Why is chocolate melting on the tongue such a decadent sensation? Why do we love crunching on bacon? Why is fizz-less soda such a disappointment to drink, and why is flat beer so unappealing to the palate? Our sense of taste produces physical and emotional reactions that cannot be explained by chemical components alone. Eating triggers our imagination, draws on our powers of recall, and activates our critical judgment, creating a unique impression in our mouths and our minds. How exactly does this alchemy work, and what are the larger cultural and environmental implications? Collaborating in the laboratory and the kitchen, Ole G. Mouritsen and Klavs Styrbæk investigate the multiple ways in which food texture influences taste. Combining scientific analysis with creative intuition and a sophisticated knowledge of food preparation, they write a one-of-a-kind book for food lovers and food science scholars. By mapping the mechanics of mouthfeel, Mouritsen and Styrbæk advance a greater awareness of its link to our culinary preferences. Gaining insight into the textural properties of raw vegetables, puffed rice, bouillon, or ice cream can help us make healthier and more sustainable food choices. Through mouthfeel, we can recreate the physical feelings of foods we love with other ingredients or learn to latch onto smarter food options. Mastering texture also leads to more adventurous gastronomic experiments in the kitchen, allowing us to reach even greater heights of taste sensation.

The field of sensory evaluation has matured in the last half century to be come a recognized discipline in the food and consumer sciences and an important part of the foods and consumer products industries. Sensory pro fessionals enjoy widespread recognition for the important services they provide in new product development, basic research, ingredient and process modification, cost reduction, quality maintenance, and product op timization. These services enhance the informational support for manage ment decisions, lowering the risk that accompanies the decision-making process. From the consumers' perspective, a sensory testing program in a food or consumer products company helps ensure that products reach the market with not only good concepts but also with desirable sensory attrib utes that meet their expectations. Sensory professionals have advanced well beyond the stage when they were simply called on to execute "taste" tests and to provide statistical summaries of results. They are now frequently asked to participate in the decision process itself, to draw reasoned conclusions based on data, and to make recommendations. They are also expected to be well versed in an in creasingly sophisticated battery of test methods and statistical procedures, including multivariate analyses. As always, sensory professionals also need to understand people, for people are the measuring instruments that provide the basic sensory data. People are notoriously variable and diffi cult to calibrate, presenting the sensory specialist with many additional XV xvi PREFACE measurement problems that are not present in instrumental methods.

"In his characteristically candid vernacular, Richard delivers once again a poetry collection that explores the intersection between the personal and the political, and the grief of losing a father to addiction and its lifelong consequences. Vulnerable and raw at once, Richard does not sugar-coat the realities of living in a time of contradictions and political divisions"--Publisher's website.

Being able to understand the principles of food science is vital for the study of food, nutrition and the culinary arts. In this innovative text, the authors explain in straightforward and accessible terms the theory and application of chemistry to these fields. The key processes in food preparation and the chemistry behind them are described in detail, including denaturation and coagulation of proteins, gelatinisation, gelation and retrogradation of starches, thickening and gelling, browning reactions, emulsification, foams and spherification, chemical, mechanical and biological leaveners and fermentation and preservation. The text also describes the science of key cooking techniques, the science of the senses and the experience of food, food regulations and the future of healthy food. The origins of food are explored through a focus on the primary production of key staples and their journey to the table. Tips and advice from leading chefs as well as insights into emerging food science and cutting-edge nutrition research from around the world are included throughout, and reveal both the practical application of food chemistry and the importance of this field. Featuring explanatory diagrams and illustrations throughout, Understanding the Science of Food is destined to become an essential reference for both students and professionals. 'An innovative and informative text that will address the need for a food science text suitable for nutrition and dietetics students in Australia.' - Katherine Hanna, Faculty of Health, Queensland University of Technology. 'A unique and timely text that will be welcomed by students, instructors, and scientists in multiple disciplines. I am thrilled to see such a modern take on the subject, blending the fundamentals of food science and chemistry with the insights and experience of practitioners from the culinary arts.' - Patrick Spicer, lecturer and researcher in food science

The Essence of Gastronomy: Understanding the Flavor of Foods and Beverages presents a new comprehensive and unifying theory on flavor, which answers ancient questions and offers new opportunities for solving food-related issues. It presents gastronomy as a holistic concept, focusing not only on the food and its composition but also on the human who