Interacting with food: Tasting with the hands

The focus in the gastronomy and food science literature tends to be squarely on the design of the food/dish itself, rarely stopping to consider how that food makes its way to the mouth of the consumer/diner. The question to be addressed in this narrative historical review concerns how the experience of eating (at least amongst Western diners) changes when they eat with their hands as compared to conventional cutlery. Intriguingly, a number of chefs have recently started to question how their diners interact with the food they serve. At the same time, the latest gastrophysics research has begun to provide empirical evidence concerning the costs and benefits of several different kinds of interaction (e.g., eating with the hands versus with conventional cutlery) on the experience of various foods. In recent years, there has also been something of a relaxation of etiquette guidelines around which foods can be eaten with the hands, coinciding with the general shift toward more informal/casual dining. At the same time, however, the Instagrammability of food served on a diner's hand should not be neglected either as a powerful driver of change in the world of gastronomy and food consumption. Taken together, there would appear to be a move toward new ways of interacting with food, be it in the context of fine dining, or fast food, hence making the interaction with what we eat a topic worthy of further study by designers, chefs, gastrophysicists, food artists, and marketers.