The flavor or the experience.

What is more important in a meal, the flavor or the experience?

 

We eat first with our eyes…

Thus said Apicius.  How true it is.

What is your favorite cooking blog?  Besides the Original Food Dude, of course.  Mine is Sally’s Baking Addiction.  Check out the picture of the blueberry scone and tell me you don’t immediately want one.   Why?  Because our eyes are one of our first assets to experience flavor.

I just did a quick recap of my posts.  The post I think has the best pictures has over 100 Pins.  My next best post is about 20.  In our world of quick sensory activation, the first picture you see on a post sells you on it.  So if you are reading this I was successful with my picture, haha I win.

 

Ear, nose, and throat are next…

Along with our visual perception of a meal, the sounds around us, the smells, the conversation, even our mood all play a huge role in our perception of flavor.

If you have 17 minutes I recommend listening to Dr. Charles Spence discuss this.

During his discussion, he mentions the  Provençal Rosé Paradox.  It goes something like this, on vacation in Greece you have a glass of wine, you love it.  So you buy a bottle take it home and guess what it doesn’t taste the same.  It’s not the flight, or time, or temperature.  It’s the atmosphere.

5 years ago my wife and I were on vacation in Riomaggiore Italy.  We had just taken a train from La Spezia to the first of the towns of Cinque Terre.  It was about 1 pm when we got off the train.  We walked for about another hour enjoying the views of the Mediterranean Sea (actually the Tyrrhenian Sea).  The sun was shining, the air was warm and clear as we walked into a little restaurant.  I don’t even know the name of it.  I ordered Pesto Gnocchi, Lexie ordered a Shellfish Pasta.  She swears to this day that is the best meal she’s ever had in a restaurant.

Do you see what’s happened there?  The sights, the sounds, the smells, the company (wink wink) all played rather nicely to make Lexie’s brain swim with excitement, creating an eating experience unlike any other.

Think about this, do crepes taste better under the Eifel Tower, does an Al Pastor taco taste better in a mercado in Monterrey, does a bratwurst in Frankfurt taste best, is lobster in Maine really better than any other?  The answer I can tell you to all of these is yes, but not just because of the quality but because of the place.

One quick and very important caveat to all this, an Oscar Meyer Weiner never tastes like Filet Mignon, even if you served it with bacon at St Elmo’s in Indianapolis (my perfect meal place).  The surroundings of a meal make a good meal great, make a good experience unforgettable.

 

 

The Food Dude’s Role

So what?  Go to a fancy nice place have a fancy nice meal create a fancy nice memory.  Right?

Sure, or create an explosive sensory experience right in your own home.  See, that’s where I come in.

My goal is to educate you and let you educate me too,  about food.  How it’s made, principles of cooking, and the science of what is going on.  Then when your house smells of chicken coconut korma or torta caprese and you plate it in a visually stunning way, set a nice table and play soothing music (I like Andrea Bocelli when I eat) you set the atmosphere for an amazing gastronomical experience.

So please remember that it’s not the flavor or the experience, it is the flavor AND the experience.