Betina Piqueras-Fiszman
Food scientist who took the plate colour effect out of the laboratory and tested it on real diners in a working restaurant.
Who they are
Piqueras-Fiszman's study is the one that decides whether any of this is worth acting on, because everything before it had been run in controlled conditions on simple foods.
Three desserts, a white plate or a black one, a between-participants design so that no diner saw both, and a room full of people who had come out to eat.
Key papers
Piqueras-Fiszman, B., Giboreau, A., & Spence, C. (2013). Assessing the influence of the color of the plate on the perception of a complex food in a restaurant setting. Flavour, 2, 24.
Key ideas
Plate colour significantly influenced how the food was perceived, in realistic and far less controlled conditions.
The size of the effect varied by dessert, and contrast alone could not account for it, with colour and flavour associations such as black with intense chocolate appearing to contribute.
Within each dessert the pattern was consistent: the same plate produced the higher scores on every attribute rated.
Concepts on this site
Sources
- doi:10.1186/2044-7248-2-24