Carefully Consider Your Choice Of Place Settings
While working on your online culinary courses, you’ll very likely find yourself preparing meals or treats for your friends and families to try out techniques and recipes you have picked up during the course of your studies. If you are going to spend all the time needed to craft the perfect culinary experience for your guests, you’ll want to follow through on every detail so that they can have the best experience possible. According to recent studies, the dishes you serve your food on and the utensils you use to eat it can have an impact on how people perceive the taste of your creations.
Effect of dishware on taste
The material, shape and size of your utensils or dishware can all affect the flavoring of the food you are serving. These influences are believed to be a psychological association that we subconsciously make as we sit down to dine. For example, researchers found that yogurt eaten off a heavier silver spoon was indicated to be better tasting than the same exact yogurt eaten off a lightweight plastic spoon. The type of material used in the silverware or dishes has a subconscious indication of quality: If dishes or silverware feel cheap, the food’s flavor will be diminished. If the material is perceived as higher quality, the food will taste better. So, when showing off your new skills from the culinary academy, set yourself up to impress and leave the plastic in the drawer.
Influencing portion size
The material you choose isn’t the only thing that can make or break a meal. Another study that was published in the Journal of Consumer Research found that the size and color of dishes can influence how we perceive portion sizes. If the color of the plate contrasted with that of the food, people were inclined to eat smaller portions. People eating off smaller plates also chose smaller portions without being fully aware of it. The contrast between the tablecloth and plates also had a similar effect.
These findings are believed to be a result of the Delboeuf illusion which states that people will believe that the size of circle is much smaller than it actually is if it is surrounded by a larger circle. So, if you want to control your dining experience, like many students working on their culinary certificates do, carefully select how you set the table.
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