So you’re having friends for dinner. You’ve worked out a delicious menu, paying careful attention to the colours and flavours of the dishes. Perhaps you’ve even thought about music and lighting. But did you remember to consider the flavour of your cutlery?
Dr Zoe Laughlin and Professor Mark Miodownik, co-directors of the Institute of Making at University College London, think you should. They and their colleagues have conducted a series of scientific experiments into the way spoons coated in different metals affect the tastes of food. And recently, they held their first spoon-tasting dinner, an event attended by materials scientists, psychologists and culinary luminaries such as Heston Blumenthal and Harold McGee, who had flown over from the US for the occasion.
In a private room at Quilon, the Michelin-starred restaurant in London, guests tried seven courses of delicately spiced southwest Indian food with seven different, freshly polished spoons: copper, gold, silver, tin, zinc, chrome and stainless steel. The base of each spoon was engraved with the periodic table symbol of the element with which it was plated.