however, the impact of the dynamic appearance has not been explored. In this study, the perceptions (sweetness, sourness, saltiness, spiciness, temperature, deliciousness) and value judgments (the price of food, appetite) perceived from food before and after tasting with a projection-based dynamic boiling texture were investigated. The results revealed that the dynamic texture influences expectations for saltiness, spiciness, temperature, deliciousness, price, and appetite before eating the meal and perceived saltiness, spiciness, and appetite when eating. In addition, its influence on the consumers’ behavior was also investigated through an empirical user study in a restaurant. The results indicated that the consumers had a greater tendency to order the meal when they saw it with the projection-based boiling effect. From these, this study demonstrates the effect of projection mapping of a boiling effect on food expectation, perception and consumer behavior.

Visual Design Cues Impacting Food Choice: A Review and Future Research Agenda

This review aims to tackle the challenge of understanding how visual design cues can affect behavioural outcomes in a food context. The review answers two key questions: (1) What are the effects of the most important visual design cues on behavioural outcomes and how can they be explained? (2) What are the research gaps in this area? We start from a comprehensive taxonomy of visual design cues delineating the most important visual design cues. Next, we evaluate the extant research based on a structured, narrative literature review on visual design cues in the food domain. We differentiate between object processed and spatially processed visual design cues in food choice contexts and show how they affect behavioural outcomes through a range of psychological processes (attention, affective-, cognitive- and motivational reactions, food perceptions and attitudes). We end with recommendations which take into account the current food store context, the state-of-art in measuring psychological processes and behavioural outcomes and the specific food-, person- and context-related moderators. This review offers guidance for research to untangle the complexity of the effect of visual design cues in a food choice context.

Magic on the Menu: Where Are All the Magical Food and Beverage Experiences?

Magic and dining have long been popular forms of entertainment. What is more, both involve some kind of transformation, and yet while the more theatrical aspects of dining have grown in popularity in recent decades, there is a surprising paucity of magical food and beverage experiences out there. In this article, we trace the historical appearance of food and drink and culinary items in the performance of magic. We also review some of the more magical elements of food design that have appeared on menus in bars and restaurants in recent years. We introduce the edible lightbulb dish from the menu at Kitchen Theory Chef’s Table and link it to the stage magic of Derren Brown. We also discuss some of the reasons as to why magical food experiences might be rare in the context of dining. In so doing, our hope is to highlight an intriguing area for future research and innovation. Along the way, we identify some possible candidate approaches for the introduction of edible magic onto the menu in the context of modernist cuisine.