APTITO Asks: What Can an iPad Food Menu do for You?4 min read

Every chef knows presentation is just as important as the food. But, did you ever wonder why? Freelance writer, Carol Sorgen wanted to know. For her March 27, 2006 WebMD article, “The Art of Making Food Look Good,”[1] Sorgen asked Michael Crane, corporate executive chef at ARAMARK. Crane’s answer was not surprising: “If it looks good, they will want to try it,” he said. Then Sorgen posed the same question to registered dietitian (R.D.), and nutrition, food biotechnology, and functional foods expert, Lisa Katic, R.D., President of K Consulting, LLP in Washington, D.C.[2] Katic’s reply is enlightening: “We eat with our eyes,” she said. “Color and texture are as important as taste.”

IT IS A SCIENTIFIC FACT: WE EAT WITH OUR EYES!

WHAT CAN AN iPAD FOOD MENU DO FOR YOU?

iPad Menus enable your guests to visually sample your chef’s culinary offerings before they place their order. Can your printed menu do that?

Food scientist and associate professor at the International Baking and Pastry Institute in the College of Cullinary Arts at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island, Paula I. Figoni, agrees with Katic. In her book, How Baking Works: Exploring the Fundamentals of Baking Science, 3^rd Edition,[3] Figoni says, “Appearance creates the first impression customers have of food, and first impressions are important…we do ‘eat with our eyes’ because our sense of sight is more highly developed than our other senses…” So much so, in fact, “that messages received from other senses are often ignored if they conflict with what is seen.”

IT’S TRUE: SEEING REALLY IS BELIEVING!

WHAT CAN AN iPAD FOOD MENU DO FOR YOU?

iPad Menus present your signature dishes in tantalizing, mouthwatering, high-resolution color. Can your printed menu do that

As part of a Time photo-study on the Science of Appetite, Time asked several experts “What Makes You Eat More Food?” According to Randy Seeley, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Cincinnati, it’s sight. Seeley says, “Research using MRIs shows that brain patterns of people viewing photos of foods they like and foods they don’t like are ‘very different.’” He says, “The body anticipates when food is about to enter the system.”

FineDiningLovers (FDL) recently asked Turin-born photographer Alessandra Tinozzi when she considered a photograph to be successful. Tinozzi replied, “When it makes you feel hungry, when it evokes a flavour from your memory…”[4]

FDL’s Ryan King says, people are “[s]eeking thrills for the taste buds and collecting memories of smells, flavors and techniques that can be transferred to the kitchen at home.”[5]

WOW! What you see effects how hungry you are and how much you eat!

WHAT CAN AN iPAD FOOD MENU DO FOR YOU?

iPad food Menus present your cuisine in photos so life-like they will make your guests hungry and evoke memories of flavors. Can your printed menu do that?

Deb Willis, creator of AllEars.Net, Deb’s Unofficial Walt Disney World Information Guide website, says, “One of the best ways to tell if the restaurant is right for you is to take a look at the menu.”[6]

Patric Kuh, Los Angeles Magazine’s award-winning restaurant critic, once said that what all of the top restaurants have in common “is the effect they produce on us the minute we walk through the door. It is instant. ‘This is us. This is now’, they announce. As they say in the restaurant business, ‘Show time!’” [7]

WHAT CAN AN iPAD FOOD MENU DO FOR YOU?

iPad Menus instantly show your guests that this is the right restaurant. iPad Menus announce, “this is the place to be!” Can your printed menu do that?