Jacques Rossel, campus director at the Royal Academy of Culinary Arts Amman – Jordan, offers fascinating insights into how and why we decide what to eat.
Ever since I started working as a chef, I have heard that “people eat with their eyes,” and it is true! Presentation plays a huge role in how we perceive taste. However, are we truly tasting with our eyes?
A key role for the brain in culinary perception
The first organ used in sensory evaluation is not our eyes but rather our brain. In fact, our brain dictates our food choices. From childhood, we develop a food culture influenced by various factors ranging from family, cultural habits and beliefs to personal values and health. Our brain processes food based on preferences, education, past experiences, attitudes toward food and whether we are hungry. Ultimately, we consciously or unconsciously determine whether the food on the plate is worth consuming. This is why professional chefs put so much effort into presentation. After the food has been ‘sighted’ and ‘accepted,’ it will eventually be evaluated by the other four primary senses – smell, taste, touch and hearing.
A matter of culinary taste
The sense of taste is one of the most important components of sensory evaluation. Taste perception occurs through the taste buds, located mainly on the tongue, in the throat and esophagus. Adding to taste, smell significantly influences taste perception and overall sensory experience. In fact, about 80 percent of what we perceive as taste comes from our sense of smell. This is because flavor is a combination of taste and aroma. When we eat, volatile compounds travel to the olfactory receptors located in the nose. This enhances our perception of flavors beyond just the basic tastes detected by the taste buds. This is why food seems tasteless when we have a blocked nose or a cold.
Sensory teamwork
Touch and hearing are also essential in evaluating food, texture and mouthfeel for the former, and the perception of ripeness and quality for the latter. To summarize, we need our five senses to truly taste and evaluate a dish. The brain, on the other hand, processes all sensory input – sight, smell, texture and taste – to create the full experience. So, while you begin tasting with your eyes, your brain does the ultimate judging.
