Design studio Michel/Fabian has created a spoon that claims to improve the flavour of food by recreating the experience of licking your fingers. The Goûte spoon is reportedly the result of years of research by Michel/Fabian co-founder Andreas Fabian into how the design of tableware can affect people's perception of food and flavour. This research resulted in a unique and quirkily named PHD called “Spoons and Spoonness.” The spoon has a tip shaped like a human finger, but its elongated overall shape makes it look more like a large icicle. It is designed for eating thick, creamy foods, similar to a honey dipper.
Fabian claims it makes food taste better, because it replicates the experience of licking your finger, rather than putting a strange object into your mouth. He elaborates: “Food is one of the richest multi-sensory experiences, and defines our health and wellbeing, but also our relationship to others. Some of our most delicious and memorable food experiences often come from eating without cutlery. Eating with our bare hands, sucking our fingers, or even licking a plate are natural behaviours.”
As inconceivable as it might sound, the research has been backed up by an an experiment conducted with Oxford University's Crossmodal Research Laboratory, which found that the Goûte spoon made food taste significantly better than a normal spoon. According to the research, the perceived value of the food went up by 40%. Fabian is now continuing his research at Buckinghamshire New University, along with studio co-founders Charles Michel and Daniel Ospina, both experts in the relationship between food and design. Michel added: “Conventional cutlery is a technology we put in our mouths every day, and currently it is only designed with functional purposes. We want to offer eating utensils that enrich the sensual pleasures of eating.”
The designers experimented with different materials to produce Goûte, including glass and various types of wood. They offer four different options for sale on their website, each found to offer a different experience. The name Goûte is based on both the French word for taste, “goût,” and the word for a drop of liquid, “goutte.” It brings a whole new meaning to the phrase “Finger licking good” doesn't it?
Mitchell February 9th, 2017, in the morning
They don't look particularly practical vehicles for transporting food from dish to mouth... If we weren't still in February I'd have been tempted to call "April Fool"