Sentences:

A. He believes that your sense of taste is intensified if you are not distracted by what you can see.

B. He, after all, was the one who brought us snail porridge and bacon ice-cream.

C. They want their guests to concentrate solely on the food that is in front of them.

D. The first does so by excluding other sensory input altogether.

E. On the other hand, it must be a very strange experience for diners. The seafood dish looks like a picture of the seashore.

F. Then you are led to your table in the pitch-black dining room by a blind waiter.

Text:

THE GREAT TASTE SENSATION

Why do we eat out in restaurants? Eating out is usually about more than just the taste of the food. But for two restaurant owners in the south of England, this lack of focus is unacceptable. 1). Interestingly, they set about achieving this in completely different ways.

Would you be happy to eat something if you couldn’t see it? Edouard de Broglie, the restaurateur behind the new London restaurant ‘Dans le Noir', hopes so. 2). ‘Dans le Noir’ is French for ‘in the dark’ and it is a blacked-out restaurant, where blind waiters and waitresses serve your food. De Broglie, who set up the original, and very successful, ‘Dans le Noir’ restaurant in Paris, said that his interest was in the sensory not the social aspects of dining. ‘The preconception of what food tastes like because of how it looks is gone,' he said. ‘All your other senses are abruptly awoken and you taste the food like you have never tasted it before.’

This is how the restaurant works. When you arrive you can choose from the menu in the brightly lit reception area. 3). You will have to feel for your cutlery, try to find the food on your plate, and try not to spill your wine! Fortunately, all glasses are made from unbreakable glass. According to Dr Charles Spence, an Oxford University lecturer in experimental psychology, everybody should try it. He said, ‘We are visually dominant creatures driven by our eyes and anything you can do to change that is a worthwhile venture.’

Heston Blumenthal, chef and owner of the famous restaurant ‘The Fat Duck’ near London, has long been renowned for his adventurous menus and experimental cooking. 4) . But even his most extraordinary dishes will seem dull and ordinary compared with his latest creation -seafood served with an iPod.

No, diners will not be expected to eat the music player, but instead to listen to the noise of crashing waves as they eat. The dish, entitled ‘Sound Of The Sea’, will be part of the tasting menu at the three-Michelin-starred restaurant. 5) It is presented on a glass-topped wooden box containing sand and seashells, and consists of what looks like sand but is in fact a mixture of fried breadcrumbs, fried baby eels and oil, topped with different kinds of seafood, oysters and three kinds of edible seaweed, all arranged beautifully. The final touch - resulting from Blumenthal’s experiments exploring the relationship between sound and the experience of eating - will be the iPod, so that diners can listen to the sound of the sea while they eat.

Blumenthal strongly believes that the sound of the waves intensifies the taste experience of eating seafood. ‘I did a series of tests with Dr Charles Spence at Oxford University three years ago,’ he said, ‘which revealed that sound can really enhance the sense of taste. We ate an oyster while listening to the sea and it tasted stronger and saltier, for example.’ Both of these restaurants seek to intensify the sensation of taste while you are eating. 6) The second does so by adding to it. So which eating experience would appeal more to your senses?

dianaterpil30031    3   14.03.2021 23:16    6