Imaginative dishes designed to challenge and engage the senses
At the Connect Society’s inaugural Sensory Gala in early April, attendees’ reactions to the food ranged from confusion to surprise – or at least to the food NAIT’s research staff brought.
Such extremes of emotion are exactly what food scientists from the polytechnic’s Applied Research department wanted. Those feelings have a way of bringing people together, regardless of backgrounds.
“Everyone experiences food in different ways and we can interact and converse with each other through that experience,” says culinary scientist Haley Donadeo (Culinary Arts ’22).
“Everyone experiences food in different ways and we can interact with each other through that experience.”
To contribute to Connect’s efforts to boost inclusivity for deaf, hard of hearing and deaf-blind children, adults and families, Donadeo, food scientist Janik Hettinger, and student researcher Kim McDougall created two items for the fundraising gala: one to trick the senses and the other to excite them.
The tricky one was a spoon-sized parfait of granola and yogurt topped with little blue spheres formed via food chemistry. The spheres didn’t taste of, say, blueberry, as one could have expected. Instead, they were made with pineapple, which almost no one could figure out.
“The flavour [that people] experienced was all over the map,” says Donadeo, on hand to witness gala-goers’ guesses. “Some said strawberry, raspberry – everything but pineapple.”
The idea, she says, was to highlight how we rely on our senses in ways that we can take for granted.
The NAIT team’s other offering was a lemon cookie topped with a baking-soda-based candy that fizzed in the mouth.
“People loved that,” says Donadeo. “They had no idea what they were going to experience until they bit into it. Then everyone's face would just light up.”
The tastings produced an effect in line with the spirit of the event, illustrating the relationship between an individual’s senses and the impact on inclusion should those be compromised.
“[We] wanted to create an experience where people can be immersed in the senses – and maybe put themselves in somebody else’s shoes,” says Louise Berezowsky, fund development coordinator and community connector.
Parfaits and cookies, made in a particular way, may sometimes have a role in that.
“It was incredible to see how happy [they] made people,” says Donadeo. “That is the power of food.”