“Eating with your eyes first”: Cross-cultural evaluation of visual expectations generated by high-end pastry

Chefs often say “You eat with your eyes first.”. This means that, while taste, smell, and vision are distinct senses, visual stimuli generate expectations through learned associations, and these expectations exert cognitive top-down influences that can and sometimes do alter assessments of taste and flavour. This study investigates the intangible values associated with the visual assessment of high-end pastry cakes among individuals from diverse food cultures. Using word association, the study explored the emotions, sensations, and impressions evoked by the visual representation of five high-end pastry cakes. Thematic content analysis was conducted to interpret and group the evoked words into dimensions. Across all cultures, "Organoleptic properties" emerged as the most highly rated dimension, aligning with expectations for food product visual assessments.