ABSTRACT

Understanding the physiological reactions experienced while eating has become of great interest for professional chefs. Flavor regards to a set of sensations provided by food – taste, smell, touch and aroma. These sensations are processed in the brain together with others – sound, sight, emotion, memory and others – in a way unique to humans. This phenomenon is known as the multisensory perception experience of eating. The main objective of this study was to contribute to the understanding on how nostalgia triggered by sound may affect the way food is perceived. For this preliminary study – which aims for further development – an experiment was conducted and results suggest that nostalgia can effectively be triggered by sound. When hearing the sound of the seaside, participants felt the Sound of the Sea – signature dish by Heston Blumenthal – fresher and more delicious overall than when sound was not being played. It was also suggested that the type of evoked memory directly affects the overall enjoyment of the dish and that each individual has its own multisensory perception experience.