Customers at a three-star restaurant in Britain will soon be presented with Apple iPods to listen to while they eat their meals. According to Tech.co.uk, top chef Heston Blumenthal came up with the idea to serve iPods with soothing ocean soundtracks to customers who order his new dish "Sound of the Sea."

Blumethal's Fat Duck will combine assorted seafood and edible seaweed on top of a sandy tapioca mixture to make the "Sound of the Sea" dish. In the restaurants' online philosophy it reminds us that "eating is a multi-modal process (involving all the senses). Any comments concerning food being just about taste are misguided. Try drinking a fine wine from a polystyrene cup or eating a beautifully cooked piece of fish off a paper plate with a plastic knife and fork, it is not the same." Here's more:

Sound can also play an important role in the perception of texture-a valuable part of the whole taste process. The perception of the crispness of a food can be modified by playing with volume and pitch.

In a test carried out by an experimental psychologist at Oxford University. Crisps from the same packet, eaten with the sound of the testers own crunch being fed back to them in real time changed when the volume or pitch were altered.

I'm crossing my fingers this trend comes to America. We all know restaurants use music to enhance diners' experiences, but the idea of putting on an iPod with headphones while eating dinner is too kitschy to pass up. May I have one strawberry milkshake served with a little Kelis please? Oh you're all out? How about fondue with a little Kenny G?
Source