Story by Elijah Attard. Chef and host of the Roots Hospitality podcast. @roots_hospitality
I’m sitting here eating a sandwich on basic white toast in a little country town called Beaudesert in Queensland. It’s a sunny but quiet morning. Mild traffic rolling around the slow town that’s so condensed I even came across one shop for beer making, dog food and well, that was it. But in its simplicity, I didn’t mind it. You could really relax here away from the buzz of the city.
I’m thinking about all of this as I clean up the simple sandwich. When I finish it, I grab the serviette to the right of me, wipe off the crumbs, crumple it and toss it to the plate that my meal came on. That’s when I laughed in realization: They had brought my sandwich out on a kid’s Mickey Mouse plate.
What made me laugh was wondering if I were anyone else, would I feel humiliated? It’s not like I ordered off the kid’s menu. But also, how much does it really matter to begin with? What if some macho biker strolls into town for the same sandwich at the same cafe and receives the same plate? Would he feel less masculine or a little offended to be served his meal on a kid’s plate?
As my mind wandered down this path, I thought about the other vessels in which other offerings are served. What about the glasses from which you drink?
How much does it matter which vessel you serve your drink in? How much does it impact the contents of the glass? Can you drink a beer in any other glass than a schooner, and it’ll taste as good? Or a martini in a schooner glass? But at what point does the guests’ perception of the drink begin to change their enjoyment of the drink itself? This is where it gets interesting.
If I was a bartender at the local pub in Beaudesert and had an older beefy gentleman come up for a schooner of VB (I’m terribly stereotyping – he might order a vodka cruiser you never know). I go off and pour the drink from the tap and serve it to him in the same-sized glass teacup, all fitted with a saucer too.
Do you think he would still drink it? Maybe say something along the lines of ‘What the F*%k is this?’ – most likely the latter. Why does it matter what the beer is served in, as long as it’s in a crisp glass and served the same quantity? At the end of the day, a glass is a glass. Does it really matter? The answer is yes.
It matters because this venue could be a place of stability for the person. Its walls and people are familiar to him in a personal way. That at the end of the day, he can come back and enjoy the same environment and the small details that are comforting. Sometimes it’s not even about the beer at all. But all you have to do is change a glass, and that can shatter the illusion of consistent familiarity.
The people matter too. Have you ever gone to your local cafe for a while, made friends with the barista or cook who help create this welcoming atmosphere? For a few weeks you might find yourself a little busy, but endeavour to return for a simple coffee and find some of the staff have changed. Now the vibe doesn’t seem the same anymore. And you finnd yourself asking why I drink this coffee? I’d rather drink someone’s coffee who might have a little nicer hospitality perhaps. I recently caught up with Kennedy CK (Bar Manager from Nomad, Sydney) who reiterated that you go to most bars to drink that particular person’s drink, not necessarily the drink itself.
Neurogastronomy is the study of flavour perception and the ways it affects cognition and memory. The shape of your glass, the colour of your plate, the history of the ingredients or dish are all significant factors that change how you enjoy the food or drink that is in front of you. Even the colour of the ingredients can alter how you taste before you even consume the product.
Just how significant are the people and the glassware important, if there are also other psychological things at play?
When I visited Krakow in Poland, I popped into a speakeasy bar called William Rabbit. I was warmly welcomed by a man named Andrzej Rachwalski. You could feel his passion as he brought out the oversized deck of cards that would look like something from Alice in Wonderland, but each card had a cocktail with a Polish tale behind it. Every drink you ordered, he would take the time to share with you that bit of Polish history. I decided to come back the next day and really pick his brain. That’s when he told me about neurogastronomy.
Neurogastronomy is the study of flavour perception and the ways it affects cognition and memory. The shape of your glass, the colour of your plate, the history of the ingredients or dish are all signifcant factors that change how you enjoy the food or drink that is in front of you. Even the colour of the ingredients can alter how you taste before you even consume the product.
Many years ago, I walked into a locally owned ice cream parlour and decided to ask if there were any new flavours in stock. The man reaches for a paddle pop stick, collects a sample of this dark brown ice cream and hands it to me and says ‘Tell me what flavour you think it is.’
I smile and taste it. Letting it dissolve around my mouth trying to think of what brown-based ingredient would give the ice cream that colour and flavour. It took me a minute before I said, ‘Is it caramel?’. He laughs as he tells ‘It’s vanilla, my friend!’. You should’ve seen the look on my face as I failed to recognise one of the most distinct and common flavours in the world.
This is a very obvious example of how one change can affect the outcome of a product, but you never know how many minor differences could influence whether a guest enjoys their experience or not.
Whether it’s the people, atmosphere and the plateware your product is served on, all of these external elements act as the Vessel to help carry the flavour forward. As Kenneth Foong (Head Chef, Noma Restaurant) once told me, delicious food is merely the baseline, if you aren’t doing that, then you aren’t doing your job properly. So why not focus on creating something beautiful by altering everything else around it to encourage people’s senses to be open? Be welcoming, try to draw out personal nostalgia from your guests to create that connection, share your story too, or play that music that you know everyone around the world loves so they’re in a good mood from the moment they step in your door.
Think about what the people are really here for and if you are proud of your product, do everything you can to make people appreciate it as much as you do too.