ABSTRACT
Three prominent strands of the interaction/collaboration are molecular gastronomy, neurogastronomy, and gastrophysics, and these movements are briefly summarized in this chapter. Gastrophysics has been defined in a number of ways since the term’s original, fleeting first appearance in an article by Kathy Parker in the journal Physical Education. Ole Mouritsen and colleagues have stressed the links with physical chemistry. Spence, by contrast, in his book Gastrophysics: The New Science of Eating, emphasizes the combination of gastronomy and psychophysics that is at the heart of an emerging body of research focusing on what is going on in the mind of the person doing the tasting. Importantly, much of the focus of gastrophysics, at least according to this latter definition, is on ‘the everything else’ except the food itself. There has been growing interest in the way in which cutlery influences the diner’s tasting experience, not to mention their eating behavior.
