Aesthetics Appeal in Food Presentation and It's Effect to Customer Satisfaction Chapter 1 & 2 by EMA - HTML preview

Chapter II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

This chapter presents the review of related literature and studies which is relevant to the present study. 

The food is generally the focal point for the guest. It supplies the majority of the drama, excitement, and interaction and it falls to the chef to produce food that is flavorful and attractive. Food presentation is an important opportunity that allows chefs to emphasize the talents of the kitchen staff. The chef’s task is to exploit the full sensory potential of every dish to create a presentation that is practical, functional, and appealing to all the senses, which heightens the guest’s experience.

Menu selections and food presentation integrate all aspects of the foodservice operation – including the theme, the menu, the style of service, and your clients’ expectations. The goal is never to simply meet those expectations and standards, but to exceed them (Culinary Institute of America, 2010).

Catering Business

According to Pacificador (2009), Filipinos are genuinely fond of eating and gatherings, celebrating every important event of their lives. These celebrations also reflect the relationship and unity of Filipino families.  The tradition and traits were already depicted by the historical roots of the early Filipinos even before the colonization of different nationalities. And through the years of innovation and technology, the needs of Filipinos changed over time. The existing generation were able to cope to the fast phase lifestyle of the people in their environment. And with such, Convenience plays a major role, aside from other key factors in customer satisfaction. Convenience is already a must with every service that will be delivered. That’s the main reason why several merchants like one-stop shops, fast food chains, catering services, are continuously growing.

And as Filipinos rejoice every significant event with their family or friends, the search for convenience, good planning, excellent service, quality food and stylish presentation will be the major factors to consider an event a successful one. Hence, more and more people are turning to the services of professional caterers for weddings, private dinner parties and corporate events for good reason. It takes a lot of preparation and planning to run successful event or party. With the help of a professional catering service, you can save yourself from the tedious food preparation and just spend the time with your family and guests (Pacificador, 2009).

Caterer, as defined in Merriam-Webster dictionary is one who supplies the viands of an entertainment. The word “cates” means provision that is usually considered to be more special and daintier than home productions. “Acatour” is a purchaser or a purveyor of provisions or one who provides or prepares delicacies.  . Although catering has been considered a “service for the wealthy,” it is now in demand for many occasions.

Through time, Catering service does not only provides food but are increasingly providing a wider array of event planning services such as decorations, equipment hire (tableware, linen, tables and chairs), staffing and event coordination. A caterer will work with you to develop an innovative menu to match your event or celebration's theme, your food tastes, and importantly, your budget. Also, there are several variations according to locations, the types of meals to be served, which define the service and equipment you will have to provide.

Currently, the catering sector is dramatically growing. Before, the market was limited only to high-income consumers but now, it has expanded to the lower-income groups. Perhaps it is because food plays an integral part in the Filipino's way of celebrating. It is a culture that traverses all income classes. In addition, many people do not want the hassle of preparing and would rather pay someone to do it. Food catering also appeals to the consumers since it brings prestige and stature to an event. These trends present huge opportunities for the catering businesses even in the coming years (Africa, 2010).

Food Aesthetics

Of the five senses involved in eating, taste is the most important.  It is our most direct, embodied encounter with food; it affords pleasure and disgust; and it is the one sense we cannot help but use.  Yet taste is more than something that just happens in the mouth: it is also the leading metaphor in aesthetics.  Taste refers to our discrimination regarding art objects and our standards for artistic judgments.  To have taste means the ability to discern aesthetic qualities in things.  It is a particular kind of knowledge especially appropriate for artworks – one that bridges epistemology and philosophy of art (Kaplan, 2012). 

Kaplan (2012) added that when we direct aesthetic attention to food and drink, however, we find that the parallel to artworks is tested.  Judgments about tastes in food are more difficult to justify.  Although most of us believe there is a difference between good food and bad food, we also acknowledge that tastes are highly subjective, or at least cultural.  The sense of the taste itself – what happens in the mouth – is one of the least reliable senses.  It is difficult to describe how something tastes because it is less differentiated and less sensitive than vision or hearing. Food is aesthetic in two senses.  First, as the object of aesthetic experience it has a taste and it appeals to the senses.  We describe food as, for example, delicious, satisfying, or disgusting; over-cooked, fresh, or crunchy.  Second, food is artful.  We describe it in terms of its visual presentation and sensual composition.  We attribute aesthetic properties such as elegant, hearty, or simple.  Food on this model is primarily the subject of aesthetic judgment about its taste and appearance and only secondarily about nature and nutrition.

Judgments about what is fashionable or beautiful are subjective. They change over time, sometimes quite rapidly. However, the basic principles behind good design and presentation remain constant, even if the specific expressions of those principles keep evolving into new styles and trends. It is important to remember and always think of these techniques as enhancements to the foods’ appeal. The food on a plate supplies important visual elements: colors, textures, and shapes. Additionally, the foods you serve also supply two important, but nonvisual, elements: aroma and flavor. The design principles at the chef’s disposal include symmetrical or asymmetrical compositions, contrasting or complementary arrangements, and the use of lines to create patterns or indicate motion (Culinary Institute of America, 2010).

According to Christensen (2009), in restaurants, how food is plated and presented is just as important as how it tastes. Home cooks aren't under quite as much pressure to perform for their guests as top chefs, but plating can still play a role in our cooking. How food is presented definitely has an effect on how we perceive and enjoy it. Just imagine the difference between a pile of meat on a platter verses sliced meat carefully arranged over oven-roasted vegetables. Even the most humble home cooked meal can feel fancy if it's arranged and presented with care. Making an effort to plate food in a thoughtful way also makes guests feel special and honored. It's a small thing, but it can make a difference.

Simmel (2010) mentioned that cooks should be careful not to make food seem too good to eat, as if it were some untouchable work of art. Good presentation can contribute greatly to, but should not be allowed to distract from, either conviviality or the appreciation of the food's natural roots.

According to Kuehn (2008), assessment of the ability of food to represent the aesthetic in the everyday perfectly captures the experience with food as art. The meaning of food as art lies in the organic interaction between its production, presentation, and manner of appreciation. All these aspects occur around an artistic medium that is literally essential to our survival, food not only must be art, but it potentially offers some of the greatest artistic meaning we can experience.

Color

Scientific studies have shown that the color of food plays an important role in customer food preferences and their ability to identify flavors. When preparing a menu or plate, consider the colors of all the foods being served. A plate containing fish, cauliflower, dinner roll, mashed potatoes and a chocolate chip cookie is not aesthetically pleasing because these food items are all white and brown colors. Instead, serve a meal with fish, broccoli, mashed sweet potatoes, a dinner roll, and fresh strawberries with whipped cream. The more variety in the color of foods being served, the more attractive the meal (Reinhert, 2012).

Spang (2010) stated that to respond to contemporary dietary trends, cooks may include, for instance, green and orange colors in their presentations. Another source of the cooks' aesthetic impulse is the mixture and distribution of ingredients according to a routine or pattern which according to her can lead to pared-back elegance. She added that cooks who want to show off ingredients find that presentation encourages inspection. Alternatively, in search of amusement, may make foods look like something else, such as food products made out of vegetables.

According to the Culinary Institute of America (2010), a food’s natural color is an important factor to consider in design and presentation of dish. Green gives the impression of freshness and vitality. Brown, golds, and maroons are warming, comforting and rich. Orange and red are intense, powerful colors. A dish should have colors that are in harmony (for example green, blue and violet are complementary colors, while blue and orange are contrasting). Clashing or contrasting colors are rarely an issue; a more common problem is the overuse of one color, which has a tendency to make the food look flat and unexciting.

Texture / Consistency

Texture refers to the way food feels in the mouth – crunchy, smooth, soft, hard, grainy, coarse, chewy, etc. Consistency refers to the way food stays together – runny, firm, gelatinous, etc. Serving foods of similar textures or consistencies can become very boring to the customer. Instead of serving mashed potatoes and pudding with a meal, serve the mashed potatoes but offer fresh fruit instead of the pudding for a more crisp texture. Variations in both of these areas are necessary for greater menu appeal (Reinhert, 2012).

Forester (2007) mentioned that the texture of what people eat is the number one thing they base their likes and dislikes on. Making sure that commercial food products feel right in our mouth is an enormous part in the development of any new food item.

Institute of Science and Technology (2010) revealed that texture is a very important character of every food people eat or drink. To many people, it is even more important than taste. Think of all the ways we describe a food’s texture. The components and ingredients within foods plus the processes they go through determine their texture. The human body is very adept at evaluating a food’s texture. People use not only the sense of feeling in our mouths or mouthfeel, as food professionals refer to it but also our other senses to evaluate the texture of foods.

Texture is important to the way food looks, as well as the way it feels in the mouths. The surface of the food will have a tendency to either reflect light or absorb it, making some food glossy and others matte. Some foods have highly textured exteriors whole others are very smooth. The way the food feels when you bite into it is another aspect of texture that the chef needs to include in a plan. Too much of the same texture is monotonous (Culinary Institute of America, 2010).

Another important rule of food presentation is balancing variety and contrast. It is good to have a variety of textures on the plate, but how these textures are combined is just as important (Bone, 2013).

Shape

The shape of food plays a large part in the aesthetic appeal of the menu. It is very monotonous to always have all the food on a plate be shaped the same. Be mindful when cutting foods into different shapes that the food must look edible and be easy to eat. If food becomes intimidating, the consumer will be unwilling to eat the food that is served. Use shapes such as carrot triangles and cucumber juliennes for contrast. Today’s food processing equipment and availability of ready-to-use convenience foods make it simple to offer attractive variations (Reinhert, 2012).

Culinary Institute of America (2010) also mentioned that food has many dimensions and the shape, height, and lines of the food are important components of presentation. Cubes, cylinders, spheres, pyramid, and lines are just some of the shapes food can consume. Alternating or repeating shapes in a design is one way to add visual interest to food arrangements; you can modify the natural shape of food by cutting or slicing it. To give height to foods that are naturally flat, you can roll or fold them, and arrange them in piles or pyramids.

Arrangement

Proper placement of food on a plate is important to how the customer will feel about the meal placed in front of them. When plating food, be sure not to leave too much space between food items. Additional space will make the portions appear small and cause customer dissatisfaction. Also, be careful not to overcrowd the plate because the appearance can get messy and intimidating. For example, if too much gravy is used or foods are too close together, the gravy can spread to all the other items on the plate. Do not place everything in the middle of the plate; rather, select a focal point and build from that part of the presentation (Reinhert, 2012).

Food arrangement is just as essential to the success of a dish as its taste and flavor.  The way the food looks on the plate is what tempts the eyes and makes customers want to taste it. Imagine how your room looks when it’s messy and how it looks when you clean it up, the same ingredients, different results. It is just as true with food presentation and how the elements are arranged on the plate. No matter how delicious a dish may be, if it is served on a dirty plate, you will definitely not be tempted to taste it. Make sure all plates are sparkling clean. Adapt your plate presentation to the occasion. If you are preparing a kids party, choose fun food presentations that will make them want to eat. They prefer “fun” designs rather than serious and traditional presentations. Food presentation is all about timing. There is no point in offering your guests a fancy dish if it is served cold, when it was supposed to be served hot. So spend just enough time plating your dish (Bone, 2013).

He added that matching portion size with plate size is another important aspect of food presentation. A plate that is too small for the food portion it offers will look messy and overcrowded. On the other hand, a small portion on too large a plate will look sparse. Never serve hot foods on cold plates and the other way around. This is another essential rule of food presentation.

Garnish

According to Food Encyclopedia, a garnish is an item or substance used as a decoration or embellishment accompanying a prepared food dish or drink. In many cases, it may give added or contrasting flavor. Some garnishes are selected mainly to augment the visual impact of the plate, while others are selected specifically for the flavor they may impart.

Some plates do not need an added garnish if the foods being provided already contain enough color. However, in some cases, a contrast in color is needed. Garnishes must be edible, simple, and appropriate for the food being served on the plate. They must also be planned into the plate arrangement. Garnishes can be as simple as adding parsley flakes around the rim of the plate or as exquisite as creating a design across the plate with sauce from a squirt bottle. When adding flair to the meal, be sure that the flavor of the garnish will compliment the meal rather than detract from the meal (Reinhert, 2012).

According to Hessong (2013), garnishes might seem like decoration tossed on the side of a plate as an afterthought, but they play a significant role in the diner's experience of food. Usually consisting of an edible component, garnishes brighten the plate, give a clue to the flavor of the meal, complement the taste of the dish or fill empty space on the plate. Garnishes can take many forms depending on the food they are decorating. Herbs, berries, chopped fruit, sauces or vegetable bits are possible garnishes for foods.

Hessong (2013) added that garnishes enhance the flavor of some dishes. Lemon wedges served with seafood not only add a yellow color to the plate, but the diner can use the juice from the lemon to flavor the food. A mint sprig on top of a fruit dessert lightly infuses the dish with the herb's refreshing flavor. This is why it is important to choose garnishes that complement the flavors of the food they are served with. People experience food with their eyes before tasting it, and the garnish adds a spot of color for your eyes to feast on before the taste touches your tongue or the smell reaches your nose. Garnishes add a spot of color to foods, especially monochromatic ones. Imagine how bland a poached fish fillet and steamed rice on a white plate looks without a bright sprig of parsley or lemon wedge. Even the simplest of garnishes will make a dish appear more appetizing than the same food without garnishing.

Product

It is the tangible object or an intangible service that is getting marketed through the program. Tangible products may be items like consumer goods or consumer durables. Intangible products are service based like the tourism industry and information technology based services or codes-based products. Product design which leads to the product attributes is the most important factor. However packaging also needs to be taken into consideration while deciding this factor. Every product is subject to a life-cycle including a growth phase followed by an eventual period of decline as the product approaches market saturation. To retain its competitiveness in the market, continuous product extensions though innovation and thus differentiation is required and is one of the strategies to differentiate a product from its competitors (Kar, 2013).

Product marketing deals with the consumer's needs and wants and how product specifications can satisfy those needs and wants. Often, first impressions are important, especially if people are marketing a product that sells on store shelves. They would want their product to stand out or for the consumer to want to choose their product over the others on the shelf (Lee, 2008).

Price

The price is the simply amount a customer pays for the product. If the price outweighs the perceived benefits for an individual, the perceived value of the offering will be low and it will be unlikely to be adopted, but if the benefits are perceived as greater than their costs, chances of trial and adoption of the product is much greater (Kar, 2013).

Price deals with supply and demand, or how much a consumer is willing to pay for a product or service. It also includes decisions on discounts and special offers. Pricing is not as simple as it might seem. In some situations, a lower price will not necessarily mean that more will be sold as the price level could also influence the perceived quality of a product. For example, affluent consumers may expect a premium product to cost more and, so, may not purchase it if the price is cheap. Pricing often affects the consumer's perception of the attractiveness of a product (Lee, 2008).

Promotion

This represents all of the communications that a marketer may use in the marketplace to increase awareness about the product and its benefits to the target segment. Promotion has four distinct elements: advertising, public relations, personal selling and sales promotion. A certain amount of crossover occurs when promotion uses the four principal elements together (e.g in film promotion). Sales staff often play a major role in promotion of a product (Kar, 2013).

Promotion deals with the actual selling, advertising, or publicity of the product; it entails communications with customers and trying to convince or persuade them to purchase the products or services. This could be done through such things as television commercials, magazine ads, direct mailings to residences or businesses, and billboards (Lee, 2008).

The studies presented above are relevant to the present study because they deal on importance of attractive and pleasing food preparations which is one of the factors that could have an tremendous effect to customer satisfaction.

Food Quality

Food and beverages are probably the biggest indicator of quality that a customer notices. Food quality is not only important to the customers' impressions of the overall restaurant experience, but it is important for their health, as well. Guests' health should never be compromised. Although not all restaurants can boast the best quality food in town, they can still take measures to ensure that food is stored and prepared safely. The food remains the most important aspect of any catering business. If the food is not up to par, clients will not be happy. Every dish should be delicious, not just when people have finished cooking it, but also after sitting in a food carrier, banquet cabinet or chafing dish for several hours (Simon, 2011).

Choose the best catering services which have flawless quality, innovative ideas and delicious, sumptuous food to make the occasion memorable and special. The professional services should offer personalized service so that you can enjoy as much as the guests do. Food is one of the most important details when it comes to planning a perfect occasion. Guests will relish the golden moments if they enjoy the food. Thus, the catering services should be carefully chosen. The professional catering services should provide delicious food which can tantalize the taste buds, like great appetizers, lip-smacking deserts (Atrium, 2013)

Menu Variety

Catering is becoming a more popular choice for events where everything, including the food, drinks and service, is important. From weddings to business meetings, catering companies are handling more than just food. But, food catering is where it all begins and, if people are responsible for having an event catered, then food is the first and most important part of the job. Tastes have become more sophisticated and varied and catered food menus are not the simple things they once were. People need a catering company that can provide food for vegetarians, special diet needs and many different cultures. More and more of your guests are health conscious and they want catered food that is delicious and healthy (Johnson, 2013).

Customer Service

Service quality has stood an importance for the hospitality industry. It has been identified as one of the most effective means of building a competitive position and improving organizational performance. Customers today apprehend a very high general level of service in hospitality, tourism, and leisure. Caterers work with clients to design a menu. Being courteous, tactful, and diplomatic is necessary, as it may need to persuade a client to substitute an ingredient or change a dish. Good communication and people skills are also vital to building up a client repertoire and catering a successful event. A satisfied customer is the best recommendation, and word-of-mouth remains some of the most effective advertising out there (Kandampully, Mok & Sparks, 2011).

Cleanliness

The last thing any customer would want to see is a dirty of stained glass to drink from, which would undoubtedly put them off from coming back to the vicinity. Cleanliness is the most important thing to remember when serving people their food. Imagine walking into a restaurant and being served a glass of wine with lipstick mark around the rim, would you drink from it? Most people would not and will complain about the standard of this service. The above scenario will be detrimental to the business and of course leave a bitter taste in the customer's mouth, in that they may never return to your services. Simple things like keeping the glass cleaned and washed at all times makes a big difference. Having the right equipment to produce the right result in maintenance of cutlery and a high standard of cleanliness, enables a smooth running of the catering service and prevents any customers from waiting (Hitshopi, 2009).

People eat with their eyes first, and nothing looks as appetizing at a party as a professional looking buffet table. The key to making a professional looking buffet table is uniformity and attention to all the little details. Crisp white linens, matching plates and gleaming silver all add professional flair to a buffet table. You need two things to design a fantastic looking buffet: a good eye for aesthetics and an assortment of decorations and food display items. With these tools at hand, you can create a dazzling buffet that is sure to impress your clients and their guests. The food at your buffet should be organized in an order that resembles the dining experience. That means you should usually put appetizers, salads and soups first, followed by entrees, side dishes and breads, with the dessert coming at the end of the buffet line or even at a separate dessert station. Once you have your food and beverage display taken care of, you can begin to add other embellishments to your buffet line. This includes the decorative and non-edible elements listed below that add extra color, lighting and movement to your buffet (Frisch, 2013).

Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction

Service quality has stood an importance for the hospitality industry. It has been identified as one of the most effective means of building a competitive position and improving organizational performance. Service quality is a focused evaluation that reflects the customer.s perception of specific dimensions of service, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, Empathy, tangibles, satisfaction on other hand, is more inclusive: it is influenced by perceptions of service quality, product quality, and price as well as situational factors and personal factors. Service quality affects customer satisfaction by providing performance (Kandampully, Mok & Sparks, 2011)

Customer satisfaction is a key indicator of success. Understanding how you compare to peer institutions can be critical in helping you identify opportunities to strengthen your foodservice program and provide the best possible experience for your customers. Customer satisfaction is the result of the correlation between a customer’s assumption and a customer’s feelings. By way of explanation, customer satisfaction is identified as the distinction between assumed quality of service and the customer’s involvement or feelings after having perceived the service (Bateson & Hoffman, 2010).

During the age of modern age everybody has seen that business is rapidly growing day by day and concerning with business there are always two parties called buyers and sellers, and buyers are concerned with quality, and sellers are always concerned with money. Today's world is dependent on business end engagements in at least three major activities. On this regards, many scholars have argued over this matter and said that the first activity is production, which involves making a product or providing a service. The second is manufacturing, where firms create products finally, customers purchase to satisfy needs, whereas service firms use the skills of employees to offer activities and assistance to satisfy customer needs (Burrow & Everard, 2009). In the same sense, Hernon (2001) argues that satisfaction and service quality provide a conceptual framework that should prove useful in understanding, thinking, and talking about service quality and customer satisfaction, what they are, how they are shaped, and how a subject can evolve to both internal, controllable forces and external, uncontrollable factors.

Customer satisfaction is very important because it helps to learn about the business’ strengths and weaknesses. It supports to show calmness about making better quality of products and services to both the employees and the customers. It does not help to learn about strengths and weaknesses but helps it also to persuade competitive strengths and weaknesses.

It can be either restaurant or any other business organization, the manager and the staff of the business organization should have good communication skills. The person should be able to speak a good language in a polite tone and in a good manner. Which will result in the understanding of the language that the business persons are speaking towards the customer. To speak in a soft way, slowly and clearly could be the good way to communicate with the customers, and it could be fruitful for the business. Words like anger, sarcasm, impatience etc shows a bad attitude towards the customers and that will be very harmful the everyday life not only in the business context. So, it is very much important to think and apply in everyday life to improve the business to maintain a good relationship between the customer and the business. Similarly, fast customer service is also another important skill for a good customer relationship in order to attain customer satisfaction. As we know this is a fast growing world, and in each and every field whether it is a restaurant or somewhere else, every customer wants fast service (Ramachandran, 2009).