29 June 2017
Gastro Physics
Matching food with ideas.
By Chin Chin
Until very recently I had not heard of gastric physics, the new science whose high priest is Charles Spence of Oxford University. As I haven’t read his book yet, it would be a little unfair to review it, so I will just share with you the fact that we find food more attractive when it is well-presented or we are dining in good company. That in itself is hardly a surprise. Well-presented food in congenial surroundings has always been recognised as attractive. That is why restauranteurs invest a lot of money in decorating their premises and why the best French restaurants sport immaculate white linen tablecloths and beautiful glass and cutlery.
The question is, of course, whether the trick is to serve the food meticulously or merely in the way which is most appropriate to it. Suppose the chosen morsel is a deep fried Mars Bar, for example. Would that taste better at the Savoy with a heavy Pedro Ximenes in a nice glass or outside a Scottish football stadium with a Johnny Walker chaser? One suspects that the latter would better bring out the cultural profile of the dish.
Smart restaurants with tasting menus often offer a “flight of” wines to go with the various dishes. You can see the gastric physics already at work here in the word “flight”. “Collection of suitable wines” would not be as euphonious but, wines only flying when the diner has lost his temper, is clearly more accurate. “Various wines which the chef has managed to buy cheaply but can sell at a high price to ignorant punters who are anxious to appear discriminating” would often be more accurate still.
But something is missing here. It isn’t just the wines and the decor which make the food more attractive but also the atmosphere of the occasion and, if we go back to our fried Mars Bar example, the correct atmosphere must depend on the nature of the food. How then to match your atmosphere against the particular dish which you propose to prepare?
It is a principle of gastro physics that good company, like good wine, is necessary to maximise the satisfaction which can be gained from a meal. It follows that the company, like the presentation and the wine, must be tailored to the food being eaten.
Suppose, for example, that you have decided to serve a vegan salad. Although worthy in many ways vegans tend to be rather serious-minded so to get the best out of the meal you should eat it with people who either are vegetarian or are prepared to adopt the vegetarian demeanour for the evening. For example the conversation should be about politics with a tendency towards the left and environmental activism. In fact you might prime your guests with the odd environmental line. If they were to ask “How is the carrot water being reused?” giving you the opportunity to reply “It is in the coffee”, you will improve everybody’s enjoyment of the meal. Incidentally, don’t actually put it into the coffee which would have the opposite effect, but if you use robusta rather than arabica and add a little chicory, you can explain that the change in flavour is due to the carrot water which has been through a refining process. Obviously jokes would be out of the question for this meal although there is probably nothing against the occasional murmuring of “that’s a first world problem”, delivered rather sadly with hands clasped as if in prayer, in respect of anything which has happened in Europe or the US.
At the other end of the scale there is a beef steak dinner with a good Burgundy. This time you need quite a different sort of guest and a few sportsmen would add to the occasion. The table would ring to accounts of tries scored, boats rowed and records which were nearly beaten. Any political conversation would be of the biff’em and bash’em variety and the tone would be robust rather than sad. In any case there wouldn’t be much room for political conversation at all as the various sportsmen joshed each other over triumphs they had failed to achieve.
Much more difficult would be the longer menu with lentils as a first course and steak as a second. How should the maximum enjoyment be extracted from both traditions, particularly if the pudding is something which is both sophisticated and luxurious, like say a dessert soufflé? It would be difficult to match your guests to all of these. One possible answer would be to change the guests each course. “Come for the starter only,” you could pencil on the corner of the invitation, “as the other courses are unlikely to suit you”. It sounds fine in theory but there is a problem. You would have to explain to each guest why he or she has been chosen for a particular course. Here one would have to be sensitive. “Because you are dowdy and rather serious-minded” would not necessarily appeal to all vegans. “Because you are big, muscular and a bit thick” will not necessarily go down well with all Jocks. Your explanation to those who would enhance a dessert soufflé but probably not the steak or lentils would be even more difficult. “Because you are very pretentious” might be fairly said to many in North London but even there it is not always received particularly well.
No, the only answer is to have the same guests but to ask them to change their conversation between courses. For the first course all politics would be left wing but as that was cleared the guests would remove the ethical clothing, slip on a jacket and take bigger sips from their glass. For the dessert soufflé the conversation would be exclusively about house prices and the musical achievements of offspring.
It would be harder, of course, for the restauranteur who wished to offer a tasting menu. Should he print on it a list of approved conversations alongside his list of approved wines? Should there be different tables in his restaurant devoted to the various courses? These are the obvious answers, but there is a better alternative. As you went into the restaurant you would receive a special set of audio receivers, rather like the ones you can rent at an art exhibition. They would have a sophisticated sensory apparatus which would detect the moment when one course succeeded another. Then you could be assured of appropriate conversation to go with your meal. What is more, you could enjoy dining by yourself which, if nothing else, is certainly a great deal cheaper.
If you enjoyed this article please share it using the buttons above.
Please click here if you would like a weekly email on publication of the ShawSheet
