The design of dinner: How Philly chefs look at food | Food Cover Story | Food | Philadelphia Weekly

Dr. Debra Zellner, a professor of psychology at Montclair State University who studies the psychology of food, will be working at Philadelphia’s Monell Chemical Senses Center next year. Her research and experimentation have resulted in some very interesting findings.

Zellner recently conducted a study with the Culinary Institute of America in which guests were served the same meal on consecutive nights, but plated either traditionally or more artistically. The guests, it turns out, actually preferred the flavors of the more artistically presented food over the staid, despite the fact that the recipe was exactly the same for both. In other words, a dish’s appearance has a very real impact on our perception of flavor—and on the amount of pleasure the same flavors can give us.

Read more: http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/food/cover-story/The_Design_of_Dinner-227059211.html#ixzz2tqToAk8Y

IHOP demonstrates power of “not cramming too much stuff onto the menu.”

A Bloomberg Businessweek article today presents an engaging and instructive look at IHOP’s newly redesigned menu. You should check it out.

The menu redesign is credited with a 3.6% jump in sales. Not too shabby.

Here’s a sample spread with graphics that I screen-grabbed from the Bloomberg Businessweek article.

IHOP demonstrates power of “not cramming too much stuff onto the menu.”