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Taste is a very important driver of the eating experience and a complex human phenomenon. It has been a topic of scientific research and philosophical discussion.

Research on Taste

The mission of the Taste Science Laboratory in the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University is to elucidate the nature and impact of individual differences in perception - in particular, differences in taste and smell sensitivity - on personality, performance, and preferences.

In its first definition, the American Heritage Dictionary limits the tastes perceived by the taste buds to four: in fact there are at least six in addition to the classic four, there are the taste of fat, and a taste called umami. Umami means delicious in Japanese, and is the word for the savory taste of meat. In this way, our taste buds are designed to tell us about the nutritional qualities of the food we eat: sweet for ripe fruit and carbohydrates, sour for unripe fruit and vitamin C, salty for salt and other minerals, bitter for poisonous plants, umami for protein, and fat for fat!

The second definition, which includes smell and touch, is the one most people have in mind when they talk about the taste of a food; taste, in this sense, means flavor.

Taste and Philosophy

As part of my holiday reading list, I purchased Making Sense of Taste: Food & Philosoph by Carolyn Korsmeyer.

"Taste, perhaps the most intimate of the five senses, has traditionally been considered beneath the concern of philosophy, too bound to the body, too personal and idiosyncratic. Yet, in addition to providing physical pleasure, eating and drinking bear symbolic and aesthetic value in human experience, and they continually inspire writers and artists."

Really looking forward reading it.

Just when Catalonian chef Ferran Adrià announced that his world famous restaurant El Bulli will be closed permanently, another Spanish chef takes center stage.

During the 8th international gastronomy summit, MadridFusión, world renowned Michelin star chef Juan Mari Arzak of the famous Arzak restaurant in Spain and Philips Design presented a series of concepts intended not only to delight palates, but also evoke emotion and stimulate the senses.

The sensual enjoyment of flavors, the appreciation of harmonies and the recognition of nuances all combine to create the unique pleasure of the dining table. In its latest Design Probe – Multi-sensorial Gastronomy – Philips Design has explored how the integration of light, conductive printing, selective fragrance diffusion, micro-vibration and a host of other integrations of sensory stimuli could affect the eating experience in subtle ways.

Lunar Eclipse (bowl), Fama (long plate) and Tapa de Luz (serving plate) are made from bone china and familiar objects from our everyday lives. However when liquid is poured into the bowl or food is placed on the plates, they begin to shine. A glowing light subtly appears from the bottom of the bowl and plates creating a new sensory dining experience as the senses are stimulated and altered. The series uses bone china and involves the integration of lighting, conductive printing, selective fragrance discharge, micro-vibration, electro stimulus and a host of other sensory stimuli that affect the food and the diner in subtle ways.

Also read this short interview with Juan Mari Arzak on the essential role of design, creativity and innovation in gastronomic cuisine.

Two high-order qualities of compelling user experiences revolve around the principles of harmony and balance. People feel at ease experiencing these. Unfortunately, high-order principles aren't discussed in the user experience domain extensively.

Reading this article by Jennifer Farley (Sitepoint) on balance as a design principle and finding this blogpost on Washoku cooking and design by Garr Reynolds (Presentation Zen) inspired me to learn more on how principles of Japanese cooking can improve my designs for experiences.

In Japanese cuisine, the Power of Five rules. Five principles outline the ideal components of every meal. Each principle is a list of five items which should all be present for a nutritionally, visually, spiritually balanced meal, with no single component overpowering the others.

• Harmony in color. Washoku meals include foods that are red, yellow, green, black and white. This is not only visually pleasing, but a great way to be sure you are getting a good nutritional balance with your meal.
• Harmony in palate. By having a balance of salty, sour, sweet, bitter, and spicy foods, a washoku-style meal is thoroughly satisfying to the entire palate.
• Harmony in cooking method. Washoku-style meals use several different methods of cooking in each meal: simmering, searing, steaming, raw, and sauteeing or frying.
• Harmony in the senses. Each meal should please the five senses: taste, sight, sound, smell and touch (texture).
• Harmony in the outlook. This is a philisophical idea that when eating we should attempt, first to respect the efforts of all those who contributed their toil to cultivating and preparing our food; second, to do good deeds worthy of receiving such nourishment; third, to come to the table without ire; fourth, to eat for spiritual as well as temporal well-being; and fifth, to be serious in our struggle to attain enlightenment.

Elisabeth Andoh (author of Washoku: Recipes from the Japanese Home Kitchen) says: "Selecting ingredients at their peak of seasonal flavor, choosing locally available foods from both the land and the sea, appealing to and engaging all the senses, using a collage of color, employing a variety of food preparations, and assembling an assortment of flavors – a Washoku approach to cooking gives the creative and contemplative cook an opportunity to satisfy his or her own aesthetic hunger while providing sustenance and sensory pleasure to others."

I immediately ordered her book.

In 2005, editor Carolyn Korsmeyer published the book "The Taste Culture Reader: Experiencing Food and Drink' in the serie 'Sensory Formations' (Berg Publishers). Besides taste, this serie looks into other senses such as vision, sound and touch. Not in a technology but in a human perspective.

This book will interest anyone seeking to understand more fully the importance of food and flavor in human experience, said the publisher. So, I read the book and the following quotes resonated:

"(...) the senses usually work together in interrelation to create sense experience; the term that captures this integrative perspective of the senses is 'intersensoriality'." (Korsmeyer, p.8)

"The senses are the organs by which man places himself in connection with exterior objects." (Brillat-Savarin, p.16)

"There is no situation in which sensibility and understanding, united in enjoyment, can be as long continued and as often repeated as a good meal in good company." (Immanuel Kant, p.214)

"The significant quality of smell and taste is that it is possible to recognize them, but much more diffcult to recall them." (Sutton, p.313)

"There is a particular strong line between the senses of taste and smell and the emotional dimensions of human experience." (Lupton, p.19)

"Taste is a sensation of the moment. It cannot be preserved." (Fisher, p.325)

Looking forward reading another book on taste by the same author: "Making Sense of Taste: Taste, Food, and Philosophy" (Cornell University Press, 1999)

In his seminal plenary speech at the Information Architecture Summit 2009 in Memphis (USA), Jesse James Garrett stated that in fact information architects and interaction designers are user experience designers. As designers, they focus on the engagement of people with artifacts, platforms and environments (online and offline).

According to Jesse, human engagement involves the mind (cognition), the heart (emotion), the body (action), and the senses (perception). Designers must know how to design for these human capabilities.

It almost goes without saying that besides for user experiences, the senses are also crucial for culinary experiences. Tastes, flavors, and smells are important human perceptions of the qualities of food. But are these inherently the qualities of food or are they only emergent through tasting and eating?

Long ago, the French lawyer and politician Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826) wrote an important and celebrated book on the human senses in a gastronomic context: "The Physiology of Taste or Transcendental Gastronomy" (1825). The book contains hardly any recipes but many anecdotes and observations covering all aspects of the pleasures of the table. He is considered 'the greatest food critic ever'.

By reading this book, we gain understanding of our senses. We can use it to what JJG had in mind for user experience designers: facilitating compelling user experiences, never to forget.

Great stories are sources of inspiration. That's one of the reasons we love the 18-minute presentations from the annual TED conference so much. Amazing people telling the most compelling stories.

In 2006, 2007 and 2008, a special set of these great stories was told. Robert Mondavi Winery organized the TASTE3 conference and invited storytellers from the culinary world. It's the passion behind these stories which makes them so inspiring.

A few examples:

• Chef and scholor Dan Barber relentlessly pursues the stories and reasons behind the foods we grow and eat.
• Master breadmaker Peter Reinhart channels the science of baking into deep, spiritual lessons and dispels stale myths about the nature (and flavor) of good, wholesome bread.
• Journalist and author Benjamin Wallace tells the true story of the world's most expensive bottle of wine.
• Owner and founder of Vosges Haut-Chocolat Katrina Markoff reveals the four steps that leads her to inspired, delicious and creative new chocolate collections.
• Moto Restaurant's Pastry Chef Ben Roche demonstrates the unique dining experience at Moto with his version of Carrot Cake, Nachos and Wine and Food Pairing.
• Chef Jeffery Henderson tells his story from the streets to the stoves and how cooking changed his life.

According to the Taste3 blog, the next version of the conference will be in 2010. Deo volente.

This video includes Chef Grant Achatz talking about his ultimate aim: to use food as a kind of artistic medium to give individual diners an emotional experience.

"If you can get past the soy sauce on chocolate, you will enjoy it and feel a certain way. It's a journey where your heart beats a little faster."

In a two hours lecture on creativity at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences in 2008, world class chef Ferran Adrià (of elBulli fame) showed a short but beautifull video. In this video, the gastronomic experience of a couple is shown through their facial expressions.

Accompanied by the soundtrack 'A Day in the Live' (Lennon and McCartney 1967), we see how the restaurant crew serving the food to the couple, enjoying it to the max.

As Ferran said: "It's not the food, it's the experience."

See also a similar interview with Ferran Adrià at Google, including reviewing the elBulli site.

Panelists include Patanjali S. Venkatacharya (Oracle Corp., USA), Ronald M. Baecker (University of Toronto, Canada), Daniel Schwartz (Oracle USA Inc., USA), Chef Jody Adams (Rialto Restaurant, USA) and Chef Jason Santos (Gargoyles Restaurant, USA).

"This panel will bring together a group of user experience experts, with a group often overlooked in the art and science of user experience and food designers. The panelists will include: an award-winning Michelin-starred Chef, a culinary school instructor, a user experience practitioner, and a world-renowned HCI academic.

Together, the panel will compare and contrast concepts from food design and user experience including the challenges of meeting demanding end-user needs, and best practices from food design that one could potentially apply to the design of everyday things.

The main objective of the panel is to explore pertinent questions on the craft of design from two different domain perspectives, whilst evaluating some of the key overlapping concepts.

Among the issues they will examine are:

• How to ensure that designs satisfy the end customers
• The top 3 challenges in coming up with a new design (or recipe)
• How to conduct user testing in a high-stress environment
• Processes to use in developing entirely new creations

From a press release of CHI 2009 (April 4-9, 2009 - Boston, USA). - I'm speechless.

UPDATE: Panel abstract (ACM) - Photo impression of the panel.

In his closing keynote at the 10th ASIS&T Information Architecture Summit (Memphis TN - March 18-22, 2009), Jesse James Garrett (president of Adaptive Path) stated the following: "(...) we're all user experience designers (...) We can engage people's senses. We can stimulate them through visuals, through sound, through touch and smell and taste. This is the domain of the traditional creative arts: painting, music, fashion, cooking."

Told you so!

In the Fall of 2006, Michel Gagné was contacted by Brad Bird to create a series of animated vignettes for his movie Ratatouille. The concept was to design and animate abstract representations of what the character was tasting. After discussing ideas and concepts with Brad Bird, he created a series of images to illustrate potential ideas of how the taste could be visualized in an abstract way. These were reviewed by Brad and shown to the music composer as inspiration.

A great example of how to make something abstract like taste very concrete.

"The atmosphere, the people involved, the stories behind the ingredients, the taste and texture, sound, smell and colour of food and the way it is prepared and served. She explores the intimacy of design that actually goes inside your body and follows the journey of food from seed all the way to poop. Thinking about all this and working and experimenting in her studio and restaurant and by creating eating experiences for her clients she has developed her own unique way of looking at eating from a psychological, cultural and design point of view." says Dutch eating-designer Marije Vogelzang in her newly published book 'Eat Love'.

Marije considers cooking something for professionals.

It's always interesting to hear people's stories of their most memorable dining experience(s). Which experiences shaped them for the rest of their lives? This Meal in Venice from 1978 by Rick and Teel Sale made them really, really happy. They'll never forget. "Papa! Papa you did it! You made it!"

It's (still) a far cry from having this kind of UX. [via Jason Kottke]

Podcast from Jeff Parks at Boxes and Arrows - Michael Recchiuti talks about the experience of making chocolate and how different flavors inspire new creations for the business and his customers. Looking at different professions outside of the web world in which most UX practitioners work can inspire innovation and creativity.

Flavor tripping in which some fruits alters the body's snse of taste seems a pure example of experience design, according to Design for Service.

Three quotes from the synthesis:

• "Cooking is a language through which all the following properties may be expressed: harmony, creativity, happiness, beauty, poetry, complexity, magic, humour, provocation and culture."
• "The information given off by a dish is enjoyed through the senses; it is also enjoyed and interpreted by reflection."
• "Knowledge and/or collaboration with experts from different fields (gastronomic culture, history, industrial design, etc.,) is essential for progress in cooking. In particular collaboration with the food industry and the scientific world has brought about fundamental advances. Sharing this knowledge among cooking professionals has contributed to this evolution."

Victor Lombardi (of NBS fame) introduces the concept of the Food Guide to guide people during their dinner through the dishes, tastes and textures. Quite a concept. "(...) the food is the focus and the restaurant provides a food-centric experience."

At the 2008 conference on 'Design & Emotion' (Oct. 6-8 2008, Hongkong), one of the conference themes relates to similarities and differences between product experience design and design of food and fragrances. The theme caption reads "What emotional responses do we experience in response to foods and fragrances? Are these particular and distinct emotions, or are these the same emotions we also experience in response to product appearance? How can we describe and design for food and fragrance emotions? This theme invites papers that discuss the experiential impact of food and fragrance design."

Nathan Shedroff has been one of the very first identifying similarities between webdesign and gastronomy. Nathan is a thought leader in the field of Experience Design and a long time new media guru. From a culinary point of view, he connected the dots of the various design disciplines.

How to communicate food, cooking and recipes with online videos, just have a look at the Food Network Video Guide.

Food stylists and food photographers help us get appetite browsing through illustrated cookbooks. Looking at sites regularly does not urge me to browse further. How do they do it? Foodesigns provides some inspiration. The Tweezer Times is their "e-zine that covers timely and informative news about the world of food photography. It includes articles on food styling techniques, profiles featuring professional stylists and shooters, and reviews of tools and equipment. Content provided by recognized professionals in the business of food photography." - Visual design in optima forma.

How does a chef think? How does (s)he strive towards perfection and to serve perfect food? The mind and soul of a chef reveals a lot of the psychological and emotional processes involved. Micheal Ruhlman takes you on this journey towards the dark hearts of the profession.

Perception through the senses is the way people experience. Besides experiencing through their eyes, ears and skin, their tongue and nose determine the taste of food. But what constitutes their taste? And how can we influence people's taste? This book provides some answers.

Dutch food designer Marije Vogelzang describes on her blog 'Proef ('Taste') Amsterdam' how she integrates food, design and art. For her, food is a material to design with and less to eat. Including to make it fun for children. And ... she's does not cook, but designs.

In the family of 'Crunch', Web 2.0 trendwatcher M. Arrington ('TechCrunch') started the blog CrunchFood on "(...) a subject still near and dear to the hearts of geeks".