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PROTAGONIST / GASTROPHYSICS

TO BE EATEN

WITH THE EYES

Gastronomic culture and neuroscience; that is, how and why

we like food. From CAT scans to eye tracking, here

are the new ‘ingredients’ that can exalt the cuisine of the chefs

BY MATTIA SCHIEPPATI
PHOTOS BY ALFONSO CATALANO

ranted, it is not a word that entices you, it doesn’t erates on neurons and synapses, on the activation points of the
smack of the convivial, or invite you to take your cerebral cortex and the sub-cortex. In practice, that which the
Gseat and enjoy the pleasure of a well-laid table. brain ‘senses’, often unbeknownst to us, when we approach the
However, it is only if we delve into that word, and we reveal some creation of a great chef, a glass of wine, or even, much more sim-
of its more hidden paths between science and experience, that ply, a packet of crisps or a yogurt. This is where gastrophysics
it becomes possible to fully understand what the pleasures of comes into the picture. It tries to explain to us what a dish ‘tells’
the table truly mean. The word in question is gastrophysics: it our neurons. And then, a millionth of a second after the electri-
is not an out-patient examination for someone suffering from cal impulse has departed, our brain sends back its ‘impression’
heartburn; rather, it is the label of a new scientific frontier that to us. “The first step is distinguishing between sensation and per-
is opening hitherto unseen perspectives on the world of food, ception,” explains Vincenzo Russo, Professor of Consumer Psy-
wine, and more in general, on everything related to human nu- chology and Neuromarketing and a coordinator of the Research
trition. It is actually a science, based on neuronal detection tools Centre of neuromarketing behaviour and brain lab in IULM Uni-
such as CAT and magnetic resonance, but also on the most ad- versity in Milan, “the element that we ‘read’ and which we base
vanced technologies such as eye tracking, which studies the re- our judgements on is perception; that is, a reconstruction made
lationship between flavours and aspects external to taste. That by our brains of what we have “sensed” through our senses. Our
is, the effects that ‘sitting at the table’ with all its facets (sight, brains actually attempt to identify and arrange “consistencies” be-
touch, hearing, smell and then, but only at the end, taste) gen- tween our senses. They try to make sense of our senses, in short.”

On the left, a Cannolo of prawns, basil, cherry tomato confit and powdered capers according to chef Luisa Valazza of the Italian restaurant Al Sorriso in
Soriso (Novara). Above, the opera-recipe from chef Igles Corelli of Atman in Pescia (Pistoia): eels in movement in the park of the Delta
of the River Po. “I interpreted the ingredients as colours and lines, to bring out the inner nuances of the material that makes up the food,” says Catalano.

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