Many people believe that we eat with our eyes as well as our mouths. This means that if the food you eat or the environment you eat it in, is not visually appealing then the whole eating experience may not be that enjoyable.

The lightening in the room is a key component to building anticipation and excitement for the food you are about to eat. Whether you are home or away there are a few simple tips that can help you achieve the perfect ambiance to accompany your meal.

1. Get the lighting right

Firstly, we need to make the distinction between lighting for photography and lighting for real life dining experiences. Photography lighting revolves around fixed staged environments, where the light is designed for the camera not the human eye, making it a lot more difficult and expensive to get right. Lighting for a casual dining experience doesn’t have the same high set of standards to live up too.

Candlelight

Carefully placed candle lights dotted around a room or a table is an excellent way to create a romantic and relaxed setting, whilst providing enough light to see what you are doing.

Dimmable overhead lights

The dimmer switch is far more convenient than candles as it requires absolutely zero setup and is extremely low cost, with sites like all-lights.co.uk offering low-cost energy efficient LED bulbs. Also with today’s modern technology, you can even control your light bulbs from a mobile phone. Meaning that you can switch the mood in a room without moving an inch.

Eating in the dark

Trying eating new food in the dark to heighten your senses and create an absolutely unique dining experience. This idea works best in a pair or more and is most exciting when one person cooks the food, and the other doesn’t know what’s on the menu. Once you get past the logistical problems like avoiding spills and finding the food, you are sure to have a fun and memorable experience.

As a word of caution, when it comes to lighting and food please ensure that your food preparation areas are well lit for health and safety reasons.

2. Dress the room up

You don’t need to spend a fortune but simply getting some room dressings that complement the origin of the cuisine can really help to amplify your dining experience.

3. Create a playlist

Sound is a powerful tool for creating immersive experiences, so fine tuning a music/ audio playlist can really help the mood. This is especially powerful for nostalgic meals designed to take you back to a specific time and place, for example steel drums and soothing bossa nova could easily help your taste buds travel back to one of your favourite holiday destinations.

4. Let’s go outside

Depending on the season and where in the world you live, venturing outside with your food can help to deliver a memorable dining experience with little effort. Just remember your distance away from the kitchen means that you need to plan for anything and everything that you may want or need.