On how good design makes food taste better.

I never knew I was a foodie gourmande until I didn’t have access to good food. Misery loves company, and some of my first conversations with my friend Paolo, who moved to D.C. from the West Coast about a year or so after I did, were about how much we missed West Coast food.

Top 10 Foodie Words We Hate: Starting with Foodie

Let’s Burn Foodies at the Stake

He, San Francisco’s and me, Seattle’s. In our analyses and comparisons about what made food out west so much better than what we were resigned to eat in the mid-Atlantic, we pinned it on a couple of factors. First, the obvious: the West Coast has easier access to and better sources of good food. The ocean, the wineries, the orchards. Second: the experimental chefs who, for whatever reason, feel compelled to combine fresh, local ingredients in unique, delicious ways (inspired by the same sense of risk and rugged individualism, I think, that has long compelled people to “Go west!”).

There’s a strong link between rounded edges and sweet flavors. Use a room with lots of curves and no sharp edges. Make sure that your plates, glasses and other accoutrements are rounded, even bulbous, if you want to make things sweeter. –The Singleton Sensorium

Changing Taste with Sounds, Scents, Textures & Colors

And third: good design. The same creative spirit that inspires chefs to create innovative cuisine also inspires them to create innovative spaces. It’s not just the food that is good, but everything around the food: from the logo to the lighting to the linens.