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The Perfect Meal: The Multisensory Science of Food and Dining
The authors of The Perfect Meal examine all of the elements that contribute to the diner�s experience of a meal (primarily at a restaurant) and investigate how each of the diner�s senses contributes to their overall multisensory experience. The principal focus of the book is not on flavor perception, but on all of the non-food and beverage factors that have been shown to influence the diner�s overall experience.
Examples
the colour of the plate (visual) the shape of the glass (visual/tactile) the names used to describe the dishes (cognitive) the background music playing inside the restaurant (aural) Novel approaches to understanding the diner�s experience in the restaurant setting are explored from the perspectives of decision neuroscience, marketing, design, and psychology.
2015 Popular Science Prose Award Winner.
Examples
the colour of the plate (visual) the shape of the glass (visual/tactile) the names used to describe the dishes (cognitive) the background music playing inside the restaurant (aural) Novel approaches to understanding the diner�s experience in the restaurant setting are explored from the perspectives of decision neuroscience, marketing, design, and psychology.
2015 Popular Science Prose Award Winner.
396 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 8, 2014
19 people are currently reading
629 people want to read
About the author
Charles Spence
33 books33 followersProf. Charles Spence is an experimental psychologist at the University of Oxford. He is the head of the Crossmodal Research group which specializes in the research about the integration of information across different sensory modalities.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
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July 1, 2019A fascinating look at the scientific research behind the experience of eating in a restaurant—everything from menu design, to weight of cutlery, to color of plate, to the way food is described. Fun fact: if you're eating Pad Thai in a restaurant in the U.S., ketchup is probably a key ingredient. Who knew?
February 5, 2019
I was listening to a radio program and I heard someone speaking about all of the non-taste factors that go into enjoying a meal. They said this is all detailed in a book titled The Perfect Meal. My curiosity was piqued so I bought the book.
The Perfect Meal is a scientific look into what are the factors for the enjoyment of a meal—a VERY scientific look. In fact, too scientific. There is some fascinating information in this nearly 400 page book but not so fascinating it deserves 400 pages. To know that sounds, smells, colors, textural touching and more go into enjoying a meal is captivating stuff but it’s dulled down by the overly-scientific nature of its presentation.
To begin with the book’s chapters are subdivided like a text book. For example, chapter 1 has 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, etc. which just harkens back to being in biology class. Then there are the terms: orthonasal, retronasal, gastronomy, entomophagic, and other multisyllabic terms that make your eyes roll back into your head. The last of the painful authorship were the frequent parentheses for references or just added musings, and the notes at the bottom of most pages that were digressions that seemed to randomly pop into the authors’ heads.
This book made me realize A.) I’m not that much into food and B.) I’ll never be as much into food as the authors are. I could never truly get into this book even if the gist of the book worked great on a brief radio segment.
The Perfect Meal is a scientific look into what are the factors for the enjoyment of a meal—a VERY scientific look. In fact, too scientific. There is some fascinating information in this nearly 400 page book but not so fascinating it deserves 400 pages. To know that sounds, smells, colors, textural touching and more go into enjoying a meal is captivating stuff but it’s dulled down by the overly-scientific nature of its presentation.
To begin with the book’s chapters are subdivided like a text book. For example, chapter 1 has 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, etc. which just harkens back to being in biology class. Then there are the terms: orthonasal, retronasal, gastronomy, entomophagic, and other multisyllabic terms that make your eyes roll back into your head. The last of the painful authorship were the frequent parentheses for references or just added musings, and the notes at the bottom of most pages that were digressions that seemed to randomly pop into the authors’ heads.
This book made me realize A.) I’m not that much into food and B.) I’ll never be as much into food as the authors are. I could never truly get into this book even if the gist of the book worked great on a brief radio segment.
October 29, 2025
The book contains a lot of interesting details, although few studies have any proof of reproducibility. Most have unclear or questionable assumptions.
It is, however, ill written and badly edited with a lot of redundancy.
There is also a good amount of weaselly journalistic writing. Chefs are “brilliant”, books “bestselling” as the worth of a non-fiction work is based on the number sold. And subjective rankings of restaurants by self appointed judges are basically meaningless. Also the basic fact that Michelin stars are awarded to restaurants not chefs is seemingly not known and are, in themselves, the product of self appointed righteousness. Some parts read almost as paid ads or sycophancy.
The format is also off putting, references could have been consolidated at the end. The use of URLs disrupts the prose flow as bad as the reference format and shows the insecurity inherent in their use as some have already been taken over by scam sites.
Basically, too informal and messy to be considered a good reference to its subject.
It is, however, ill written and badly edited with a lot of redundancy.
There is also a good amount of weaselly journalistic writing. Chefs are “brilliant”, books “bestselling” as the worth of a non-fiction work is based on the number sold. And subjective rankings of restaurants by self appointed judges are basically meaningless. Also the basic fact that Michelin stars are awarded to restaurants not chefs is seemingly not known and are, in themselves, the product of self appointed righteousness. Some parts read almost as paid ads or sycophancy.
The format is also off putting, references could have been consolidated at the end. The use of URLs disrupts the prose flow as bad as the reference format and shows the insecurity inherent in their use as some have already been taken over by scam sites.
Basically, too informal and messy to be considered a good reference to its subject.
November 3, 2014
This is a highly innovative and interdisciplinary book. It is a paradigm changer. It is working with senses theory - that was configured and promoted through Berg's Senses and Society series.
The sound of food. The vision of food. The tactility of food. The taste of food. The smell of food. Each of the senses is given a chapter, but the strong work of this book builds relationships between the senses.
Outstanding multisensory theories of food will emerge from this book. My next intention is to map multisensory theory with multimodality. This book provides the foundation for this scholarship.
The sound of food. The vision of food. The tactility of food. The taste of food. The smell of food. Each of the senses is given a chapter, but the strong work of this book builds relationships between the senses.
Outstanding multisensory theories of food will emerge from this book. My next intention is to map multisensory theory with multimodality. This book provides the foundation for this scholarship.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews