“Eating with your eyes”

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jcam222

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Jun 13, 2017
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The subject of plating and the visual aspects of food come up from time to time. We all have heard “you eat with your eyes” and the investment restaurants and chefs put into it is high. That said I was motivated awhile back to look into it. Turns out there is a lot of solid science behind it. A lot of semi dry reading here but interesting for sure. https://amp.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2011/jan/28/food-multi-sensoryhttps://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0278262615300178
 
It was interesting.
What kind of fruit was that? Bull Nuts! :emoji_laughing: That's funny! Twisted but funny!
And bigfurmn bigfurmn you thought I was twisted!
Probably why they stopped making green and purple ketchup how many years ago.

Ryan
 
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This statement really got my attention...

Eric Schlosser (2001, p. 121), in his best-selling book Fast Food Nation: “about 90% of the money spent by North Americans on food is used to buy processed food”.

I had no idea it would be that much. I guess most people just don't cook much anymore...
 
This statement really got my attention...

Eric Schlosser (2001, p. 121), in his best-selling book Fast Food Nation: “about 90% of the money spent by North Americans on food is used to buy processed food”.

I had no idea it would be that much. I guess most people just don't cook much anymore...
I think that’s why all of us who cook are so popular with friends and neighbors!!
 
I guess that's why companies like Hello Fresh can stay in business. I'm not sure about the financial aspect of it, but the cost to the consumer has to be twice what it would cost to go to the grocery and buy it yourself.

In my family we have a home cooked dinner every evening. The food is great, but the relationship created with our children was better.
 
In my family we have a home cooked dinner every evening. The food is great, but the relationship created with our children was better.
This will get us off on a tangent, but I grew up that way. All 5 of us sat at the supper table every evening and no one got up until everyone was finished eating. Now it's our grands that I try to do this with...
 
In many ways food comes back to the chicken or the egg paradox question?

How many food places have an image of their food?
Asian restaurants come to mind or food courts at the mall or food trucks.
Let us not forget the attractive packaging on processed food.
Disney currently has their "Festival of the Arts" at Epcot. Food specials is part of their various festivals. Visual is a big part of the advertising.
...
Eric Schlosser (2001, p. 121), in his best-selling book Fast Food Nation: “about 90% of the money spent by North Americans on food is used to buy processed food”.
...

We must be exceptions to the processed food rule. I scanned the pantry and freezer.
Outside of a few snack crackers in the pantry and a bag of onion rings in the freezer, all the items are ingredients for making a meal.
I am curious of his definition of "processed food". Does my Duke's Mayo, Primal Kitchen Ketchup and other condiments count as processed?

I am very aroma oriented for food.
A year ago, I had a mild case of Covid EXCEPT for losing my smell and taste.
I didn't care how good food looked; I wasn't the least bit interested.

Often I will grill or smoke cook a meal and cannot eat it. I lose my appetite due to overload of aroma. Wife has gotten used to my "nose blind".
I will cook a meal and while it is not the most visually appealing, if it smells good my wife and family will eat it.

Sorry for the long ramble of thoughts.

Great thread Jeff.
 
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I am too, but what appeals to your eyes may not appeal to mine. It's subjective. Those things the high end chefs plate up really do nothing for me.
I totally agree Doug. That fancy fu-fu stuff with a drizzle of lawnmower sauce does nothing for me either.
 
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One night many moons ago. After visiting the bars until the wee hours in the morning. A few of us visited the local Ho Jo's for one of their big breakfast deals. Needless to say I missed my mouth and poked myself in the eye with a sausage. I found it hard to chew and couldn't taste it all. From that point on I decided to eat with my mouth instead of my eye.

Chris
 
One night many moons ago. After visiting the bars until the wee hours in the morning. A few of us visited the local Ho Jo's for one of their big breakfast deals. Needless to say I missed my mouth and poked myself in the eye with a sausage. I found it hard to chew and couldn't taste it all. From that point on I decided to eat with my mouth instead of my eye.

Chris
Wouldn't that require a warning label on them now?

Ryan
 
The subject of plating and the visual aspects of food come up from time to time. We all have heard “you eat with your eyes” and the investment restaurants and chefs put into it is high. That said I was motivated awhile back to look into it. Turns out there is a lot of solid science behind it. A lot of semi dry reading here but interesting for sure. https://amp.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2011/jan/28/food-multi-sensoryhttps://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0278262615300178
Man Jeff, I finally got through this with, admittedly, some skimming. My initial glance didn’t quite hit some big points. It made me think about how my diet has changed over the past few years, and SMF role (good and bad!). I was initially happy with a good BBQ or grill on the weekends and typically was basically healthy. But now that I’ve expanded and tried more complete “restaurant style” recipes I’m using way more salt and calorie heavy food than I ever did before. The result is some pretty incredible eating several times a week, but a lot more calories and “other stuff” than what I ever had on an almost daily basis before. So the good of it is my cooking has become better by magnitudes (one good of SMF), but so has my intake of high calorie foods and salt (the bad). Thinking about the past few years, when I’m getting ready for a weigh in or fitness test, my interaction on SMF drops considerably because it just tempts me too much. On the back end, when weigh in or fitness tests are completed I tend to go wild.

While I don’t begrudge some that have an opinion that looks don’t matter. I think it’s more of an exception than the rule. It’s not hard to prove the majority of humans eat with their eyes and the well earned success of Jeff and SMF is just one testament to that end. If you cook something that looks disgusting, but tastes amazing then you’ll know and eat it without hesitation. If a stranger offers food that looks disgusting you’ll hesitate before taking a bite. Taken another step, if an entrepreneur starts posting pics of unappetizing food and explaining why it’s incredible, they’ll probably have a hard time getting followers or selling cook books.

Anyway, the cooking shows I watch and threads I interact with here do make me want to cook and eat more than I ever did before. It’s fun as hell and it’s given a lot of great memories. But this article has me wondering if I need to reset myself a bit. I’m retiring from the Marines soon and my PT is down, calorie intake up, and if I’m not careful, eating with my eyes could become a problem.

That being said, I think this article also motivates me to keep working on making food look as presentable as I can. I personally find it satisfying when the presentation matches the effort and it makes people im feeding feel special too. Besides, it’s talking to the primal part of our brain that we are about to consume a nutrient rich energy source🤣

Once again, great article Jeff!
 
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