Right Choice Of Tablecloth: Secret To a Successful Find Dining?

Forget mood lighting or fancy wine for your next dinner party, a recent study suggests that the right tablecloth can make your food taste much better, but is there any proof to this?

By: Ringo Bones

For as long as anyone can remember, a greater priority has been assigned to mood lighting and the right kind of fancy wine when it comes to the success or – hopefully not – failure of a fine dining event. But a recent study conducted by culinary experts had shown results that the right choice of tablecloth has the most bearing in making the food taste better and eliciting guest satisfaction at the end of the meal. The desired diner satisfaction even works with value-for-money (as in cheap) linen tablecloth.

In this recent study, culinary researchers fed more than 200 participants tomato soup under varying conditions. Dim lighting made the tomato soup taste saltier but had no impact on other taste ratings, appearance, odor, consistency, or perceived quality. The inclusion of a tablecloth was, however, a game changer. Participants ate more, thought the soup was better quality and sat at the table for longer. Maybe you can try this in your next major dining event – maybe this Valentine’s Day? – to check out of the right tablecloth is a fine dining game changer.

Should Taking too Much Instagram Photos Improper Restaurant Etiquette?

Though recent advances in social media has yet to evolve to match current etiquette, should excessive of food instagramming while dining in a fine restaurant considered a bad practice?

By: Ringo Bones

Heston Blumenthal – three Michelin star chef and proprietor of Fat Duck restaurant – recently bemoans the practice of diners taking excessive Instagram photos of his food as it gets cold enough to become unappealing instead of his patrons prioritizing in the consumption of his culinary masterpieces. And yet the famed chef has been tempted to lecture to their customers that excessive Instagraming can be a breach of etiquette because your food is going cold, but fortunately, has not yet done so.

Like the famed chef, I too find it somewhat a breach of existing etiquette when diners prioritize Instagraming their food until it grows cold instead of appreciating it by eating it right away. Even though social media has recently become a big part of our lives, it seems that sensibility of matching existing etiquette with social media has been thrown away like the proverbial baby with the bathwater out of the window. Food photos are quite different from fine dining if you ask me.