Does eye contact with the cooking food make it more delicious?

Question

There's a belief in some cultures that if you look at your being-cooked food from the beginning till the end, you will have a more delicious food compared to when you leave the food to be cooked.

Is this scientifically real or just a cooking myth?

Answer 1

I can think of two potential things that might affect how delicious food is:

1. If you're the one cooking, constantly watching the food makes sure you don't burn it or do something else that might adversely affect it.

2. For everyone involved, cooking or not, it can help to build anticipation. You'll smell the food cooking, and may trigger physiological changes (stomach rumbling, anticipatory salivation, etc.) as your body prepares for food.

As your body has an opportunity to start thinking about the food and there's a period of denial (as the food hasn't been served yet), the food may seem more delicious than food that's only set down before you just as you're preparing to eat. (Although, if the food quality is lacking and doesn't match what you've been anticipating, it's possible that your enjoyment would be worse)

To know if it's truly eyesight that's required, you would probably have to do some experiments -- watching someone cook behind a glass window or via closed circuit TV so you can't smell it being cooked; being blindfolded so you're in the same place to get the smells but can't actually see the food being cooked, etc.

Answer 2

Myth. There isn't even a plausible mechanism by which staring at your food would affect the flavour. It may have a tiny grain of truth in that you'll be more likely to prevent it from burning if you are paying attention rather than in a different room, but beyond that? No, myth.

Answer 3

If you are asking about the actual flavor of the food, then no, our eyesight (or watching food cook) does not impact the flavor of the food. However, many factors, that have nothing at all to do with flavor and aroma molecules impact how we perceive flavors and experience eating. Consider a thought experiment: Imagine your favorite food being prepared outdoors, next to a garbage dump on a hot humid day, with birds circling and insects buzzing vs. that same meal being prepared in a modern kitchen. (Though I guess in this example, we might have a mingling of aroma molecules). I imagine that you would experience that meal quite differently. One might be unappetizing, while the other might be perceived as delicious. Watching your food being prepared can certainly enhance your enjoyment of a meal. So, as I point out above, the answer really depends on your definition of "delicious."

Answer 4

Just to be devil's advocate…

All chefs being equal, I much prefer the dinner I didn't have to cook.
With my own, I know what's not right with it, be it big or small. When someone else cooked it, I don't know any of that.
Also, there's a great difference between being able to smell it cooking & being right next to it all the time. The first 15 mins of a beef stew don't smell all that great, but outside the room people can only smell the onions. By the time it starts to look & smell good, the whole house knows, without having to have watched it.

If you want me to eat liver & onions, don't let me see you preparing it.

Answer 5

Mongolian grills are popular. Many factors affect how our we perceive the quality of our food, including presentation. Organoleptic testing is a big deal for food manufacturers, and less formally for individual cooks. Here's a bit of an introduction to it. It gets complicated and subjective fast, so I can't explain it all here. That said, if I see the server cut up my beautifully cooked and sauced cauliflowerinto bite size pieces to spoon onto my plate, it's not going to taste as good as it should. Same goes if I see someone pull a major boo-boo in the kitchen.