A dish best served… in a bowl

“If you spend 140 SEK on lunch, that lunch should deliver an experience. What’s important then is how you perceive the meal – cutlery, restaurant noise, colours, environment, shapes, and other factors. Hopefully, our study contributes to restaurants, coffee shops and dining halls improving their ability to create experiences that make more people opt for healthy food,” says Johan Swahn, a meal and sensory science researcher at the School of Hospitality, Culinary Arts and Meal Science, in Grythyttan at Örebro University.

To promote more sustainable and healthier eating habits, we need to understand how the way in which vegetarian dishes are presented and described influences how people feel about them. This study shows that guests perceived food as healthier when it was served in a bowl and when it was described as “vegan” rather than “plant-based”.

Help people to eat healthy

“Currently, bowls are linked to healthier food, but as food choices are shaped by trends this may well change. In a few years’ time, poke bowls may not be as hot. What’s important is the knowledge that we perceive our meals differently depending on environment and context. Since many of us want to eat healthier, it’s a good thing if restaurants are aware that the brain’s processing of impressions is significant for our food experience,” explains Johan Swahn.

The study aligns well with previous research on how important the sound environment, cutlery, plates, signage and similar factors are for the customer experience. Little nudges in the right direction can help us lead a healthier life. For example, the colour or the weight of the tableware used can influence how much we appreciate the food on it. But no previous studies seem to have compared whether food can be perceived as healthier in a bowl than on a plate.

Restaurants can make a difference

“A lot of work goes into conducting this type of experiment: taking over an entire restaurant and performing all these tests and measurements. But I’m passionate about research making a difference for society, restaurants and suppliers, ensuring that the difference is made where it’s really needed. Wholesalers delivering produce can contribute to the restaurants – whether it’s your local pizza place or fine dining establishments – finetuning the experience in their dining rooms,” says Johan Swahn.

Johan Swahn is a chef by training and has worked at one of the best restaurants in the world, The Fat Duck outside London, where he learnt a lot about how exquisite dishes can be elevated by sound and other factors in the restaurant.

“This is an important part of the research conducted within meal science and hospitality at our school. What we’ve learnt from this study, we’ll incorporate in our next course, Sensory Science II, starting in the autumn. Students will learn about multisensory aspects and the experience of food and drink – knowledge that is essential, even for serving healthier food,” says Johan Swahn.

The study was conducted in the restaurant at the grocery retailer ICA’s head office and 329 guests participated in the study. Researchers found no connection between the guests’ willingness to pay more for the food depending on whether a bowl or plate was used, nor did participants report a difference in taste.

Read the article, published in the International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science: Healthier if vegan in a bowl: Label and tableware of a vegetarian meal are associated with healthiness in a restaurant.