Gastrophysics: The Science of Dining from Restaurant to Party Tricks. This item is unavailable.Gastrophysics: The Science of Dining from Restaurant to Party Tricks

Why do we consume 35% more food when eating with one other person, and 75% more when dining with three? How do we explain the fact that people who like strong coffee drink more of it under bright lighting? And why does green ketchup just not work?

The answer is gastrophysics, the new area of sensory science pioneered by Oxford professor Charles Spence. Now he's stepping out of his lab to lift the lid on the entire eating experience - the weight of cutlery, colour of the plate, background noise - and tap into its true potential. Whether dining alone or at a dinner party, in a restaurant or even in space, he reveals how to understand what we're tasting and influence what others experience - providing takeaways we can all savour.

Professor Charles Spence is the head of the Crossmodal Research Laboratory at Oxford University, specialising in applied cognitive psychology, consumer psychology and sensory marketing. He has consulted for a number of multinational companies including Toyota and ICI on sensory stimulation projects. Charles was awarded the IG Nobel prize for nutrition for his groundbreaking work on the 'sonic crisp', demonstrating how a loudercrunch makes a crisp seem fresher. He sits on the scientific advisory board of PepsiCo and his book The Perfect Meal won the 2015 Popular Science Prose Award.