Delivering the Multisensory Experience of Dining-Out, for Those Dining-In, During the Covid Pandemic

Abstract

In many parts of the world, restaurants have been forced to close in unprecedented numbers during the various Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns that have paralyzed the hospitality industry globally. This highly-challenging operating environment has led to a rapid expansion in the number of high-end restaurants offering take-away food, or home-delivery meal kits, simply in order to survive. While the market for the home delivery of food was already expanding rapidly prior to the emergence of the Covid pandemic, the explosive recent growth seen in this sector has thrown up some intriguing issues and challenges. For instance, concerns have been raised over where many of the meals that are being delivered are being prepared, given the rise of so-called “dark kitchens.” Furthermore, figuring out which elements of the high-end, fine-dining experience, and of the increasingly-popular multisensory experiential dining, can be captured by those diners who may be eating and drinking in the comfort of their own homes represents an intriguing challenge for the emerging field of gastrophysics research; one that the chefs, restaurateurs, restaurant groups, and even the food delivery companies concerned are only just beginning to get to grips with. By analyzing a number of the high-end fine-dining home food delivery options that have been offered (in the UK and in the US) in this narrative review, we highlight a number of promising directions for those wanting to optimize the at-home multisensory dining experience, wherever in the world they might be.

Cloud-Based Commensality: Enjoy the Company of Co-diners Without Social Facilitation of Eating

“…That said, we still cannot ignore the advantages of digital commensality. For one thing, considering the health risk and loneliness caused by lockdown during the recent COVID-19 crisis ( Holmes et al, 2020 ), cloud-based commensality via videoconferencing tools has been identified as a safe and efficient alternative to social gatherings and loneliness regulation ( Ceccaldi et al, 2020 ; Spence et al, 2021 ). For another, in-person and cloud-based commensality could both elicit the feeling of being accompanied by family or friends ( Cruwys et al, 2015 ; Ceccaldi et al, 2020 ).…”

Commercializing Sonic Seasoning in Multisensory Offline Experiential Events and Online Tasting Experiences

“…As will be highlighted below, each one of the various approaches to sonic seasoning has their respective strengths and weaknesses in terms of the efficiency, cost of development/implementation, etc. Taken together, the various examples reviewed here help to illustrate the growing commercial relevance of, and interest in, sonic seasoning research (see also Mickiewicz, 2014 ; Roncero-Menendez, 2015 ; Spence, 2020a ; Spence et al, 2021 ; Wang et al, 2019c ).…”

“…Alternatively, one might consider a “TastEQ” feature in an application that could tweak the frequency and pitch of selected tracks to enhance the relevant taste (raising the pitch/frequency to add sweetness, or lowering it for those who want a little more bitterness, similar to the Beck’s Frequency case presented earlier). There is also the opportunity to go beyond auditory only stimulation, using audiovisual digital activations that may allow for more pronounced sensory manipulation (e.g., see Wang and Spence, 2015b ; McGregor, 2017 ), perhaps even paring meals with shows on digital channels such as Netflix or Amazon Prime (as discussed briefly in Spence et al, 2021 ).…”

“…Finally, for those wanting to optimize the at-home multisensory dining experience during COVID lockdowns, sonic seasonings can be offered with meal kits, via curated playlists streamed from music platforms like Spotify or Pandora (see Spence et al, 2021 , for a review). For example, in February, 2021, chef Jozef Youssef’s Kitchen Theory offered a complete home multisensory experience with Valentine’s Day boxes incorporating a 4-course meal, wine, scented candle and a curated Spotify playlist.…”

“…As the case studies reviewed in this manuscript make clear, there are several ways to commercialize sonic seasoning design and activation, from the research and development of bespoke, crossmodally congruent music and soundscapes, to selecting pre-existing music tracks that have the requisite sonic properties (be it in terms of their semantic or crossmodally corresponding properties). Nowadays, such curated playlists are often presented via online music platforms such as Deezer, Spotify, or increasingly, Pandora (see Khale, 2018;Spence et al, 2021;Wang et al, 2021a; see also Samuely, 2021, for a Munchery playlist offered by Google Play; and Zarczynski, 2020). Such pairings may even take place as a part of experiential multisensory tasting events (Campo et al, 2021).…”