Food Servcie Management (Essay Sample)

Calling All Senses Name: Course: Tutor: Institution: Date:  Multisensory flavor perception is a new field that measures how our experience of flavor is shaped by our various senses. Taste and flavor are not interchangeable terms as many believe. Flavor constitutes the combined experience of taste and the other four senses while taste is merely one of the five senses. It is important to note that flavor is an action of the brain aimed at integrating an unlikely set of pathways into one unified experience of what we consume. According to Gordon a neuron gastronomist flavor is not in the food rather it comes from our brain. It is a sense that is so deeply embedded since it is a sense that is created by the brain. For years, the study of taste and flavor was focused on the tongue and this resulted in an erroneous diagram known as the ‘tongue map’. The diagram divided the tongue into various regions namely bitter, sweet, salty and sour tastes. The error was as a result of mistranslation of German data into English nevertheless, the thought of having a tongue map was so appealing to the imagination of the public. Recent research shows that the tongue map left out a crucial fifth taste “umami” which is Japanese for savory. Furthermore, no individual part of the tongue holds a monopoly on a particular taste since discrete taste receptors are distributed across the tongue and are such that they send particular tastes to the brain. These receptors go all the way down to the gut and lungs. According to Multisensory flavor perception a complete anatomical map of flavor should not be limited to the tongue it should include the eyes, hands, nose, ears and throat. The recent study of multisensory flavor perception shows that humans experience food not only with their tongues but with all their five senses. From this study it is evident that the aroma of what we eat, the color of the food or brightness of the room, weight of the utensils coupled with the sounds of what we eat are fundamental to the feeding experience. These attributes of food therefore help food marketers define their target market(s) and this becomes crucial as it forms a basis for the marketing cycle as can be derived from the figure below.
Figure 1: Represents the marketing cycle (Source: Payne-Palacio & Theis, 2011) In relation to the current article, it is evident that flavor indeed is a basic aspect in food marketing. For instance, from the market cycle, a food manager relies on both existing and potential customer’s preferences to and hence present what customers want and in the way they want it. These preferences are what are referred to in the article generally as flavor which has been shown to consist of various attributes. One such attribute; smell is discussed below. Our experience of eating food is dominated by smell. As we eat the throat and nose are important this is because in order to enjoy a meal we draw in aromas Shepherd tries to explain this he says that it’s only when we breathe out that we enjoy food/flavor. This is little understood but an explanation to this is; as we chew and swallow we exhale small amounts of air. This pushes the smell from our food up and outward from the throat and through back passages into our nose where there are sensory receptors that relay this information to the brain this is known as ‘retro nasal olfaction’ and this explains why smell dominates the food experience. In marketing, feedback is crucial as illustrated in the marketing cycle. Hence, a food’s smell can be plus or a turn off for clients. The feedback obtained due to smell would thus help in formulating other marketing strategies. Other than smell there exists a visual perception of food that contributes to the food experience. The visual presentation of food is just as important and powerful as smell. This why most food advertisers and magazines depend on expert stylist and photographers to make their meals look appetizing. In Food Service Management Principles and Practices, Payne-Palacio and Theis note that food managers can successfully run a food marketing program by utilizing most of the unique aspects of food including both the intangible and tangible elements of a food. This aspects are the major focus in food marketing (Payne-Palacio & Theis, 2011). As such, flavor constitutes one such element that food marketers employ to market food. This article indicates just how food presentation forms an important aspect of food advertising. When one sees a good looking meal even on a picture the sight trips nerves that in turn activate our salivary glands. In addition to making someone hungry, a good visual appearance of food also plays a major role in the perception of the food’s flavor. The visual effect on flavor has to do with expectation. For example the coloring of a fruit or drink alters its perceived sweetness or sourness. According to some studies participants ranked fruit drinks colored red to be sweeter by as much as 11% this is derived from the perception that most fruits turn red when they ripen. The marketing mix encompasses four items: place, price, product and promotion. The product in this case represents the food, whose presentation can be used to market the food. Another important sense in the food experience is texture, though it is least understood it can change or enhance flavor. How we feel food in our mouth is equally important to what we use to eat the food. For instance, in various experiments carried out a heavy bowl of yoghurt is perceived to be more pleasant and expensive as compared to the same yoghurt in a lighter bowl. A less acquainted form of flavor experience is sound. Some years back a psychologist named Charles Spence carried out an experiment. In this experiment the partici...