Enjoying your meal is about more than just taste, which comes after the initial sensation of seeing it. A popular saying claims that we eat with our eyes, too, so we decided to test the validity of this phrase and put together a collection of oddly satisfying food pics.
From a pristine McDonald’s hamburger bun to a symmetrical striped cake, continue scrolling to participate in our “study” and see if the images are enough to make your stomach growl. Bon appétit.
01. A Koi Pond Mousse Cake For Father’s Day. Everything On The Cake Is Edible
02. Due To Depression At The Time, I Never Posted One Of The Most Beautiful Loaves I’ve Ever Baked: Pumpkin
If the photos, for some reason, aren’t enough and you still need more proof that the way a chef plates and presents their food significantly impacts the guest’s experience, consider this experiment from Oxford psychologist Professor Charles Spence.
Inspired by Wassily Kandinsky’s ‘Painting Number 201’, the Franco-Columbian chef and fellow co-author of the study Charles Michel designed a salad resembling the abstract artwork.
03. This Peacock Cake And Cupcakes
04. I Made An Apple Tart For Christmas And Wanted People To See It
05. Perfectly Executed Cranberry Tart
“Some chefs now realize that they are being judged by how their foods photograph – be it in the fancy cookbooks [or], more often than not, when diners Instagram their friends,” Professor Spence explained.
Thirty men and thirty women were each presented with one of three salads containing identical ingredients, arranged to resemble the Kandinsky painting, a regular tossed salad, or a “neat” formation where each component was spaced away from the others.
06. I Got My First Tart Pan Recently. White Chocolate And Cranberry Tart
07. My First Striped Cake. Pineapple Cake With Elderflower Buttercream
08. I’m In Pastry School, And We Made Croissants Last Week
09. Homemade Ravioli With Pressed Flowers And Dill
Seated alone at a table mimicking a restaurant setting and unaware that other versions of the salad were on offer, each participant was given two questionnaires asking them to rate various aspects of the meal on a scale of 1 to 10, both before and after digging in.
10. Christmas Cake I Made For A Holiday Baking Competition At My Office
11. First Attempt At Making Cedric Grolet’s Apple Tart. It’s Not Perfect, But I’m Proud
12. Homemade Charcuterie Board
13. I Call Them “Snookies” (Snail Cookies)
Before the study, participants sampled their platefuls, and the Kandinsky-inspired dish was rated higher for complexity, artistic presentation, and general liking. Participants were prepared to pay twice as much for the meal as the regular or “neat arrangements.”
After finishing their portion, participants also rated the Kandinsky-esque salad higher for “tastiness” despite receiving ratings similar to the other salads for the four essential components of taste: salty, bitter, sweet, and sour.
14. Sushi That’s Almost Too Perfect To Eat
15. Homemade Sugar Cookies With Royal Icing
16. I Made A Strawberry Vanilla Crepe Cake For My Mom
17. My Friend Let Her Chickens Loose On A Watermelon. They Picked It Clean
Of course, teasing apart precisely which aspect of the salads’ presentation affected how much participants were willing to pay for a dish and their perception of its “tastiness” is a tricky endeavor.
However, the study’s authors suggest that the perceived effort involved in preparing the plate and its aesthetic appeal could be among the factors influencing participants.
18. The Cake I Just Popped Out Of The Cake Tin Did Not Break At All. Feels Good
19. Sourdough Baguette – Oddly Satisfying Food Pics
20. My Wife’s First Attempt At A Charcuterie Board. How’d She Do?
21. I Made These Little Cheeseburger Macarons Filled With Homemade Chocolate Ganache
Simply put, expectations were raised [with the Kandinsky-eque salad], leading to the willingness to spend more and an increased experience during consumption. The presentation of a dish can excite us and make us more present during the course.
If you want to continue testing this theory, fire up our older publication, 50 Of The Most Beautiful Pics Of Nearly Perfect Food.
22. Satisfying Japanese Soft Serve
23. Put Cream In The Mug First, And My Coffee Maker Created This Visible Color Gradient
24. Natural Honeycomb
25. Cranberry Curd Tart In A Gingerbread Crust
26. Homemade Snoopy Chicken Curry
27. Homemade Peppermint Macarons
28. Homemade Chocolate Butter Croissant
29. My Latte Art Bear – Oddly Satisfying Food Pics
30. First Chocolate Tart
31. Perfectly Assembled Sprinkles
32. Here’s A Cornucopia I Made Out Of Bread For Thanksgiving
33. Focaccia Bread Out Of The Oven, Per Request
34. My Mom Was So Sad When My Grandmother Passed Away Cause She Would Miss Her Cheesecake, So For The Last 7 Years, I Have Been Making Her One Every Year For Christmas
35. Dessert For A Family Gathering Last Weekend
36. The Most Perfect Loaf Of Bread I’ve Ever Made
37. The Way My Sister Decorated This Tiramisu
38. Cream Cheese Bread Turned Out So Good
39. This Flawless Yellow Onion
40. My Sourdough Bread
41. Homemade Ratatouille, Hand-Cut
42. This Freshly Baked Croissant
43. Homemade Orange-Vanilla Madeleines
44. This Perfect Pudding
45. Amazing Curry Platter
46. I Just Made A Batch Of Caramels, And After Cutting Them, I Had An Oddly Satisfying Moment
47. This Perfectly Ripe, Tiny Seed Avocado
48. How This Frozen Diet Pepsi Exploded
49. Homemade Sourdough Blueberry Croissant
50. The Spaghetti Arranging Itself In My Pan
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