Kristen Baumlier

Ever eat ice cream while holding marshmallows in your hands?  Done a smell comparison test and tried to identify aromas?  Flavour SenseNation is a traveling interactive event that explores the ways we use each of our senses through a variety of interactive activities.

Sight, sound, and perception all influence how food tastes.  From hearing the crunch of an apple, to being able to identify when something tastes sour (suggesting what you’re eating might be ‘off’), our senses play a vital role in protecting us from harm. At the Flavour SenseNation event, traditional dishes are reinvented to make them look entirely different from their origins, so visitors can test if the food is still appealing.

Some of the activities include:

– Mapping your tongue and identifying which of your taste buds are most sensitive to the five basic tastes.
– Discovering how and why food textures can influence the enjoyment of food,
– Exploring how different sounds can enhance the appreciation of flavor.
– Testing your ability to identify aromas
–  Investigating how preconceptions can impair our sensory skills.

At a recent event  at the Abergavenny food festival in Wales, visitors could taste parmesan with spiced plum chutney, beetroot with walnut /orange sprinkles and dehydrated fennel shard ice creams.  There also were hot and cold sweets, rose pepper chocolate, and other sweets to test.

The producer of the exhibition is ActionDog CIC – a not-for-profit production company that devises and delivers creative projects to inspire and educate young people. The project is funded by the Wellcome Trust, and was created by the Sensory Scientist Dr. Lisa Methven, Professor Peter Barham, Lulie Biggs and Kianna Bahrami of ActionDog.  Pictures and information about the project can be seen on the Flavour SenseNation facebook page.

Images:
FlavourSenseNation – Facebook site

Links:

FlavourSenseNation – Facebook site

http://www.actiondog.net/

 http://molecularcuisine.sva.edu/