Red coloured trousers, a white shirt, and a quick and easy-going walk anyone used to travel the world has, professor Charles Spence arrives at Syracuse University in Florence. We greet each other at the entrance before his conference begins.

Charles Spence is a professor at the University of Oxford. He is an experimental psychologist, and the director of the cross-modal research laboratory, an internationally renowned research centre for the analysis of information obtained from the sense organs smell, taste, vision, hearing, and touch. He is the author of the international bestseller “Gastrophysics: the new science of food”, of several books and over nine hundred papers.

The main fields of his research from 2000 to today focus on the stimuli of the five senses, and pain; on psychology and cognitive neuroscience of food design; on consumer psychology and product design; on cognitive psychology and human-machine interaction.
The word gastrophysics derives from gastronomy (the study of the relationship between food and culture), and psychophysics (the study of the relationship between stimuli and sensation, and the perceptions these stimuli evoke). Gastrophysics is an interdisciplinary science. It seeks to explain the chemical-physical aspects of raw materials, their transformations during food preparation, and sensory response during consumption.

At the conference, the voracious knowledge emerging from his eloquence truly struck me. His manners, curiosity, and passion for research transpire from the swiftness of his speech, as he affirms that “when we eat, not only the palate counts but also the environment, the mood, the company of people. Even the colour or shape of a dish”. He then offers several examples. 

Food served on a small or round plate has a different effect on people than when served on larger or square plates. Food on white dishes tends to have a sweeter taste, a bitter one on black plates. If we consider the weight of the cutlery, the heavier ones are associated with food that is more expensive. Consequently, people seem willing to pay it more than when they use light cutlery. Background music influences our experience with food and the judgment we may give on what we eat. What about crisps? They taste crispier if the bag containing them sounds more rustling.

A melody accompanying the food we consume enhances our taste. Classical music, better than pop, makes us perceive the place as sophisticated and predisposes us to spend more. Think of lasagne accompanied by Giuseppe Verdi’s arias”

Sharp music enhances the taste of bittersweet foods, while high-pitched sounds enhance bitter flavours.

We savour food and wine with all five senses, not just with taste. We eat about 35% more food when you are with another person.

The taste of the same wine in two different situations for light, comfort, and background music will lead to two final and much-modified perceptions of the same wine.

Food eaten by the sea will never taste the same as when we order it at a restaurant down the road. For example, fish and chips can be memorable eaten without cutlery on the seashore and less noteworthy if eaten in a city restaurant. The flavour of seafood intensifies if you listen to the sound of seagulls and sea waves.

According to Spence, in the future, we will live even more interactive experiences. We may drink a glass of wine while scanning the label on the bottle to download a music playlist that may improve our mood and intensify the overall level of appreciation. We could receive a list of personalized entertainment based on your gastronomic tastes. Some places already use the internet, i.e. Facebook, to find out something about their diners and personalize the menu. They try to offer foods that remind of their clients’ childhood and associate it with their happy memories. “We all love something personalized that seems made only for us”.

Still, what will never change “is the beauty of socializing at the table, in front of a plate or with a glass in one’s hand.”

“Mood and emotions count a great deal. If you discuss with your partner and then decide to go eat in the best restaurant in the world, that food won’t particularly affect you,” states Mr Spence.

To this, he asks, “Have you ever wondered why orders of tomato juice rise during a flight? It is because of the engine’s background noise, which reaches 80-85 decibels. At these levels, this noise overcomes our ability to taste the sweet taste, while it enhances the sixth flavour, umami. Umami is present in foods such as tomato and anchovies. These are essential ingredients for the preparation of Bloody Mary, a very popular cocktail on aeroplanes”.

Before delighting the taste, food must please our sight, and so the dishes are usually round, like the tables. Mr Spence explains that in our subconscious, we associate angular objects with danger, perhaps because they remind us of weapons. We link circular shapes to something pleasant or sweet. Chefs work a lot with colours. To make us taste the food of up to 10% sweeter than normal, they artificially colour rose-red food or drinks.

“Try to hold your nose and taste a bit of food, without knowing what it is. You will have no idea what you are eating,” Mr Spence assures. “Aromas are important because they allow our brain to form an expectation of taste and of how much we will love that flavour. This is why in the molecular kitchen perfumes and aromas are used both to accompany a dish and create a pleasant atmosphere in the room”.

He adds, “Human beings are intrinsically social beings and have always been engaged in banquets, that is, in the ritualized sharing of food. Archaeologists and anthropologists believe that common food has played such a crucial role in our continuous development because of its ability to facilitate interactions and maintain social cohesion within groups of individuals”.

“According to my colleague from Oxford, evolutionary psychologist Professor Robin Dunbar, the act of eating together triggers the endorphin system in the brain and endorphins play an important role in the social bond in humans. Taking the time to sit together during a meal helps create social networks that in turn have profound effects on our physical and mental health, on our happiness and well-being and even on our sense of purpose in life. Eating and drinking play a special role in terms of promoting social relations because they involve the release of external substances into the body.”

Over the centuries, several commentators have highlighted the relationship between gastronomy and diplomacy. In the first decades of the nineteenth century, Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin wrote, “Read the historians, from Herodotus to our days, and you will see that there has never been a great event, including conspiracies, that were not conceived, elaborated and organized during a meal”.

In recent years, researchers have examined taste and its influence on human reasoning and behaviour much more closely. In particular, they have studied the gustatory properties of foods, such as sweet, sour, bitter and salty. Researchers at the University of Innsbruck in Austria have shown that people who taste bitter flavours (grapefruit juice, beer, dark chocolate, unsweetened black coffee or, even worse, cruciferous vegetables) tend to show greater hostility towards others. They also tend to judge morally questionable actions more harshly. On the contrary, sweets help people feel a little more romantic. It appears that people may also be more willing to accept a date.

Here, one could mention those common Italian aphorisms such as to have “a sweet (love) affair”, or on the contrary, “the affair is becoming sour.” *

( *) Sagioglou C, Greitemeyer T (2014). Bitter taste causes hostility. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 40, 1589–1597

He continues, “Another idea for those who want to make sure a meeting has the best chance of success would be to encourage participants to keep a warm cup in their hands, like a nice hot cup of tea. Social psychologists have shown that those around us tend to look warmer, more available every time they hold something warm in their hands.”

Moreover, if you think you have a slightly quarrelsome business meeting, why not serve some foods rich in tryptophan, such as eggs, cheese, pineapple, tofu, shrimp, salmon, turkey, nuts and seeds.

Tryptophan is a dietary precursor of serotonin. Whenever serotonin increases in our brain pleasantness raise, too. It is not surprising, therefore, that people fed with foods rich in tryptophan tend to be less quarrelsome”. 

Gastrodiplomacy, therefore, is based on the idea that “the simplest way to conquer hearts and minds is through the stomach”.

The conference ends. We leave Syracuse University. At its doorstep, Mr Spence greets me cordially and then exclaims, “Now I need a nice Florentine steak, followed by a good Chianti wine!” He walks fast, so fast and in a moment, he disappears.

Main bibliography
— C. Spence – 2017,Gastrophysics: the New Science of Eating: the Science of Dining from Restaurant Music to Sonic Crisps, Kindle;
— C. Spence, Carlos Velasco – 2018, Multisensory Packaging: Designing New Product Experiences, Kindle;
— C. Spence, Betina Piqueras-Fiszman, 2014, The Perfect Meal: The Multisensory Science of Food and Dining,Kindle;

Nicoletta Arbusti