Title: Edible Experiences
Subtitle: The Science and Art of Food Perception
Subject Classification:  Anthropology, Food and Farming, Business and Management  
BIC Classification: JF, JFCV, KNDF
BISAC Classification: BUS081000, SOC002010, BUS043000
Binding: Hardback, Paperback, eBook
Publication date: 24 Jul 2025
ISBN (Hardback): 978-1-83711-199-2
ISBN (eBook): 978-1-83711-200-5
ISBN (Paperback): 978-1-83711-201-2

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Description

Edible Experiences: The Science and Art of Food Perception provides understanding of food–science–art connections in applying principles of experience design. It is done by involving all five senses in gastronomy, based on the principles of the experience economy and achieving psychological satisfaction of consumers.

The text builds on the seminal works on the experience economy (Pine and Gilmore, 1998), neurogastronomy (Shepherd, 2013) and gastrophysics (Spence, 2017). However, it offers a wider picture on food, seeing it also from the perspectives of tourism, arts, anthropological, marketing and diplomacy. In an easily understandable style, the book offers a complement to existing knowledge on the omnipresent topic of food, but seen from different perspectives, offering understanding of the colour, form, symmetry, melody, rhythm, tonality, scale, harmony, etc., used in food experience design. The cause-and-effect relationship between individual visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, gustatory stimuli and consumer reactions is provided.

Biography

Author(s):  Dr Daniela Angelina Jelinčić is an ethnologist at the Institute for Development and International Relations, Croatia.

Reviews

"Edible Experiences is a rare and satisfying bridge between two worlds that too often sit apart: the medical–scientific understanding of food and the deeply human, sensory way we actually experience it. The book offers surprising and persuasive insights into the multiple sensory routes through which we analyse food, showing how taste, smell, sight, sound, and touch are constantly reshaped by mood, memory, narrative, and belief. What emerges is a nuanced and convincing argument: food experience is never simple, and never purely physiological.This complexity makes the book essential reading for restaurateurs and food professionals or academics who care about the depth of the food experiences. From the influence of cutlery and plating on perception and pleasure, to the ways context and expectation shape enjoyment, the book dismantles the idea that “good food” can be reduced to ingredients alone. It is particularly timely in its analysis of contemporary dining, where more and more restaurants are offering “active” eating experiences and attempting to stimulate all the senses to challenge how we perceive flavour and meaning at the table and away from the table in unusual settings.The scope is impressively broad. Edible Experiences not only explores food as depicted in art, literature, music, design and the reciprocal influence of the arts on gastronomy; it examines price perception and value; and it confidently ventures into neurology without becoming heavy or exclusionary. The writing is accessible and easy to digest, balancing observations that feel intuitively obvious with others that are less expected but deeply believable. Crucially, these insights are grounded in references to scientific studies, giving the book both credibility and intellectual balance."
- Dr. Diane Dodd, President of IGCAT (International Institute of Gastronomy, Culture, Arts and Tourism)