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Gastrophysics

Gastrophysics

The New Science of Eating

Summary

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of Gastrophysics: The New Science of Eating by Charles Spence, read by John Sackville.

A ground-breaking book by the world-leading expert in sensory science: Freakonomics for food

Why do we consume 35% more food when eating with one more person, and 75% more when with three? Why are 27% of drinks bought on aeroplanes tomato juice? How are chefs and companies planning to transform our dining experiences, and what can we learn from their cutting-edge insights to make memorable meals at home?

These are just some of the ingredients of Gastrophysics, in which the pioneering Oxford professor Charles Spence shows how our senses link up in the most extraordinary ways, and reveals the importance of all the "off-the-plate" elements of a meal: the weight of cutlery, the colour of the plate (his lab showed that red is associated with sweetness - we perceive salty popcorn as tasting sweet when served in a red bowl), the background music and much more. Whether dining alone or at a dinner party, on a plane or in front of the TV, he reveals how to understand what we're tasting and influence what others experience. Meal-times will genuinely never be the same again.

Reviews

  • Truly accessible, entertaining and informative. On every page there are ideas to set you thinking and widen your horizons
    Heston Blumenthal, OBE

About the author

Charles Spence

Professor Charles Spence is the world expert in multisensory perception and experience design, having spent over twenty years researching how people perceive the world around them at the Crossmodal Research Laboratory at Oxford University. He has consulted for many multinational companies, including Unilever, PepsiCo and Nestlé, advising on various aspects of multisensory design, packaging and branding.
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